Canadiens: Noah Juulsen Hoping for Fresh Start With Vancouver Canucks

You’d be quick to forget Noah Juulsen’s stint with the Montreal Canadiens over his first four NHL seasons, and quite frankly, I wouldn’t blame ya. Well, you’d also be quick to forget Noah Juulsen’s stint during the entire 2020-21 season, but I digress.

A former 26th overall pick of the Canadiens in the 2015 NHL Draft, Juulsen quickly fell into obscurity in the Canadiens pipeline, before rising back up going in the 2017-18 season, only to fall back into obscurity a season and a half later. Though, to be fair, this is no fault of his own, as Juulsen has been continually bit by the injury bug over his first four professional seasons.

After being claimed by the Florida Panthers off waivers in the leadup to last season, Juulsen was presented an opportunity for a fresh start with a budding young team. Yet, as the Panthers shifted towards a win-now motif, and Juulsen once again dealt with injuries, he ended up playing just nine games total last season, split across the NHL and AHL.

After being placed on waivers yet again by the Panthers this pre-season, the 24-year-old blueliner will have yet another chance to prove himself, after being traded to the Vancouver Canucks by the Panthers late Sunday, along with brief SM-Liiga star Juho Lammikko. In return, the Panthers get a prospect possibly more forgotten than Juulsen in the grand scheme of things, former Canucks fifth overall pick Olli Juolevi.

Juolevi always stood out as an enigma of a player to me, having received little if any coverage over the course of his first three professional seasons in spite of his draft billing, getting into just 24 games total with the Canucks in that span. In any case, both players are looking for fresh starts in unfamiliar environments, and a chance to re-brand themselves away from that first-round tag that has followed them thus far in their career.

After a solid four-year stint with the WHL’s Everett Silvertips, Juulsen was seen as an intriguing part of the Canadiens pipeline and a potential top-four option for the future. While he managed to show brief flashes of such a potential in his brief two-season run with the Canadiens in 2017-18 and 2018-19, injuries once again derailed Juulsen’s progress, compounded by back-to-back pucks to the face in a November 19th, 2018 matchup against the Washington Capitals.

Former Montreal Canadiens first round pick Noah Juulsen is hoping for a fresh start in the NHL with the Vancouver Canucks.

While the Panthers hoped to give Juulsen time to sort out the quirks in his game and, most importantly, remain healthy, Florida came storming out of the gate to one of the best records in the NHL last season, putting that previous rebuilding mindset in the rear-view mirror. In comparison, the Canucks are at a cross-roads of sorts after an impressive Conference Finals run in the 2019-20 season.

While franchise pieces like Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes are now locked up for the foreseeable future, Vancouver is still searching for consistency after missing the playoffs last season, partly due to one of the NHL’s worst Covid-19 outbreaks. It was in this period that Juolevi got his first true NHL opportunity, and I have reason to believe Juulsen could get a similar shot this season. While he didn’t stand out much in a 23-game stint, the Helsinki native still put up his first NHL goal and was a nice defensive fallback option with a solid -1 rating. (For context, Hughes was -24 last season).

Florida’s defense is pretty well-rounded for the most part, even with the departure of former top pairing regular Keith Yandle. However, with a third pairing comprised mainly of unimpressive depth acquisitions, Juolevi could earn a shot at a regular shift with the Panthers, and Florida definitely seems to see the former fifth overall potential Juolevi hasn’t showcased so far in his career.

As for Juulsen, his role is more set-in stone, having been mainly a third-pairing option in Montreal, playing well in spite of limited minutes. The real X-factor regarding his NHL future is as stated, his ability to stay healthy, and whether he plays for Vancouver or the Abbotsford Canucks this season, Juulsen will have a chance at his first full professional season, being able to showcase where exactly he fits into the Canucks plans going forward.

As both the Panthers, Canucks and Canadiens look towards similarly promising, yet differing rosters to begin 2021-22, a former Hab has found his way through all three organizations in one way or another, and, now fully healthy, will have a chance to showcase the NHL ability that existed only in brief snippets in Montreal. In spite of a rough 2020-21 and an uneven start to his career, Noah Juulsen has a chance at a fresh start with the Vancouver Canucks, and in my mind, he’ll give everything he’s got to make good on that first round potential, and be more than just another forgotten, first round pick.