Ex-Canucks defenceman Olli Juolevi has left North America
Former Vancouver Canucks first-round draft pick Olli Juolevi has signed a deal with Timra IK in the Swedish Hockey League. This means that after just 41 NHL games at the highest level, Juolevi’s NHL dreams are all but finished.
The signing comes at a time of need for Timra IK as they have suffered numerous injuries to defencemen already this season. The 25-year-old defenceman is being brought in with the hope that he will provide stability and depth to the team.
Juolevi is expected to start playing for Timra IK within the next week.
Canucks fans will remember Juolevi as the player former general manager Jim Benning took fifth overall in the 2016 NHL Draft. Some of the players drafted with the next few picks famously include Matthew Tkachuk, Clayton Keller, and Mikhail Sergachev.
He was seen as a well-rounded defenceman who had put up a strong season for the London Knights in the OHL, as well as for Team Finland at the World Juniors.
Things would never work out for Juolevi at the professional level. He battled through quite a few injuries and never managed to impress after graduating from the OHL.
Juolevi eventually wore out his tenure in Vancouver and was traded to the Florida Panthers. Things did not work out south of the border either and he continued to bounce around NHL organizations.
Most recently, the 6-foot-2 blueliner was invited to this year’s Arizona Coyotes training camp on a professional tryout. Despite being one of the weakest NHL teams, the Coyotes decided not to extend Juolevi a contract offer.
If he never plays in North America again, a scenario that seems likely, Juolevi will finish with 104 AHL games as well as 41 regular season NHL games, pedestrian numbers for someone drafted so high. In fact, there are only three players selected in the first round in 2016 who have played fewer NHL games, and none of them were drafted in the top 20.
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