Abby kid would love to be a Canuck
WHL SUCCESS: Everett defenceman Juulsen patterns his game after rugged Vancouver blue-liner Bieksa
The Vancouver Canucks faithful would appreciate Noah Juulsen. His resumé would resonate with fans of California teams as well.
Juulsen, 18, an Everett Silvertips defenceman, is from Abbotsford. The Canucks were his team growing up and he modelled his game after Kevin Bieksa’s. Juulsen wears No. 3 with the Silvertips, the number that’s belonged to Bieksa.
Juulsen can move the puck; he had nine goals and 43 assists in 68 regular-season games with Everett this past season, which left him 10th in the WHL in scoring by defencemen.
He is solid in his own zone, too, and has some bite in his game. That sounds like the scouting report Bieksa has had for much of his career with Vancouver.
Juulsen does think that his knack for putting up numbers has been aided as well by six summers of roller hockey. You hear that from a guy from Los Angeles, where the game is more common, and you’re not surprised. It’s not the type of thing that comes across regularly from a guy from the Fraser Valley.
“There are only four guys out there per team and there are no offsides, so there’s lots of room,” said Juulsen, who quit roller hockey last summer.
“You get to go wherever out there.”
Suggestions about just when Juulsen might be selected come the NHL draft this weekend in Florida vary greatly. McKeen’s Hockey, for one, ranks him 20th overall. TSN’s Bob McKenzie has him going 37th overall. That’s a hefty swing.
The Canucks’ first-round pick is No. 23. They have interviewed Juulsen. Vancouver doesn’t have a second-rounder, although there’s been plenty of speculation about dealing to get one.
“It would be unreal if it happened,” Juulsen, a 6-foot-1, 175-pound righthanded shot, said of being selected by the Canucks. “You just don’t know what’s going to happen. But, yeah, it would be cool to get drafted by the team that’s an hour down the road from where you grew up.”
If the Canucks are keen on Juulsen, they do have someone in the organization with extra insight.
Juulsen grew up playing with Jake Virtanen, the winger who was Vancouver’s first-round pick last year. They are also both products of the Yale Hockey Academy, which is run by the likes of Billy Wilms and Brad Bowen.
“I know Jake pretty good,” Juulsen said.
There’s an argument to be made that Juulsen is rapidly trending in the right direction. He had two goals and eight assists in 59 games as a rookie two WHL seasons ago. Further to that point, NHL Central Scouting had him at No. 38 among North American skaters in its midterm rankings this season and than shot him up to No. 22 in its final poll.
Everett assistant coach Mitch Love says that Juulsen’s disposition might be his most appealing attribute.
“The biggest thing that intrigues me as a coach and a lot of NHL people that I’ve talked to about him is his sense of professionalism at a young age. He plays the game the right way,” said Love, 31, who spent six seasons as a minor-league defenceman after his final campaign with the Silvertips.
“He came in as a 16-year-old and like most guys he was very, very raw. His ability to be coached, his ability to be pushed and not go under a rock has been part of what’s made him such a good defenceman.”