Big opportunities for Noah Juulsen and Vincent Desharnais with Canucks
By default, Noah Juulsen and Vincent Desharnais will be thrust into meaningful, full-time roles at the NHL level with the Canucks. Whether they are properly equipped for such a workload is a different discussion. Plus, it's not as though Tom Willander can be summoned from the NCAA or Elias Pettersson can download experience to his brain.
The Canucks have who they have. Desharnais, who has not played in two weeks, was an offseason value buy by general manager Patrik Allvin. After playing in a career-high 78 games for an Edmonton Oilers team that reached the Stanley Cup Final last year, expectations might have been higher. Desharnais sometimes played north of 19 minutes for the Oilers, and other times played fewer than 11.
If the Canucks hope to survive the current injury crisis unscathed, they are going to need to see better play than the inconsistencies that have mostly kept Desharnais out of the lineup to this point. Standing at 6-foot-7, 226 pounds, Desharnais has the size you can't teach. At the same time, he will turn 29 at the end of the season. How much room he still has for development is unclear, and he struggles with his play with the puck.
The same is true for Juulsen, a former first-round pick, who is slightly younger. Juulsen has been with the Canucks since 2021, so he knows his teammates well and has known Tocchet's system longer than Desharnais. Both defensemen are going to struggle to move the puck, but both are going to be pressed into action. There is no time like the present for both players to change the narrative and to prove their worth to Canucks fans and the organization.