Can Juolevi stay on ice and take crack at roster?
Canucks’ oft-injured blue-line prospect aims to demonstrate his durability, skill
The unfinished book on Olli Juolevi contains chapters on ability, adversity and adaptation.
However, the heavily scrutinized Vancouver Canucks prospect defenceman believes the best chapter will be next season, when he plays his first NHL regular-season game and hopefully becomes a roster mainstay.
That would require off-season left-shot shuffling on the back end to finally promote the fifth overall selection in the 2016 draft. It would allow the improved 6-3, 198-pound Finnish blue-liner to grow his game amid measured minutes and a heightened teaching component.
The counterpoint argument is Juolevi would benefit from a full season with the AHL affiliate Utica Comets. Previous back and knee surgeries limited him to just 18 games in 2018-19 and a hip strain cost him eight games this shortened season in which he posted 25 points (2-23) in 45 games.
The big news is an evolving game and greater durability. It will help the 22-year-old build transition awareness, not get beat to the outside and display reliability in his own zone.
“Confidence always helps,” said Juolevi, who’s training at Rogers Arena in Phase 2 of the league’s return-to-play plan. “Right from the start of this season, I really felt that I could be trusted by the coaches and my teammates.
“I was able to do what I do best and when you get good stuff going, it feels easier. That’s how I’ve always played and I want to be able to make those good plays. I took a big step in the defensive game and that has always been a question for me. Can I play 82 games in the NHL against the best players?
“I’ll definitely be pushing to be on the team right from the beginning.”
It won’t be those long stretch and bank passes that will punch his ticket to The Show. It will be how he handles bigger, swifter and smarter players down low. Juolevi became a penalty-kill presence this season. Applying that skill to play at even strength will round out his game.
Better body positioning and anticipating plays with an active stick to clog passing lanes wasn’t lost on the Comets or Canucks this season. Juolevi led the Comets in blocked shots with a majority coming on the penalty kill.
“I believe my hockey I.Q. is my best (attribute) and I’ve played a lot of power play,” said Juolevi. “I kind of know what they’re going to do out there and what’s the dangerous shot. And I learned that big time with our D-coach (associate Gary Agnew) and that helped me a lot. And how I see the game helps, too.”
The hardest professional transition for Juolevi has been career adversity.
He had a promising start with the Comets following microdiscectomy back surgery to correct a training injury in mid-June of 2018. It wasn’t until mid-August that he could ramp up camp preparation and 13 points (1-12) in his first 18 games looked like a turning point in his career.
Juolevi then injured his knee on Nov. 17 of that disheartening season after being slammed into the boards. The initial diagnosis was a minor ailment and that he would be sidelined from three to four weeks.
Then came the conclusion that he had suffered a meniscus tear, required surgery Dec. 18 and would be out six months. And then came the hip ailment last December.
The three setbacks have tested Juolevi’s resolve.
The Canucks passed on Matthew Tkachuk in the 2016 draft and the Calgary Flames snapped him up with the next pick. The agitating, power forward winger has piled up 235 points (94-191) in 293 games and had 34 goals in 2018-19. And five other defenceman selected in the first round of 2016 have made NHL impacts.
“Those injury things are sometimes hard to talk about,” admitted Juolevi. “Every player has some sort of injury and I just don’t look back at it anymore. I feel really good and this break has really helped.
“There isn’t anything you can do about it and you just have to deal with it. Everybody who is really inside on the team, and really knows what’s going on, has really helped.”
Canucks general manager Jim Benning is buoyed by a healthier Juolevi, who’s starting to turn a competitive corner.
“One of the disappointments when the season was shut down is that he was really taking the next steps and we wanted to see that in the (AHL) playoffs,” said Benning. “He has always been a smart player who can move the puck, but it was his added strength and confidence when I saw him play.
“The game is fast up here and turning to the outside is something he’ll keep working on and those injuries didn’t make it easy. It will be interesting to see how he handles himself in this camp (July 13) to see where he’s at.”
Another adjustment for Juolevi has been living in a novel coronavirus pandemic world.
He saw first-hand how quickly his hometown of Helsinki guarded against COVID-19 from rapidly spreading through Finland because the country was ranked 73rd in most positive-test cases.
He also knew Vancouver and B.C. were setting a worldwide example by flattening the case curve, but that didn’t make his return on June 27 seamless. There was the mandatory 14-day self-isolation bubble procedure for players returning to Canada from abroad — restricted to the rink and downtown hotel.
“It’s pretty good, but obviously, it’s kind of weird,” Juolevi said of the hotel setup. “You’re by yourself a lot of the time, but there’s the TV and Netflix.”
As for the home front, being prudent worked for the populace.
“I left Utica right away after it (season) ended and was obviously with my family and in a small group,” said Juolevi. “We didn’t do anything special on my birthday (May 5) because a lot of places were closed, but it was still pretty cool. I haven’t spent much time at home in Helsinki, so that was nice.
“We only have two big cities (Helsinki, Tampere) and the virus was the biggest in my city. It was pretty much a shutdown. All the restaurants were closed right away, the rinks weren’t open until the start of June and my family worked from home.
“Looking back at it now, it was the right decision and a smart one.”