Vancouver Canucks: Olli Juolevi Not AHL-Eligible, Higgins to be Bought Out? (canucks)

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Vancouver Canucks: Olli Juolevi Not AHL-Eligible, Higgins to be Bought Out?

By Carol Schram

Jun 26, 2016 • 3:20 pm

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Now that the draft is in the books, it's time to turn our attention back to the buyout window, which ends on June 30, and the opening of free agency on July 1.

First off—this is new today:

This doesn't seem surprising to me. Alex Burrows is held in high esteem by the Canucks organization for all that he has contributed in his 11 NHL seasons—and the salary-cap savings that come along with a Burrows buyout are minimal.

Perhaps this will still change if the team thinks it needs to free up maximum cap space in order to sign free-agent wingers, but I think Sekeres is probably on the right track here.

As a reminder, Chris Higgins, now 33, is owed $2.5 million on the last year of his contract. A buyout would cost $1,666,667 spread over two seasons, so the cap hit would drop to $833,333 in 2016-17, with another $833,333 bumped forward to 2017-18.

Burrows is now 35. He's owed $3 million in salary but the cap hit for the final year of his contract is $4.5 million. If the Canucks do choose to buy him out, the cap hit will be $2.5 million in 2016-17—which would create an extra $2 million in cap space next season. But the team would be liable for an additional $1 million in cap space in 2017-18, so the total cap savings would amount to only $1 million over the duration of the buyout.

After Jim Benning's miscue with the media a few days ago, talking about P.K. Subban and Steven Stamkos, I suspect we'll hear less than usual over the next week about Vancouver's attempts at securing one or more of the high-profile unrestricted free agents. It sounds like almost every team in the league is taking a crack at Stamkos; more names are also being added to the mix on Milan Lucic; all is pretty quiet, still, with Loui Eriksson. All are wait-and-see situations, and Benning will be doing his best to keep his lip zipped.

Olli Juolevi Not AHL-Eligible There was some talk this weekend that new draft prize Olli Juolevi would be eligible to play in the AHL next season, despite being barely 18 years old (his birthday was May 5).

The basis for this belief was another Finnish defenceman, Julius Honka, who was selected by the Dallas Stars in the first round of the 2014 draft. Like Juolevi, Honka spent one season in the CHL before being drafted—in his case, with the Swift Current Broncos of the WHL. After that, he moved on to the AHL's Texas Stars as he was ruled to have been "on loan" from his Finnish team. Honka was technically drafted out of the Finnish League, not the WHL, so he wasn't even eligible to go back to junior.

Read Neate Sager's coverage of Honka's situation from back in 2014, at Yahoo Sports.

Interestingly, the NHL.com 2014 Draft Page does show Honka having been drafted out of Swift Current, not out of Finland.

One player from this year's draft is following in Honka's footsteps, but it's not Juolvei—it's Alex Nylander.

Here's the scoop on Juolevi's status:

Since it sounds like Juolevi needs more time to fill out his gangly frame, another year in the OHL seems like a good place for him. He'll get another turn at World Juniors, too—as will his young countrymen Laine and Puljujarvi, if their NHL teams give them a chance to try to defend their gold medals.

Juolevi has said that it's his goal to make the NHL this year. I suppose it's not completely out of the question but I suspect his development pattern will more closely mirror that of his countryman Olli Maatta, who went back to London for a second season after being drafted in 2012 before joining the Pittsburgh Penguins full time in 2013-14.

One other fun fact with the Finns—don't forget about their mandatory military service. Maatta was originally scheduled to start his duties in April but Pittsburgh's Stanley Cup run interfered with that plan. Per Ken Campbell of The Hockey News, Maatta's detail will now be split over two summers.

I admit, I didn't know as much about Juolevi as I did about some of the Canucks' other possible targets at the five-spot, as I was sucked into the belief that they'd select a forward. But I like this snap analysis from Corey Pronman of ESPN, who goes as deep into analyzing prospects as anybody:

Pronman's team-by-team draft grades are behind a paywall, but I will tell you that he gave the Canucks a B+ for their performance in Buffalo this weekend. Only five teams were ranked higher, and five others received B+ grades, so Vancouver is in good company.

The Oilers organization did a great job of interviewing top prospects, both during the draft combine and before the draft in Buffalo. Here's their conversation with Juolevi from earlier this week:

Again, I'm very impressed to see that he's basically thinking in English. The transition to North America seems to have come very easily for him.

That seems to align with how he describes himself in this draft profile at the Ottawa Senators website:

I'm the smartest of the defensemen and it's something that is hard to teach. It's like one of those natural things that you either have or you don't have. You can always go practice your shooting or skating or whatever, but that's a hard thing to improve anymore. When you're a small kid, you don't care if you're confident or not; you just go out and play and now it's almost like pros, so now you have to be confident. You have to know how good you are and be proud of that.

In that same profile, Juolevi compares his playing style to Oliver Ekman-Larsson—who was drafted sixth overall in 2009. He says his favourite NHL player is Shea Weber.

Let's give the last word today to Jim Benning.

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