Olli Juolevi makes his NHL debut

[bandwagonesque]

Where is this 'moving on from Schmidt' rumour coming from...?

One journalist said he could imagine Canucks players asking for trades, another said he could imagine Schmidt might be one of them, then people here and on Twitter began claiming there was a rumour Schmidt was being moved. There's zero indication he's asked for a move or is being moved and Benning said he hasn't asked for a trade and has no idea why people think he has.

 

[VanJack]

I find it interesting that J.T. Miller's agent felt compelled to come out and say that his client has never requested a trade out of Vancouver. I don't believe Schmidt or his agent are asking to be moved either.

I think the only reason his name has come up, is that the Canucks are desperate to clear cap space, and Schmidt is the only veteran guy on their blueline with any trade value. And still, his cap hit of close to $6m is going to be very tough for another team to swallow.

But if they do end up moving Schmidt, he'll be a 'cap casualty' just like Tanev, Tofoli, Markstrom, Stecher and Leivo before him. That' s just the price you have to pay for mangling the salary cap as badly as the Canucks have.

 

[AppleHoneySauce]

I find it interesting that J.T. Miller's agent felt compelled to come out and say that his client has never requested a trade out of Vancouver. I don't believe Schmidt or his agent are asking to be moved either.

I think the only reason his name has come up, is that the Canucks are desperate to clear cap space, and Schmidt is the only veteran guy on their blueline with any trade value. And still, his cap hit of close to $6m is going to be very tough for another team to swallow.

But if they do end up moving Schmidt, he'll be a 'cap casualty' just like Tanev, Tofoli, Markstrom, Stecher and Leivo before him. That' s just the price you have to pay for mangling the salary cap as badly as the Canucks have.

Eh as long as we get better than a 3rd back i think its fine management. Although i am coming at this with a tanking mentality for next season.

 

[Sinistril]

In comparing 'draft busts' throughout Canucks history, it's looking more and more like Juolevi will occupy a pretty rarified atmosphere.

The Canucks have drafted a few guys in the first round who never played a full season in the NHL--Dan Woodley and Jason Herter come to mind.

But for guy drafted fifth overall, Juolevi might be the most disappointing. And it really hurts because the blueline is one area of glaring weakness for the Canucks.

And to insult to injury, a few of the d-men drafted in 2016 like McAvoy, Chychrun and Sergachev are already impact blueliners on their respective teams and top-four guys for years to come.

People compare Juolevi to Virtanen, but you really can't put them in the same category as draft busts. Virtanen has played a lot more games and still has some value in the trade market.

I doubt the Canucks could get anything for Juolevi right now.

Bad assessment

 

[ProstheticConscience]

That was definitely worth the bump.

 

[tradervik]

Don't worry, the Sedins will whip Olli into shape and Brad Shaw will re-program his brain.

 

[Hit the post]

Don't worry, the Sedins will whip Olli into shape and Brad Shaw will re-program his brain.

Just like Clarke will whip Holtby into shape.

 

[Gstank]

Just like Clarke will whip Holtby into shape.

I would like to see a season of Holtby with Practices to work on his game.

 

[Hit the post]

I would like to see a season of Holtby with Practices to work on his game.

He's a 30+ year old goalie. Other than maybe minor adjustments, there's little he can do to undo the ravages of time. At least with Joulevi, given his age, there's a greater chance coaching may help this game.

 

[AppleHoneySauce]

I would rather Shaw gets to spend time on Juolevi. Sedins might just turn him into another Offence First Dman lmao.

 

[VanJack]

I would rather Shaw gets to spend time on Juolevi. Sedins might just turn him into another Offence First Dman lmao.

You can see that Juolevi has good offensive instincts out there, and his passes are crisp and generally on the money. But unless his skating and lateral agility take a quantum leap, he's probably closer to returning to Europe to play than he is even in a depth defender in the NHL.

 

[Canuckle1970]

Curious....before his injuries, was OJ a decent skater with good lateral agility? I remember the praise for him was about his transition game. But was he considered a good skater before the injuries?

 

[AppleHoneySauce]

Curious....before his injuries, was OJ a decent skater with good lateral agility? I remember the praise for him was about his transition game. But was he considered a good skater before the injuries?

He was considered a solid skater looking at his draft scouting. and i mean solid. not like good. Just not awful.

 

[Get North]

Still got some hope for Juolevi. I don't know the specifics of his injury and which years he couldn't train, but he can make a good breakout pass and can play with his head up. There's players in the league like Gudbranson and Sbisa who we've seen struggle to stickhandle, skate and have their head up at the same time.

I think Juolevi just needs more game reps and he will slowly get better. He's only played 23 NHL games, he's barely had experience brushing off a NHL forecheck, so he still looks terrible/new doing it.

 

[Just A Bit Outside]

The best the kid might end up is a 4-5 dman. More so #5.

That's best case.

He either plays bottom pair or you try and move him for something, anything.

With Schmidt, Hughes and Rathbone on the left side, I just don't see OJ other than an occasional player if someone is injured.

 

[Hit the post]

He was considered a solid skater looking at his draft scouting. and i mean solid. not like good. Just not awful.

Like somebody you draft with your 3rd or 4th round pick.

 

[logan5]

Still got some hope for Juolevi. I don't know the specifics of his injury and which years he couldn't train, but he can make a good breakout pass and can play with his head up. There's players in the league like Gudbranson and Sbisa who we've seen struggle to stickhandle, skate and have their head up at the same time.

I think Juolevi just needs more game reps and he will slowly get better. He's only played 23 NHL games, he's barely had experience brushing off a NHL forecheck, so he still looks terrible/new doing it.

The forecheck is where I see d men get in trouble 9 times out of 10. He doesn’t look like he will be terribly proficient at evading the forecheck though. Still early. That’s why I liked Hamonic. I’ve seen him make some cool headed plays to evade forecheckers, and Hughes, with all the criticisms he gets for his defensive play, is excellent at evading the forecheck, then make a great pass. Hughes is under rated by Hf board Vancouver. I think rathbone could be similar to Hughes.

 

[chaputonyou]

I honestly don't know about Juolevi, and it's not just his mobility /lateral issues which some have blamed on his severe injuries.

When Juolevi was drafted, the hope was that the Canucks found this top four phenom defenseman, but the reality is that there were concerns about Juolevi before he got injured. The Canucks even brought Sami Salo to help mentor Juolevi. He looked bad at the 2017 training camp, he captained the 2017 Finnish World Junior team that almost got relegated. Even worse...as reported by Jason Brough in the Athletic, 2017.

"Now, I did hear from a well-placed source that the Canucks were less than impressed with Juolevi’s work ethic and attitude at the team’s development camp in July. I also heard that Travis Green had a rather stern talk with him, along the lines of, “If this is how you’re going to act at training camp, don’t even bother showing up.”"

Honestly? I would trade him to a team for another defenseman that is going to be exposed and have the Canucks throw in a sweetner. If that was Jake Bean or Jeremy Lauzon, even better.

Time to move on from Juloevi, and time to stop pretending that if only those injuries didn't happen, he would be great.

 

[chaputonyou]

Curious....before his injuries, was OJ a decent skater with good lateral agility? I remember the praise for him was about his transition game. But was he considered a good skater before the injuries?

I honestly don't think so.

 

[F A N]

He's a 30+ year old goalie. Other than maybe minor adjustments, there's little he can do to undo the ravages of time. At least with Joulevi, given his age, there's a greater chance coaching may help this game.

It’s actually when goalies start losing some of their reflexes that adjustments can make a big difference. MAF and Luongo for example made adjustments that allowed them to rely on their reflexes less. The reality is that every goaltending coach tends to push for changes. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.

But ya, Juolevi would have the greater room for growth or at least I hope so. I do think Juolevi is a pretty good defender. I can see why his coaches tend to rely on him a lot in defensive and PK situations.

 

[Reverend Mayhem]

I would rather Shaw gets to spend time on Juolevi. Sedins might just turn him into another Offence First Dman lmao.

I've never seen the high offensive upside that he has, I know you're likely being tongue-in-cheek, but just had to step on my soapbox here. He should be primarily used as a defensive defenseman.

 

[RebuildinVan]

I was really down on him to start the year...after a couple outings thought he could use more minutes to develope. Then that last game vs Calgary he got walked then stood around watching thw goal get scored. Its stuck in my head, he supposed to be a cerebral player

 

[Nucker101]

I don't think he was that bad, my biggest issue with him is still his inability to pivot while defending against the rush, if he was even average at that, I'd feel a lot better about OJ's chances at becoming a future NHL regular.

 

[F A N]

I've never seen the high offensive upside that he has, I know you're likely being tongue-in-cheek, but just had to step on my soapbox here. He should be primarily used as a defensive defenseman.

I think Juolevi is a player that could somehow out produce offensively Dmen who you would expect to be better offensively. I honestly would like to see him be given greater opportunities but it doesn’t look like he will get it here.

 

[Reverend Mayhem]

I think Juolevi is a player that could somehow out produce offensively Dmen who you would expect to be better offensively. I honestly would like to see him be given greater opportunities but it doesn’t look like he will get it here.

Yeah, I think it's a moot point, as you say, I don't think he'll get where he needs to be to be a 500 game guy in the league. But I've never seen his offensive upside, at his best I saw him as a poor man's Tanev and that was like 5 years ago.