Olli Juolevi makes his NHL debut

[AppleHoneySauce]

Has Juolevi ever played the Right side? Curious if he would be able to adapt to that. I think he probably has the IQ for it. The thought crosses my mind because most of our best defensive skaters and puck movers play or can play the Left side. So I am curious of a more conservative player like Juolevi moving over for the sake of a pairing.

Wouldnt hurt to try.

 

[Get North]

He's coming back next season. I want a veteran between Hughes/Juolevi, a quality veteran not just some Kent Huskins washed up defenceman. I would trade a 2021 first round pick for a JT Miller effect on defence to boost Juolevi/Hughes/Rathbone's level of play.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

At this point I have zero interest in re-hashing what could have been. It's a blown pick relative to expectations and I don't think anyone can argue that at this point.
What I am interested in talking about is, what is Juolevi now and what can he be going forward?
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First questions: What is he now, as in strengths and weaknesses? Is he out of his depth? Is he proving he at least belongs at this level?
Second question: Are his weaknesses things that can be fixed?
Third question: What is his perceived upside? What does he project to be at this point in his career?
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All I ask as I try to gain insight into this player is that you leave his draft position at the side of the road and evaluate him as if he were a potential free agent the Canucks could add to the roster.

1) Very much a work in progress. Good vision, good passing, you can see some of the attributes that Benning must have seen. Physical play, boxing out opposing forwards, protecting the net and winning puck battles are where he's deficient. In some ways he's okay, in others not.

2) Dunno. Timidity and hesitance to engage physically have haunted him for years. Reports from the farm were that he took a few hard knocks and got rattled.

3) If he gains strength and a willingness to use it, he could still have an NHL career. If he doesn't...well, obviously he'll be in the lineup here due to being cheap, but I doubt he'd catch on anywhere else.

 

[TheOtherGM]

1) Very much a work in progress. Good vision, good passing, you can see some of the attributes that Benning must have seen. Physical play, boxing out opposing forwards, protecting the net and winning puck battles are where he's deficient. In some ways he's okay, in others not.

2) Dunno. Timidity and hesitance to engage physically have haunted him for years. Reports from the farm were that he took a few hard knocks and got rattled.

3) If he gains strength and a willingness to use it, he could still have an NHL career. If he doesn't...well, obviously he'll be in the lineup here due to being cheap, but I doubt he'd catch on anywhere else.

Is he still as timid as he reportedly was in the AHL? I don't get to watch as many games as I used to, and he hasn't played in many I have watched, but I recall people being pleasantly surprised by his willingness to battle.
So is that less a matter of not wanting to play physical and more a matter of being a skinny developing kid?
I never figured he was going to be a defender who relied on muscle regardless. I pictured him as a guy who used the 'best defence is a good offence' approach, using his smarts, stick and positioning to get pucks and move them quickly out of the zone.
Another question I have at this point then is, is he 'thinking' the game at a level where he can play that type of game?

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

Is he still timid? I don't get to watch as many games as I used to, and he hasn't played in many I have watched, but I seem to recall people being pleasantly surprised by his physicality.

He wasnt a cream puff on this play.

 

[StreetHawk]

He's coming back next season. I want a veteran between Hughes/Juolevi, a quality veteran not just some Kent Huskins washed up defenceman. I would trade a 2021 first round pick for a JT Miller effect on defence to boost Juolevi/Hughes/Rathbone's level of play.

I just don't see that kind of a deal because of the pressure it puts on the salary cap. Miller is great, but in 2 years he will be 30 and looking for his last NHL contract taking him to 36 and older. How many really good years does he have left when he's 30? 3 or 4? But, you have to buy out 6/7 of those years?

That's why this season has been so disappointing. Kind of wasting his years. I mean, as much as it would hurt, I think if they aren't doing anything next season, that it would make sense to trade him.

 

[Lupuls Grit]

Wouldnt hurt to try.

Obviously really small sample size, but for part of one shift last night he was stuck on the right side and did not seem comfortable at all being over there.

 

[AppleHoneySauce]

Obviously really small sample size, but for part of one shift last night he was stuck on the right side and did not seem comfortable at all being over there.

If he has never done it before it could just be jitters. Give him like a game or 2 and see how he feels.

Also send him up to Kelowna with Myers during the off season. Get him working on his conditioning and Strength. He can hit, but he seems really hesitant now to even try.

 

[The Vasili Jerry]

I think Olli has played decently in the NHL. There are much, much worse defensemen in the league than him. I hope they don’t trade him or let him go in the ED because I think he could be a steady long-term player for whichever team has him.

 

[AppleHoneySauce]

I think Olli has played decently in the NHL. There are much, much worse defensemen in the league than him. I hope they don’t trade him or let him go in the ED because I think he could be a steady long-term player for whichever team has him.

I am a pretty big fan of him, but i doubt he has any trade value. No reason to expose him as well seeing as we have like 2 open spots if you assume we protect Schmidt.

 

[The Vasili Jerry]

I am a pretty big fan of him, but i doubt he has any trade value. No reason to expose him as well seeing as we have like 2 open spots if you assume we protect Schmidt.

That’s another reason why I don’t want him traded, because he’s not going to return a lot anyway. If they can give Virtanen this long to see if he pans out then Juolevi deserves more time to see what he can become.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Is he still as timid as he reportedly was in the AHL? I don't get to watch as many games as I used to, and he hasn't played in many I have watched, but I recall people being pleasantly surprised by his willingness to battle.
So is that less a matter of not wanting to play physical and more a matter of being a skinny developing kid?
I never figured he was going to be a defender who relied on muscle regardless. I pictured him as a guy who used the 'best defence is a good offence' approach, using his smarts, stick and positioning to get pucks and move them quickly out of the zone.
Another question I have at this point then is, is he 'thinking' the game at a level where he can play that type of game?

Let's just put it this way: he has a long way to go still. He's extremely weak at boxing out the goal. It is physical or mental? Who knows. But a constant feature of his shifts is the goalie smothering the puck. He was a lot better with Myers; he clearly needs a steadying veteran partner, and that sure as shit wasn't Chatfield.

I've made a point of paying attention to him when he's on the ice, and I do think he's got a good head for the game, at least on the offensive side of the puck. Was he ever intended to be a guy who got by on brute strength? No, of course not. But he has to have *some* physical game. He's not a midget like Hughes whose other attributes outshine his weaknesses. Juolevi *has* to learn to place himself between the goalie and the incoming forwards. Far too often he's wiggling his stick at them as they blow by, and that's just not going to cut it. As it stands, he's fatally weak in his own end too much of the time.

If Juolevi can actually learn competent defensive positioning, put on some weight and use his size (because he's not a small guy, remember) to his advantage in his own zone, then we could actually have a useful NHL dman. If he doesn't...then he's basically a slightly larger, blonder Pouliot.

 

[IslandBeast]

He looks like a scared puppy out there, same as Virtanen did. I assume we'll develop the pro talent right out of him, crush his confidence and send him packing for nothing in return in no time.

Unless a player comes in and dominates right off the get-go, we can't develop jack

 

[mriswith]

He looks like a scared puppy out there, same as Virtanen did. I assume we'll develop the pro talent right out of him, crush his confidence and send him packing for nothing in return in no time.

Unless a player comes in and dominates right off the get-go, we can't develop jack

I mostly agree except with the bolded, we don't develop them in that case either. They're just good enough to play right out of the box without developing.

 

[bossram]

The biggest thing for me with Juolevi is to improve his skating. His pivots are slow and he's a real liability defending the rush. With his vision/passing, improved skating could turn him into a Jake Gardiner esque top-four defenseman, even with no improvement in in-zone defending.

He doesn't need to be a mean defender. But with OJ's perceived hockey IQ, you should be able to teach him how to defend well enough positionally. Without any mobility though, he basically looks like Jake Gardiner today - an edge of the roster player.

 

[AppleHoneySauce]

I mostly agree except with the bolded, we don't develop them in that case either. They're just good enough to play right out of the box without developing.

The biggest tragedy of this team right now.

 

[VanJack]

If the management and coaches had taken a realistic assessment of this team after they'd blown themselves out of the water in the first month of the season, they'd have played a guy like Juolevi a lot more.

But the reality is, he's languished on the taxi squad for most of the season, while guys like Benn, Edler and Hamonic got all the minutes. And there's a good chance that none of them will be back next season.

So valuable development time in a 'mean nothing season' has been squandered for not only Juolevi, but also for Rathbone and Rafferty.

 

[Cupless44]

If the management and coaches had taken a realistic assessment of this team after they'd blown themselves out of the water in the first month of the season, they'd have played a guy like Juolevi a lot more.

But the reality is, he's languished on the taxi squad for most of the season, while guys like Benn, Edler and Hamonic got all the minutes. And there's a good chance that none of them will be back next season.

So valuable development time in a 'mean nothing season' has been squandered for not only Juolevi, but also for Rathbone and Rafferty.

That is the result when you have incompetent management with no vision and no cohesive long term plan for the team and organization.

Benning even admitted, unbelievably so, that he manages day to day. The result is terrible short term moves ina desperate attempt to sneak into the playoffs instead of executing a plan to build a legitmate cup contender.

As I have said before, there is no excuse for being a team in salary cap hell, with your 2 best players on entry level contracts when you have missed the playoffs for 5 of 6 non covid seasons with Benning at the helm. Roster mismanagement doesnt get much worse than that. We dont even need to list all the bad players and bad contracts.

 

[Raistlin]

That is the result when you have incompetent management with no vision and no cohesive long term plan for the team and organization.

Benning even admitted, unbelievably so, that he manages day to day. The result is terrible short term moves ina desperate attempt to sneak into the playoffs instead of executing a plan to build a legitmate cup contender.

As I have said before, there is no excuse for being a team in salary cap hell, with your 2 best players on entry level contracts when you have missed the playoffs for 5 of 6 non covid seasons with Benning at the helm. Roster mismanagement doesnt get much worse than that. We dont even need to list all the bad players and bad contracts.

Jim's face turns into Scully or Hitchcock (brooklyn99....... yeah Scully) when I hear him say things like that. I just tilt my head puzzled why an NHL GM can blurt out gold nuggets like that. Do the other GMs just chuck sandwiches at him in the Florida meetings?

coming into this season, when they shat the bed right off the bat, a baseline competent GM should identify this season to be a season to develop. We have 56 games only to catch up FCS... get a head start, sell early and work with some competent GM peers and get some picks or what not in return. Free up the spots THEN DEVELOP the kids! I dont know what we are doing floundering this late trying to drag up the titantic from the sea floor. Getting Highmore instead of a pick, watching Dipietro languishing on the taxi with the McEwens and Juolevis was so painful and just leads to fan apathy.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

The biggest thing for me with Juolevi is to improve his skating. His pivots are slow and he's a real liability defending the rush. With his vision/passing, improved skating could turn him into a Jake Gardiner esque top-four defenseman, even with no improvement in in-zone defending.

He doesn't need to be a mean defender. But with OJ's perceived hockey IQ, you should be able to teach him how to defend well enough positionally. Without any mobility though, he basically looks like Jake Gardiner today - an edge of the roster player.

Gardiner. Yeah. Yeah, that's actually a really good comparable.

Based on what I've seen from Juolevi on NHL ice, I'd put his pie-in-the-sky ceiling at prime Gardiner. Although a *lot* has to go right for him to get there.

Floor remains KHL standout a la Cam Barker.

 

[AlainVigneaultsGum]

How'd he look today?

 

[ProstheticConscience]

How'd he look today?

Not great in the half of a period I actually watched. 2:30 start on Wednesday? The hell?

 

[IslandBeast]

Watching the Canucks handle prospects is like watching Ace Ventura deliver a package to an abusive dog owner

 

[LordBacon]

 

[F A N]

Gardiner. Yeah. Yeah, that's actually a really good comparable.

Based on what I've seen from Juolevi on NHL ice, I'd put his pie-in-the-sky ceiling at prime Gardiner. Although a *lot* has to go right for him to get there.

Floor remains KHL standout a la Cam Barker.

I don’t get the comparisons. Gardener was a very good skater. His issue was hockey IQ. Barker had the same issue except he didn’t skate well. Both players can be exploited defensively by getting those two retrieve pucks as they will make mistakes. That’s not Juolevi though. He is good when the puck is on his stick.