An elite Finnish prospect nearly fell into the Canucks’ laps when the Columbus Blue Jackets passed up Jesse Puljujarvi at third overall for Pierre-Luc Dubois. It was a stunning moment, as the Blue Jackets’ Finnish GM sent his Finnish head scout to the podium to announce the pick, then didn’t pick the Finn.
But when the Oilers happily took Puljujarvi with the next pick, Jim Benning went with Plan B, looking past Matthew Tkachuk and taking an elite Finn of their own: the consensus best defenceman in the draft, Olli Juolevi.
The Canucks have to hope that Juolevi can follow in the footsteps of Finnish defencemen Jyrki Lumme and Sami Salo, if not surpass them both.
This is not how this was supposed to go down. Puljujarvi was meant to go to Columbus, the Oilers would pick the defencemen they so desperately need, and the Canucks would get Pierre-Luc Dubois, a potential heir to Henrik Sedin as the first-line centre. Instead of filling that need, however, the Canucks filled a different need, drafting a potential top-pairing, maybe even number-one defenceman.
Some Canucks fans might be salty about Benning passing up Tkachuk, who is coming off an outrageously good season with 107 points in 57 games, but Juolevi is a fantastic prospect worth getting excited about. There may still be a question of whether the Canucks could have traded down and still selected Juolevi, but it might not have been worth the risk.
Juolevi is a well-rounded defenceman who can play in every situation and whose flaws are limited thanks to his intelligence and poise. He is repeatedly described in scouting reports as a smooth skater, but he basically does everything well, with his vision and passing high up on the list.
TSN's Craig Button praises his intelligence in a colourful way, saying he “Beats up opponents with his brain.” According to Button, Juolevi is “two or three steps ahead at every turn and makes it look easy.”
ESPN's Corey Pronman had Juolevi as his top-ranked defenceman, albeit at 8th overall, noting that he had the "highest point totals ever by an under-18 defenseman at the WJC" and adding plenty of praise for what we've already noted: skating, passing, and intelligence.
Juolevi is a fantastic skater. He exerts very little effort to get up to a dangerous top gear and moves well in all directions. His puck movement is high-end, as he shows calmness, skill and elite hockey sense when he has the puck on his stick. He's able to QB a power play with the best of them, on top of creating dangerous chances in transition. He's also not afraid to take risks, but he's very calculating when he does, and rarely does he hurt his team.
Juolevi's smarts translate to defense. He is always getting his stick on pucks and is an overall reliable defensive player in his positional play. He could stand to bulk up quite a bit, as he has a bit of a beanpole frame (6-foot-2, 182 pounds). However, Juolevi still works hard on the ice to win battles and get to pucks even if his frame isn't ideal for those situations yet.
His breakout performance came at the World Junior Championship, where he helped lead Finland to the gold medal with 9 points, all assists, in 7 games. That was tied for the tournament lead in scoring from a defenceman and he was recognized for his performance when he was named to the tournament all-star team.
Juolevi has compared himself to Oliver Ekman-Larsson, which would be an outstanding outcome for the Canucks. The comparison isn’t an outrageous one either, as both are around the same size, are both excellent skaters, and both play a calm, poised game. If Juolevi could develop into a 40+ or 50+ point defenceman like Ekman-Larsson, the Canucks and their fans will be thrilled.
But Ekman-Larsson isn’t the best player that Juolevi has been compared to. McKeen’s heard scouts bring up another name repeatedly this past year:
The name most often brought up this season as a comparable is seven- time Norris Trophy winner Nicklas Lidstrom, which is indeed heady praise.
“His smarts and terrific all-around game really remind you of Lidstrom,” noted the [eastern conference] scout. “He may not wow you with his physical attributes, he’s not the fastest, biggest or strongest...but you aren’t going to find a smarter or more poised player in this draft.”
Lidstrom? That’s the kind of praise that terrifies me, because there is no possible way that Juolevi could live up to those kinds of expectations. Instead, let’s again look to his fellow Finns, Lumme and Salo, and be happy if he’s as good as they were for the Canucks, and be ecstatic if he ends up better.
