[Article] The Misunderstood Matter of Olli Joulevi

[DADDYROCK]

Sorry to say, but sometimes you just have to be patient.Some people mature faster than others,remember these are young guys we are talking about and Olli is a long way from home.

Defense men usually take longer to mature into solid NHL players,it is a position that if you make a small mistake it looks like a glaring BOO BOO if they score on your goalie.

 

So, please be patient with Olli,I think he could be a legit star, that just doesn't seem to be doing much but ends up with points every night.

Tell me we can't use that from the defense men.

[Losing With Pride]

Could you imagine if we took Tkachuk?

 

Tkachuk EP Boeser

[Alflives]

3 minutes ago, Losing With Pride said:

Could you imagine if we took Tkachuk?

 

Tkachuk EP Boeser

Matt Tkachuck is the ideal winger for Petey and Boeser.  That ship sailed though, so we focus on OJ, who is definitely going to be a key piece to our young core. 

[WeneedLumme]

3 hours ago, Losing With Pride said:

Could you imagine if we took Tkachuk?

 

Tkachuk EP Boeser

Can you imagine if we had that line but had no Dmen capable of getting them the puck?

[Noble 6]

1 hour ago, WeneedLumme said:

Can you imagine if we had that line but had no Dmen capable of getting them the puck?

 

You mean Hughes?

[aGENT]

5 minutes ago, Horvat is a Boss said:

 

You mean Hughes?

Hughes is damn good but he can't play both sides at the same time for 60 minutes.

[Noble 6]

1 hour ago, aGENT said:

Hughes is damn good but he can't play both sides at the same time for 60 minutes.

 

The poster was talking about a defenseman getting the puck to the forwards. Does that not sound like something Hughes can do?

[WeneedLumme]

1 minute ago, Horvat is a Boss said:

 

The poster was talking about a defenseman getting the puck to the forwards. Does that not sound like something Hughes can do?

What part of "he can't play both sides at the same time for 60 minutes" is difficult to understand?

[Noble 6]

15 minutes ago, WeneedLumme said:

What part of "he can't play both sides at the same time for 60 minutes" is difficult to understand?

 

Pettersson can't do that either. It's possible to roll out Hughes with Pettersson's line more often than not.

[WeneedLumme]

2 minutes ago, Horvat is a Boss said:

 

Pettersson can't do that either. It's possible to roll out Hughes with Pettersson's line more often than not.

Yeah, I get it. You want to build a team the way the Oilers did, with good forwards and a very weak defence. How is that working out for them?

[Noble 6]

43 minutes ago, WeneedLumme said:

Yeah, I get it. You want to build a team the way the Oilers did, with good forwards and a very weak defence. How is that working out for them?

 

That's a pretty big assumption out of nowhere. I'm just saying we already have a pretty good offensive puck mover that could play with Pettersson, Boeser and Tkachuk (if we had him).

[aGENT]

2 minutes ago, Horvat is a Boss said:

 

That's a pretty big assumption out of nowhere. I'm just saying we already have a pretty good offensive puck mover that could play with Pettersson, Boeser and Tkachuk (if we had him).

I think our point is that we need far more than just one.

[Noble 6]

1 hour ago, aGENT said:

I think our point is that we need far more than just one.

 

We do, but he said we had NO defensemen that could fit that role. Sounded like he forgot about Hughes. 

Edited June 7, 2019 by Horvat is a Boss

[ruilin96]

8 hours ago, Losing With Pride said:

Could you imagine if we took Tkachuk?

 

Tkachuk EP Boeser

With Tkachuk on the 2017 line up, it may give us the few extra wins that put us behind the #7 pick. Rangers got Coyotes pick at #7, Rangers was rumour to be targeting EP. By the time we pick, EP will be gone and there will not be a Tkachuk EP and Boeser line. 

[xereau]

On 6/5/2019 at 10:40 PM, Rush17 said:

I can't read an article that calls him OJ. I stopped after the second reference.

As long as he doesn't turn into Krutov and everyone starts to call him Rolli Polli Olli.

[WeneedLumme]

3 hours ago, Horvat is a Boss said:

 

We do, but he said we had NO defensemen that could fit that role. Sounded like he forgot about Hughes. 

At the time OJ was drafted, we did not yet have Hughes. So I was pointing out what was likely going through JB's mind when he chose OJ rather than Tkachuk.

[250Integra]

On 6/5/2019 at 10:06 PM, xereau said:

Here is the real article, from a week ago.

 

https://thecanuckway.com/2019/05/27/vancouver-canucks-misunderstood-matter-olli-juolevi/

 

Vancouver Canucks: The misunderstood matter of Olli Juolevi

by Stephen Kronstein

 

 

Almost ever since his draft, Olli Juolevi’s heroics have failed to resonate with Vancouver Canucks media and fans, his storyline caught up in superficial understandings. Very soon Juolevi is expected back on the ice to start training and prove his doubters wrong next season.

WORLD Junior U20 gold medalist, CHL all-star, Memorial Cup champion, 6’3″, 200-pound, playmaking defenceman Olli Juolevi got you down?

Since Juolevi became a Canucks prospect, countless fans and media have claimed his development stagnated during that second year with the London Knights. Injuries also set him back beyond forgiveness, considering a couple tantalizing talents drafted after him who became NHL difference makers early on in their pro careers.

 

Fellow The Canuck Way writer Jarred Chan discussed Juolevi and these other prospects in a great article a couple of months ago, pointing out that it takes time to develop some players, yet media and thereafter fan bases are often quick to dismiss young athletes these days.

Well, Canucks fans, in my very first article as a contributor at The Canuck Way, after being plucked from the readers’ comments by site editor David Quadrelli, I’m here to raise your spirits about this curiously under-hyped prospect and shed some much-needed light on the 21-year-old’s impressive development curve. Damn, this kid deserves the hype.

 

Let’s go back to OJ’s draft year, 2016, after he’d just won the Memorial Cupwith his Knights teammates. What people don’t seem to consider is that, while this team was stacked with an amazing set of forward talents Christian Dvorak, Mitch Marner, and Matthew Tkachuk – as I detailed further in my own fan blog back in August 2018 – the very next season all three of these CHL all-stars moved onto bigger and better things, leaving their teammates to fend for themselves the following season.

 

To have one such player is more than most CHL teams, but to have three 100-point players all in the same lineup, it’s no wonder they won the Cup. The 2015-16 Knights roster was a dream team.

 

That season the 17-year-old Juolevi scored 0.74 points-per-game in his 57-game OHL rookie campaign for the Knights, and was tied for second in playoff scoring among all defencemen.

 

This was the same year OJ and his Finnish mates won WJC-20 gold on a team stacked with forwards like Jesse Puljujärvi, Sebastian Aho, and Patrik Laine. Juolevi led that under-20 tourney tied for most points by a defenceman.

 

Yet somehow in his next season – 2016-17, his draft +1 season – everyone was declaring him a bust, because after playing another 58 games on the Knights, Juolevi again scored the very similar 0.72 ppg, what on the surface would appear to mean no progress at all.

 

To make matters worse in the court of public opinion, even while Juolevi was bestowed the captaincy of his 2016-17 Finnish squad, their early exit from the tourney that year tarnished the honour. But again, have a look at that roster and you’ll find it loaded with null-stars. Once more that year, OJ had no big talent to play with and slid even further out of Canucks’ communal consciousness.

 

The stagnation concept misinformed the whole vibe around Juolevi ever since, depressing an asset and fan base, leaving its stink on a fine young prospect.

 

The season after his draft, Juolevi remained with the Knights and null-stars, where the top-three-scoring forwards were Cliff Pu, J.J. Piccinich, and Robert Thomas. Yup, that’s right – Picci, Pu and Bobby Tom – under achievers accounting for 120-fewer points than the all-star trio from the year before.

 

Surprisingly, Juolevi showed consistency by maintaining his scoring rate, which was proof of continued improvement and more primary involvement with the play.

 

Following his two years in the OHL, with nothing left to learn at the junior level, the young Finnish star returned home to play pro hockey with his TPS squad in Liiga, for the first time against men, and now under the tutelage of wizened Canucks alumni and offensive-defender Sami Salo.

 

It didn’t sound good for Juolevi after a slow start to the season, a time when the defencekid had to acclimatize to full-grown hockey. Coach Salo certainly didn’t sugar coat anything when interviewed about his young protege’s development, playing into the fears of Stagnation Nation.

But young Olli was – and still is – a prospect, and patience… is… the… process. So give him a second… And by the time the Liiga playoffs had rolled around, OJ was the highest scoring defenceman on his team, as well as team leader in plus/minus. Against men. Nice work, kid.

 

Juolevi’s shown outstanding progress every single year since he was drafted. His quick release, accurate point shot, hi-IQ passes, and smooth skating have consistently translated to each new level he’s played.

 

Flashing back to the draft table, it was apparent that Jim Benning had seen enough and found his guy. However, not every Canuck national felt the same way, which was heard when Benning announced Juolevi’s name at the podium and the crowd let out a collective gasp.

 

As far as defencemen go, there aren’t many significant names on the all-time No 5 draft picks list. Having a look back since 1985, gasp or no gasp, OJ could still turn out to be the most prolific of them all.

 

Fans and media in Vancouver were stunned as news hit home that Juolevi was theirs at No. 5 overall, especially as he was drafted ahead of his Knights linemate Tkachuk, whose power game was believed to be better suited to the soft Canucks lineup.

 

To further confuse the fandom, some like Sportsnet analyst Jeff Marek, expected stud defenceman Mikhail Sergachyov to be the first defenceman off the board, and with his combination of size, speed, skill and grit, he was a package that few fans could argue with.

 

But of course, Benning went home with neither of these tenacious teens.

Great read. Now I know Mikhail Sergachev has another name!

[Dazzle]

4 hours ago, 250Integra said:

Great read. Now I know Mikhail Sergachev has another name!

Whoa there...

 

Olli Juolevi is not as flashy as Sergachev. He's going to be a more 'boring' defenseman but he's going to make the RIGHT plays that will prevent goals and help the team score. That is Juolevi's game in a nutshell. He's got some offense, but it is by no means his only aspect of the game. It might even be underrated too.

 

Juolevi is a WINNER at all levels, as I and other people have mentioned. He's going to be a really good piece for us.

[Lancaster]

17 hours ago, ruilin96 said:

With Tkachuk on the 2017 line up, it may give us the few extra wins that put us behind the #7 pick. Rangers got Coyotes pick at #7, Rangers was rumour to be targeting EP. By the time we pick, EP will be gone and there will not be a Tkachuk EP and Boeser line. 

The butterfly effect.... who know what would happen.  There's probably one alternate reality where the Canucks won the #1 pick then traded down and got Pettersson and Cal Foot.  

Or maybe in another reality, the Canucks somehow ends up with a much much later pick.    Who knows....?

[messier's_elbow]

On 6/5/2019 at 11:40 PM, apollo said:

Yea I'm with ya man. There's still time for him to become a top 4 guy. 

 

 

Yeah lol there’s still time... he’s only 21.