Vancouver Canucks: 5 Reasons Why Olli Juolevi Was a Great Pick

1. Best Player Available

Should a team draft the best player available or make their pick according to a positional need? That question comes up year after year and, while most people agree that drafting the best player makes the most sense, teams make different decisions year after year. At three, Jesse Puljujarvi would have been the best player available, but the Blue Jackets wanted to fill the void that was left by Ryan Johansen, whom they had traded to the Nashville Predators for D-man Seth Jones.

With Pierre-Luc Dubois off the board, the Canucks had to rethink their BPA vs. positional need strategy. Dubois likely would have been the best available player at No. 5, and he would also fill the major need for a post-Sedin top-line center. But between Matthew Tkachuk and Olli Juolevi, who is the better player and who fills the bigger need?

It seems like the left wing is one of Vancouver’s biggest current needs. Once Daniel Sedin retires or declines, there won’t be much talent left on the position, at least not behind Sven Baertschi. But, the Canucks are also lacking defensemen with No. 1 or at least top-pairing potential. So in that regard, it is probably a tie between Tkachuk and Juolevi.

At the end of the day, the Canucks simply decided Juolevi was the best player available. Defensemen with top-pairing potential don’t grow on trees. The Edmonton Oilers have been trying to find one for about a decade now, but despite several rumors, they haven’t been able to get a deal done. If you want a top-pairing defenseman, you likely have to develop one yourself.

The Canucks will do just that, and despite a lack of physicality, Juolevi has top-pairing potential. Oliver Ekman Larsson and Nicklas Lidstrom are proof that offensive ability and a non-physical defensive game can take you very far in this league. This doesn’t mean Tkachuk is a bad player, it just means Vancouver views Juolevi as the better prospect.

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