Olli Juolevi | #48 | D

[Kanukfanatic]

15 minutes ago, Dats hockey said:

I’ve read many scouting reports on him and only a couple of them stay he horrible defensively. Other do say he gets beat do to his lankyness but he is not a detriment to the team... People need to stop acting like he doesn’t know how to play in his own end

Personally, I am looking forward to Myers being on this team. But his strength is being an offensive defense man. Go read a few more reports!  

[coastal.view]

2 minutes ago, higgyfan said:

Regardless, Edler and Meyers are the best two players to start off with top pairing minutes against the top lines in the NHL.  

 

Hughes will no doubt be a great dman, but he is a rookie this year and should in no way be playing on the top pair until he's ready.  He will likely get ++PP minutes and middle pairing minutes alongside Tanev (who can help out if Quinn runs into any trouble defensively).

 

Having Benn on the 3rd pair with Stecher will afford Troy the opportunity to continue working on his offensive skills.

 

I believe this would be a very balanced d and would offer a decent defender + offensive defender on each line.

 

 

well looking at this all in print

i'd agree with you

 

but let's see what sort of chemistry pairings actually have on the ice

surprises can occur

 

how many people would have thought hughes and schenn would have been a good pairing

that would not have been at the top of my list

but it worked out pretty well for a few games

[aGENT]

15 hours ago, Dats hockey said:

I’ve read many scouting reports on him and only a couple of them stay he horrible defensively. Other do say he gets beat do to his lankyness but he is not a detriment to the team... People need to stop acting like he doesn’t know how to play in his own end

He's not in-his-prime Vlasic or anything defensively but yes, a bit too much has been made of his ability to play D (or not to  ). He's 'ok' defensively and his bigger flaws (ability to quickly pivot, turn etc due to said lanky-ness) are pretty much exactly Hughes' strengths. They could actually be quite complimentary...in theory anyway.

 

I think generally speaking we'll see the fairly balanced D as is being penciled in by most here (Edler-Myers, Hughes-Tanev, Benn-Stecher, Fantenberg-Biega) but this fear of putting Hughes-Myers together is a bit silly IMO. Particularly if they were fed a pretty steady diet of ozone starts, PP time etc...that could be one heck of an offensively dynamic duo given offensively tilted usage. Then let the other two pairs play the harder assignments. Benn-Tanev could actually be one hell of an effective shut down pair for example.

 

Either way, at some point this season IMO, we need to move Tanev, swap Benn or Hughes to the right and recall Juolevi. I'm more interested to see what THOSE pairing look like a couple months'ish in. Far more interesting discussion IMO.

[Rob_Zepp]

On 7/9/2019 at 12:51 PM, Fred65 said:

Or! we can wait and see

Oh, I agree.   Was simply replaying to someone else's post.

[DeNiro]

Glad we have some muscle now.

 

Dont need players taking liberties with guys like Juolevi. He’s gonna need time to get comfortable.

[Rob_Zepp]

49 minutes ago, DeNiro said:

Glad we have some muscle now.

 

Dont need players taking liberties with guys like Juolevi. He’s gonna need time to get comfortable.

Of all the young kids the Canucks have, the 6'3" and nearly 210 (and growing) OJ is the least likely to be bothered by (or approached with) liberties.   I know a lot of people like to think European hockey "soft" but the Finnish playoffs last year (2018) were as rugged and chippy as any NHL series and OJ handled it as a 19/20 year old more than fine including throwing some massive checks himself.

[DeNiro]

3 minutes ago, Rob_Zepp said:

Of all the young kids the Canucks have, the 6'3" and nearly 210 (and growing) OJ is the least likely to be bothered by (or approached with) liberties.   I know a lot of people like to think European hockey "soft" but the Finnish playoffs last year (2018) were as rugged and chippy as any NHL series and OJ handled it as a 19/20 year old more than fine including throwing some massive checks himself.

He’s likely not used to handling the after whistle stuff.

 

The NHL is a big step up from the Finnish league.

[Rob_Zepp]

2 minutes ago, DeNiro said:

He’s likely not used to handling the after whistle stuff.

 

The NHL is a big step up from the Finnish league.

AHL has far more "after whistle stuff" than Finnish league and OJ was more than fine last season.   

 

I don't think it hurts that Canucks have added some muscle, but I simply think this is one big kid who will more than fine in that department.

[Bubble Man]

On 7/10/2019 at 9:15 PM, Rob_Zepp said:

AHL has far more "after whistle stuff" than Finnish league and OJ was more than fine last season.   

 

I don't think it hurts that Canucks have added some muscle, but I simply think this is one big kid who will more than fine in that department.

I loved the Juolevi pick. I’ll never throw down on Benning for taking a chance on a d-man.  

His strength was his vision and decision making. He thinks the game well. This is why I haven’t 100% given up on OJ. When he is comfortable he can figure things out. He just needs repetition and consistency. His physique will help with his confidence, when he is confident the game will slow down for him. He didn’t injure his intelligence. His best weapon is still there. 

 

With that being said. I have already mentally moved on from my expectations of him. I don’t even really include him in the future to be honest. I’ve just kinda put him on pause in my mind. I think we should just forget about him this season and let him marinate. If he gets it together and gets back on track, awesome. If not, then it’s time to move on. I still hold no grudges over this draft selection, the risk was worth the reward. We didn’t get rewarded. Oh well. 

[Rob_Zepp]

3 hours ago, Bubble Man said:

With that being said. I have already mentally moved on from my expectations of him.

I think that is common with a lot of fans of the team and why I think he could be one of the most pleasant surprises for a team that I think will be full of pleasant surprises over the coming season and beyond.

[Locke Lamora]

4 hours ago, Bubble Man said:

I loved the Juolevi pick. I’ll never throw down on Benning for taking a chance on a d-man.  

His strength was his vision and decision making. He thinks the game well. This is why I haven’t 100% given up on OJ. When he is comfortable he can figure things out. He just needs repetition and consistency. His physique will help with his confidence, when he is confident the game will slow down for him. He didn’t injure his intelligence. His best weapon is still there. 

 

With that being said. I have already mentally moved on from my expectations of him. I don’t even really include him in the future to be honest. I’ve just kinda put him on pause in my mind. I think we should just forget about him this season and let him marinate. If he gets it together and gets back on track, awesome. If not, then it’s time to move on. I still hold no grudges over this draft selection, the risk was worth the reward. We didn’t get rewarded. Oh well. 

This post sums up my feelings as well. Loved the pick... admittedly mostly based on his great WJC with Laine and company. Been pulling for him and will continue to do so. I’ve watched him very closely during his first two training camps and cannot easily shake the images I saw of him struggling in both instances. Very soft in defensive drills, easy turnstiled, even by lesser prospects. Post drills, bent over, stick against knees, gasping. Only Reid Boucher seemed more gassed after line rushes. Sami Salo comments seem to suggest that Olli may lack that intangible “inner fire” that burns in others to get better, stronger, faster... what someone like Bo Horvat possessed as a prospect. The injury history clearly hasn’t helped him on his path to live up to his promise.

 

I’ll go to camp again this year and hope to see something different from him. I want this to be a great turnaround story for the kid.

Edited July 12, 2019 by Locke Lamora

[Bubble Man]

36 minutes ago, Rob_Zepp said:

I think that is common with a lot of fans of the team and why I think he could be one of the most pleasant surprises for a team that I think will be full of pleasant surprises over the coming season and beyond.

Agreed, but these aren’t my expectations, these are my hopes. 

 

34 minutes ago, Locke Lamora said:

 

I’ll go to camp again this year and hope to see something different from him. I want this to be a great turnaround story for the kid.

Good point, the internal drive has to be there or nothing else matter. However, it’s hard to really know what is causing that. You know that feeling you get when say a bunch of people are surrounding you and watching you attempt to do something? Like say wake surfing behind the boat. You almost get a timidness. Especially when all your peers got up and surfed without any major problems. Take that feeling and multiply it by 100. Imagine being picked before MT and dealing with the most rabbit hockey media markets on the planet. This kid has pressure on him that we can’t even relate to. He looks scared. 

[Dekey Pete]

2 hours ago, Locke Lamora said:

This post sums up my feelings as well. Loved the pick... admittedly mostly based on his great WJC with Laine and company. Been pulling for him and will continue to do so. I’ve watched him very closely during his first two training camps and cannot easily shake the images I saw of him struggling in both instances. Very soft in defensive drills, easy turnstiled, even by lesser prospects. Post drills, bent over, stick against knees, gasping. Only Reid Boucher seemed more gassed after line rushes. Sami Salo comments seem to suggest that Olli may lack that intangible “inner fire” that burns in others to get better, stronger, faster... what someone like Bo Horvat possessed as a prospect. The injury history clearly hasn’t helped him on his path to live up to his promise.

 

I’ll go to camp again this year and hope to see something different from him. I want this to be a great turnaround story for the kid.

To be fair to Olli:

 

2016 (draft year) - was his first year in training camp, and no one expected him to make the team.  Even management stated that their plan was to send him back to the OHL before training camp even started.

2017 - I can't recall him at training camp this year, but maybe this is what your referring to when he wasn't quite up to expectations.  He was then sent to play in Finland so he could play against adults.

2018 - Olli has back surgery and only has part of the summer to prepare for training camp.  By all accounts, by the time he was playing in Utica he was starting to look good until his injury.

 

I for one am excited to see what Olli can bring to training camp this year.  Unfortunately he's coming off another injury, but this time he's got the entire summer to train.  I don't expect him to make the roster right out of camp, but he'll be up this year once the annual defensive injuries start to accumulate.

[Ray_Cathode]

On 7/10/2019 at 7:12 PM, DeNiro said:

He’s likely not used to handling the after whistle stuff.

 

The NHL is a big step up from the Finnish league.

Don’t recall anyone being hurt very often in after the scrimmage nonsense, so nothing to fear there.

[BO_Scorvat]

On 7/10/2019 at 7:08 PM, Rob_Zepp said:

Of all the young kids the Canucks have, the 6'3" and nearly 210 (and growing) OJ is the least likely to be bothered by (or approached with) liberties.   I know a lot of people like to think European hockey "soft" but the Finnish playoffs last year (2018) were as rugged and chippy as any NHL series and OJ handled it as a 19/20 year old more than fine including throwing some massive checks himself.

Sounds like 2010/2011 Edler,, definitely didn't think this was true as I haven't seen any OJ, only highlights and what other CDC posters have put up 

[higgyfan]

1 hour ago, Bubble Man said:

Agreed, but these aren’t my expectations, these are my hopes. 

 

Good point, the internal drive has to be there or nothing else matter. However, it’s hard to really know what is causing that. You know that feeling you get when say a bunch of people are surrounding you and watching you attempt to do something? Like say wake surfing behind the boat. You almost get a timidness. Especially when all your peers got up and surfed without any major problems. Take that feeling and multiply it by 100. Imagine being picked before MT and dealing with the most rabbit hockey media markets on the planet. This kid has pressure on him that we can’t even relate to. He looks scared. 

Good points here, Bubs.  This is why I think they will 'bury' him in Utica for a good long while, so that he can get his confidence back.  Being drafted by a Cdn team is guaranteed to make life difficult at times, but the added situation of multiple injuries is very tough.  His development has take a big hit, so he will need some time away from the Canuck spotlight.

[Bubble Man]

7 minutes ago, higgyfan said:

Good points here, Bubs.  This is why I think they will 'bury' him in Utica for a good long while, so that he can get his confidence back.  Being drafted by a Cdn team is guaranteed to make life difficult at times, but the added situation of multiple injuries is very tough.  His development has take a big hit, so he will need some time away from the Canuck spotlight.

Takes 5 years to judge a draft. Look at every draft from 2014-2004. I bet the success rate of D-men taken in the first round is like 25%. This isn’t something new or unusual in much better better circumstances. I like Juolevi but his chances aren’t good. 

[HomeBrew]

3 hours ago, Locke Lamora said:

This post sums up my feelings as well. Loved the pick... admittedly mostly based on his great WJC with Laine and company. Been pulling for him and will continue to do so. I’ve watched him very closely during his first two training camps and cannot easily shake the images I saw of him struggling in both instances. Very soft in defensive drills, easy turnstiled, even by lesser prospects. Post drills, bent over, stick against knees, gasping. Only Reid Boucher seemed more gassed after line rushes. Sami Salo comments seem to suggest that Olli may lack that intangible “inner fire” that burns in others to get better, stronger, faster... what someone like Bo Horvat possessed as a prospect. The injury history clearly hasn’t helped him on his path to live up to his promise.

 

I’ll go to camp again this year and hope to see something different from him. I want this to be a great turnaround story for the kid.

This is total BS. Salo has never said anything about him lacking in internal drive. The only comments I've ever heard in similar vein is that his on-ice presence visually looks like he needs to display more hustle - like almost all players coming out of junior. 

 

Edited July 12, 2019 by HomeBrew

[canucklehead44]

1 hour ago, HomeBrew said:

This is total BS. Salo has never said anything about him lacking in internal drive. The only comments I've ever heard in similar vein is that his on-ice presence visually looks like he needs to display more hustle - like almost all players coming out of junior. 

 

Irony is there has been a lot around Salo coaching Juolevi in Finland, working with him in the offseason, and then coming over to the Canucks camp and they are both now known for the same thing: Injuries. 

I remember reading it had to do with his body language. I thought it was kind of a weird thing to point out until I saw it first hand when the Comets were playing the Marlies. 

Between whistles he looks like w child who got sent to his room during dinner. It is really odd. 

[Noble 6]

4 hours ago, Locke Lamora said:

This post sums up my feelings as well. Loved the pick... admittedly mostly based on his great WJC with Laine and company. Been pulling for him and will continue to do so. I’ve watched him very closely during his first two training camps and cannot easily shake the images I saw of him struggling in both instances. Very soft in defensive drills, easy turnstiled, even by lesser prospects. Post drills, bent over, stick against knees, gasping. Only Reid Boucher seemed more gassed after line rushes. Sami Salo comments seem to suggest that Olli may lack that intangible “inner fire” that burns in others to get better, stronger, faster... what someone like Bo Horvat possessed as a prospect. The injury history clearly hasn’t helped him on his path to live up to his promise.

 

I’ll go to camp again this year and hope to see something different from him. I want this to be a great turnaround story for the kid.

 

This seems to be the feeling around Juolevi. Some reports of lackluster to lazy defensive play in Utica, Salo bringing up lack of conditioning and physical commitment, reports about disinterested demeanor on the ice, etc. It seems to add up for the most part, yet he's always playing great in big situations. He was great for Finland at the WJC and also stepped up for TPS in the Playoffs in Liiga. But the one that sticks out to me the most is his OHL Playoffs in his draft +1 year, after the Knights had lost Marner, Dvorak and Tkachuk and were going up against the Memorial Cup hosts in Windsor (with DiPietro). He was arguably the most impactful player in the series. He scored two goals (the first goal of the series on the PP in game 1 and the last goal of the series as the GWG on the PP in game 7) and was great defensively. He was assigned the task of shutting down Vilardi and his line and did a great job. The Knights beat the eventual Memorial Cup champion Spitfires in 7 games largely due to Juolevi's play. 

 

It's really weird. It seems like the initial reports of Juolevi are founded, but then he has these brilliant flashed (usually at important times) where he calmly looks like the best player in the game. The challenge looks like it will be to increase the frequency of those flashes, which could be done with a healthy year of development and some training.