Olli Juolevi | #48 | D

[Blömqvist]

I haven't seen the game yet but I did see Juolevi in the scrimmage last Thursday.

 

IMO he looks like Ben Hutton did for most of last year. All that weight gain slowed Hutton down and it took a little while for him to get back up to speed. Juolevi looks like that... a bit slow and not really playing the game like he knows he can... getting used to playing with extra weight. Plus, he needs to play at a quicker pace than Junior. He needs to be in a pro league and play at that place with more urgency, and if it isn't the NHL he should be in Europe.

 

One preseason game and the sky is falling. Imagine if he had 3 assists he would be the next Lidstrom lmao 

[clam linguine]

The day OJ got picked was the day I surrendered.

 

Edit

Meh...Boeser has 3 goals....hope springs eternal

Edited September 18, 2017 by clam linguine

[BananaMash]

Juolevi will be fine. He's looked a little slow with the added weight, but there are still bits of his game shining through at times. I would have been very shocked if he was NHL ready this season regardless. I imagine another year in junior (or a year in Finland) and then a year in the AHL will probably be what he needs before cracking the Canucks. Not a big deal, most defensemen take a bit longer to develop.

 

There's a ton of skill there, patience will be needed though. Luckily we won't be hurting without him for a few years anyway.

[GB5]

5 hours ago, Ihatetomatoes said:

Anyone else not that impressed with what Juolevi today? Looked incredibly average out there, kinda expected him to stand out a little more as a 5th overall draft pick and supposed potential top pairing d man

All in all, I thought every d-man played bad today from a defensive POV but OJ was the best. I am not worried, if he can be brought in playing sheltered minutes he should be able to adapt well to the NHL

[nitti999]

Pretty average looking dman. But seems like he is well positioned and works well with experienced players. At best a 2-3 dman. Don't think he will be an impact player. Reminds me of hammer. Hope I'm wrong 

[cyoung]

Hard to play good when everyone else plays so bad. He definitely was not the worst out there but man, time to push hard. 

[Angry Goose]

Speed and strength is mostly what he needs to work on.  Playing in Finland would be good for that

[Rocksterh8]

4 hours ago, cyoung said:

Hard to play good when everyone else plays so bad. He definitely was not the worst out there but man, time to push hard. 

Tired of all these excuses. If everyone else is bad and you're the 5th overall pick, thats when YOU pick up your game and make everyone else better.  Thats what a very high draft pick should be able to do. He does none of that.

[Diamonds]

5 hours ago, nitti999 said:

Pretty average looking dman. But seems like he is well positioned and works well with experienced players. At best a 2-3 dman. Don't think he will be an impact player. Reminds me of hammer. Hope I'm wrong 

I always thought he would turn into a player similar to hammer. But where we differ is that I think hammer was an impact player. I expect Juolevi to be similar to hammer in that he will spend his career doing the little things right but not really be noticed because he won't make many mistakes but also won't be an offensive catalyst (though more offensive than Tanev, just not necessarily a PP quarterback). I think Juolevi could still have a huge impact playing that style game.

[Toews]

Hamhuis at his peak was a Top 20-25 defenseman in the league. If Juolevi has a similar career I would hands down take that. I do think now that some time in Europe maybe in the FEL might serve him well. He did not progress as much in London last year and I am a little concerned that another year there will only produce similar results.

[Odd.]

6 minutes ago, Toews said:

Hamhuis at his peak was a Top 20-25 defenseman in the league. If Juolevi has a similar career I would hands down take that. I do think now that some time in Europe maybe in the FEL might serve him well. He did not progress as much in London last year and I am a little concerned that another year there will only produce similar results.

edit

Edited September 18, 2017 by Odd.

[Rob_Zepp]

2 hours ago, Rocksterh8 said:

Tired of all these excuses. If everyone else is bad and you're the 5th overall pick, thats when YOU pick up your game and make everyone else better.  Thats what a very high draft pick should be able to do. He does none of that.

Being young and a Dman is now an excuse is it?   

 

Go to any draft where Dmen are involved - take 2007 (a good examples as both the 4th (Hickey) and 5th (Alzner) were Dmen - Hickey is now an NHL regular but didn't become one until five years post drafting.    Alzner came out a bit quicker and was a regular three years later.   That averages to 4 years.   So in his second year after drafting you want him to be carrying the team?

[gameburn2]

On ‎8‎/‎18‎/‎2017 at 6:33 PM, Eastcoast meets Westcoast said:

While none of JB's picks are stand alone generational talents (...yet  ) I like the compatibility potential. 

 

Whether he is the Hannibal we need ( I love it when a plan comes together) is in doubt, I think he may be on to something. 

 

Boeser, OJ, Pettersson, Jake, cough Trymakin cough and his secondary guys like Gaudette, Lockwood, Lind and Gadjovich etc are looking good as a group. 

 

Obviously a generational talent would be awesome to add to the mix, but I like what JB is cooking up. 

 

EmW

 

You're right: the mix is promising.  We've had a bit of bad luck in the Draft, statistically this should even out.  But it might not lol. 

I really think it is both a practical and a philosophical problem for this team -- and the rest of the league -- to decide what kind of players to fill a team with, after the obvious McDavid, Matthews and Sedin choices.  Puck control guys who can also score?; or cheap plugs who are also probably younger/have better contracts?  This mix you have noted look more like hockey players than guys who do little more than give the stars an occasional rest and at best prevent goals going into their own net. 

 

I think the Canucks will be favoring a skill team, skill throughout the line-up.

[Ihatetomatoes]

21 minutes ago, gameburn2 said:

You're right: the mix is promising.  We've had a bit of bad luck in the Draft, statistically this should even out.  But it might not lol. 

I really think it is both a practical and a philosophical problem for this team -- and the rest of the league -- to decide what kind of players to fill a team with, after the obvious McDavid, Matthews and Sedin choices.  Puck control guys who can also score?; or cheap plugs who are also probably younger/have better contracts?  This mix you have noted look more like hockey players than guys who do little more than give the stars an occasional rest and at best prevent goals going into their own net. 

 

I think the Canucks will be favoring a skill team, skill throughout the line-up.

After watching the game last night one thing we desperately need to do is shore up our Defensive prospects.  Juolevi is our only real NHL prospect with the rest being long shots. Makes me a little nervous know that defensive prospects usually take a few more years to reach their peak than forwards. Benning is going to have to find a way to fast forward the rebuilding of our D or we're going to have a team with a bunch of guys that can score but no talent on the back end. 

[Phat Fingers]

2 minutes ago, Ihatetomatoes said:

After watching the game last night one thing we desperately need to do is shore up our Defensive prospects.  Juolevi is our only real NHL prospect with the rest being long shots. Makes me a little nervous know that defensive prospects usually take a few more years to reach their peak than forwards. Benning is going to have to find a way to fast forward the rebuilding of our D or we're going to have a team with a bunch of guys that can score but no talent on the back end. 

I bet that this draft we see an emphasis on defence and center.  This draft is loaded on defenders and it is the largest team need. Had Trymakin not gone back to russia, our d core would have a pretty young feel to it with three recent prospects playing in the NHL.  

[Ihatetomatoes]

3 minutes ago, Eastcoast meets Westcoast said:

I bet that this draft we see an emphasis on defence and center.  This draft is loaded on defenders and it is the largest team need. Had Trymakin not gone back to russia, our d core would have a pretty young feel to it with three recent prospects playing in the NHL.  

A young feel with a bunch of average defenders. Stecher, Hutton, Gudbranson, Juolevi.  None of those guys have top pairing potential on a cup winning team. Jury is still out on Juolevi but he looks to be more of a top 4 guy than top pairing. Even Tryamkin was a super long shot to be anything more than a top 4 guy and had a lot to work on to even be a solid top 4 guy. 

[aGENT]

10 minutes ago, Ihatetomatoes said:

After watching the game last night one thing we desperately need to do is shore up our Defensive prospects.  Juolevi is our only real NHL prospect with the rest being long shots. Makes me a little nervous know that defensive prospects usually take a few more years to reach their peak than forwards. Benning is going to have to find a way to fast forward the rebuilding of our D or we're going to have a team with a bunch of guys that can score but no talent on the back end. 

Not that I disagree with that and I do think it's highly probably we take a D in the first round as there's a bunch of VERY good D available this draft...but I wouldn't be running for the hills because of last night's no practice, mess of a preseason game.

 

We've got good young guys already on the roster in Gudbranson, Stecher and Hutton. Tryamkin could still return in a few years, Juolevi should be ready in a couple as well and we have promising depth guys like Briseboise, Chatfield, McEneny, Subban, Holm etc.

 

There's decent depth in that pool but it certainly could use another blue chip, first pair projecting guy. Ideally an offensive PP QB.

[cyoung]

3 hours ago, Rocksterh8 said:

Tired of all these excuses. If everyone else is bad and you're the 5th overall pick, thats when YOU pick up your game and make everyone else better.  Thats what a very high draft pick should be able to do. He does none of that.

He's 19,  relax. 

[aGENT]

2 minutes ago, cyoung said:

He's 19,  relax. 

19 year old kid, still adjusting to new weight he put on, in a preseason game where they had basically no practice together and the entire team was a Chinese fire drill in it's own end all night with nothing resembling structure....

 

Definitely time to panic.

 

I'm starting to believe that context may be a lost art form.

[Phat Fingers]

It takes depth and scouting.  Defence is the hardest position to draft, look at how many top, top defenders were drafted outside of the top ten. Defence is the longest learning curve, taking players more years to adjust to the NHL.  OJ packed on 20lbs and now us struggling to keep up. Over the course of the next year (hopefully pro in Europe) I expect his speed to catch up to his weight.  We don't know which defender will come out of the group and lead our next core.  Drafting defence means taking a lot of shots and getting lucky.