Juolevi has experience killing penalties with the Comets and Canucks, and has become a little bit of a specialist at it. Related: Canucks Will Have a Battle for the Final Defensive Spot
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With Alex Edler moving on in free agency to the Los Angeles Kings and Nate Schmidt dealt to the Winnipeg Jets, the Canucks will need a defenceman to log more minutes on the penalty kill. He ended up signing it on Aug 9, and he will go into training camp ready to battle for the sixth spot on the defensive depth chart with Brad Hunt and Jack Rathbone.Įven though Rathbone has the higher ceiling right now, Juolevi has something his competition does not – the ability to kill penalties. With an expiring contract going into the offseason and uncertainty around where he fits in the Canucks plans, Benning offered Juolevi a one-year, $750,000 “show me” contract. That’s why everyone should give him the benefit of the doubt and reset the clock going into 2021-22. When you lose 10-15 pounds and go through the turmoil he probably experienced, it takes more than a few weeks to get back to normal. We rarely saw that from him in the last eight games of his season, likely because he was still recovering from the pandemic that gripped the Canucks for three weeks. Mostly because he’s making the right plays out there. Usually, when Juolevi is on his game, he’s making smart passes, great reads and he stays relatively unnoticeable during his shifts. Related: Canucks Top-10 Prospects Heading Into the 2021-22 Season He looked slow, his decision-making was questionable at times and there were multiple instances when he was danced by opposing forwards. When Juolevi finally returned to the lineup, he went through a stretch of games where he didn’t look like himself. He lost a bunch of weight there in those three weeks. (Juolevi) was one of our guys who got really sick. During that time, the pandemic also hit the locker room hard, and he was one of the ones that suffered the most. 20 against the Toronto Maple Leafs that Juolevi saw action again. This time, it became much longer than just a couple of weeks. Then, head coach Travis Green made him a healthy scratch again on Feb 25 in favour of Travis Hamonic, who was just returning from injury. Except for a stretch of seven games where he was a healthy scratch, everything was finally coming up roses for him and the Canucks. His Corsi-for numbers were also strong, and he was starting to gain chemistry with Tyler Myers on the third pairing. In addition to all that, his defensive game was on point, as he only had two games where he finished with a minus in the plus/minus column. He even eclipsed the 20-minute mark against the Montreal Canadiens and scored his first NHL goal against the Ottawa Senators a few games later. He impressed the brass enough to make the team out of training camp and he had a consistent spot in the lineup until the end of February.
It was smooth sailing for Juolevi entering the 2020-21 season. Juolevi’s Rookie Season Went Well…Until It Didn’t Basically, his development looked like it was on the right track going into the 2020-21 season. He also looked comfortable playing against NHL competition, in a playoff game no less. Vancouver Canucks’ Olli Juolevi (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)Įven though Juolevi only played 6:16 in his debut, he acquitted himself well with a few calm outlet passes and controlled breakouts through the neutral zone. Lauded for his quiet all-around game and tremendous mobility and playmaking skills, his ceiling was high in the NHL. Going into the draft, he was ranked as one of the top defencemen with pundits like McKeen’s Hockey and TSN’s Bob McKenzie projecting him as the fifth and sixth overall pick respectively. In a world without those injuries, I have no doubt that Juolevi would be further along in his development.
Related: Canucks’ Defensive Depth Significantly Improved in 2021-22 That’s just a drop in the bucket when you compare that to the total games played by classmates Mikhail Sergachev (410) and Charlie McAvoy (342). Since being selected by the Vancouver Canucks in 2016, he has played a total of 208 games in five seasons. By no fault of his own, his development path took a few hard turns due to some major injuries to his knee and back that required major surgery. Coming out of the 2016 Draft as the fifth overall pick has probably been the height of his success so far. It’s no secret that Olli Juolevi has had a difficult road to the NHL.
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