Juulsen’s bag is packed for his second training camp
One of my lasting memories from the Canadiens’ training camp last season was watching Noah Juulsen pack up his equipment in the team’s Brossard locker room the morning after playing in his first NHL pre-season game.
While the cameras and reporters focused on the veteran players, Juulsen quietly packed his red Canadiens bag and then he was gone, headed back to the Everett Silvertips of the Western Hockey League. The Canadiens had announced after the previous night’s game that the defenceman was being sent back to his junior team.
You wonder what goes through an 18-year-old’s mind after getting that first taste of the NHL — living a dream he’s had since he first laced up skates — before heading back to the life of a junior hockey player, wondering when — or if — he’ll ever get back.
“Obviously, it’s kind of upsetting to leave,” Juulsen recalled Wednesday at the Canadiens’ practice facility in Brossard as rookie camp wrapped up. “But you’re a young guy and you kind of see it coming.”
That red Canadiens bag carries a lot of weight — and recognition — and Juulsen said there were a couple of people who stopped him at the airport last year when they saw it, recognizing the CH crest if not him.
Juulsen isn’t a familiar face yet with Canadiens fans, but he was the club’s first-round pick at the 2015 NHL Draft (26th overall). He is one of 61 players who will take part in the main training camp, which starts Thursday with physical testing in Brossard before they hit the ice for the first time at 10 a.m. Friday.
Juulsen missed last year’s rookie camp while recovering from a concussion, but was healthy in time to play in that one pre-season game, a 5-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators at the Bell Centre. He logged 13:35 of ice time while paired with Alexei Emelin, getting two shots on goal and dishing out three hits.
“It was just really exciting,” Juulsen recalled Tuesday. “It’s every kid’s dream to finally put on that sweater and get into a game.”
With three Canadiens defencemen at the World Cup of Hockey — Emelin, Shea Weber and Andrei Markov — Juulsen can expect to get into more pre-season games this year. After a Red vs. White scrimmage at the Bell Centre on Sunday, the Canadiens will play five exhibition games in seven nights, starting Monday when the New Jersey Devils will be the visitors.
It will be a busy week, which is why there are 55 players to start camp.
Juulsen took part in the full rookie camp this year and was impressive at last weekend’s four-team tournament in London, Ont., playing in two of the three games
“I’m just learning new things every day,” the good-looking teenager said. “Paying attention to the little things and just always learning.”
The Canadiens drafted another defenceman in the first round this year, selecting Mikhail Sergachev with the No. 9 overall pick, which puts another obstacle in Juulsen’s path to the NHL. Sergachev and forward Nikita Scherbak, the Canadiens’ firstround draft pick in 2014, both missed the final day of rookie camp while recovering from upper-body injuries and are listed as day-to-day.
“Obviously, they’re going to draft who they think they need in the future,” Juulsen said about Sergachev. “And I think it’s great for the Canadiens. Obviously, he’s a really good player.”
Juulsen is a pretty good player himself. After drafting him, Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin said Juulsen’s upside is as a top-four defenceman in the NHL. He plays a solid all-around game and has a heavy shot from the blue line.
Last season with Everett, the 6-foot-2, 183-pounder from Abbotsford, B.C., had seven goals and 21 assists in 63 games, along with 37 penalty minutes and was even in plus/minus. He suffered a broken jaw during the playoffs in April after taking a puck to the face.
“I had to slam back those smoothies and anything else I could get through my teeth,” he said about the six-week recovery period.
But Juulsen is healthy and has put on the weight he lost with his smoothie diet.
“I think just throughout (last) season I learned a lot,” he said. “We weren’t a high-scoring team, so I think I learned an all-around game and how to play that role.”
Juulsen only turned 19 on April 2 and realizes he’s almost certainly headed back to Everett this season for a final year of junior hockey. He was among the final cuts by Team Canada for last year’s world junior championship and has set a goal of making that squad this year.
Juulsen got to keep his Canadiens equipment last year and take it back home, saying his friends who play Junior B hockey thought the gear was pretty cool.
As for that red Canadiens bag he was packing up last year?
“I brought it here,” Juulsen said. “Everything I brought back. It is pretty cool.”