You can make an argument for Virtanen but imo Juolevi was by far our biggest bust at being drafted 5th overall.
He was supposed to be our future franchise D-man but ended up playing only 23 games for us before being bounced out of the NHL. In fact, he played the least amount of NHL games out of the top 20 picks in his draft year.
De_Floppss
Recency bias but Virtanen, was given every chance and tool to succeed and couldn’t even make it in the KHL which says a lot.
HM to Juolevi, sure he wasn’t gonna live up to 5OA but injuries derailed him exceedingly quick
GrizSeahawk84
Jake Virtanen by a country mile (or kilometer, since I’m from the U.S.).
crap4you
Jason Herter. 8th OA and 1 NHL games.
Ruilin96
Patrick White – a first round pick that didn’t even end up playing a single ECHL game. Thankfully we got Ehrhoff out of trading him. And he was drafted 1 pick ahead of David Perron and other notable NHLers drafted after him includes Brendan Smith and PK Subban.
gangstarapmademe
Hodgson, Virtanen, Olli, Podz…
DrexellGames
Olli Juolevi for sure
Btgood52
Olli Juolevi and mentions to Patrick White who’s was a first round pick to never play a NHL game and Nathan Smith who played in the NHL but never registered a single point
jtllee
Virtanen – had the biggest potential and asset to be a top 6 power forward but ruined it on his own terms in the worst way possible. At least Juolevi did his best but succumbed to injuries
zoonucks
Libor Polasek
Never heard of him? There is a reason why. On his wiki page he is described as one of the worst 1st round picks by any NHL team. From the get go, he was never good enough for any professional league. At least Virtanen made the team and scored a few goals.
jimmyray05
Olli since we passed on Matt Tkachuk for him. Olli never showed a smattering of skill at the NHL level. At least we got an 18 goal season out of Jake. #ThanksJim
Kyanders
Juolevi
Interesting-Help-421
Dan Woodley 2 goal 5 games drafted 7th in 1986
Olli Juolevi (The likely winner ) had same number of goals an assist and 4x the games for Vancouver
Who could have been drafted instead
Both cold have been replace by top player
In 1986 Leetch
In 2016 Matthew Tkachuk
Close and I think the voting will go joulvi but Woodley wins for me
13 Comments
Olli Juolevi
You can make an argument for Virtanen but imo Juolevi was by far our biggest bust at being drafted 5th overall.
He was supposed to be our future franchise D-man but ended up playing only 23 games for us before being bounced out of the NHL. In fact, he played the least amount of NHL games out of the top 20 picks in his draft year.
Recency bias but Virtanen, was given every chance and tool to succeed and couldn’t even make it in the KHL which says a lot.
HM to Juolevi, sure he wasn’t gonna live up to 5OA but injuries derailed him exceedingly quick
Jake Virtanen by a country mile (or kilometer, since I’m from the U.S.).
Jason Herter. 8th OA and 1 NHL games.
Patrick White – a first round pick that didn’t even end up playing a single ECHL game. Thankfully we got Ehrhoff out of trading him. And he was drafted 1 pick ahead of David Perron and other notable NHLers drafted after him includes Brendan Smith and PK Subban.
Hodgson, Virtanen, Olli, Podz…
Olli Juolevi for sure
Olli Juolevi and mentions to Patrick White who’s was a first round pick to never play a NHL game and Nathan Smith who played in the NHL but never registered a single point
Virtanen – had the biggest potential and asset to be a top 6 power forward but ruined it on his own terms in the worst way possible. At least Juolevi did his best but succumbed to injuries
Libor Polasek
Never heard of him? There is a reason why. On his wiki page he is described as one of the worst 1st round picks by any NHL team. From the get go, he was never good enough for any professional league. At least Virtanen made the team and scored a few goals.
Olli since we passed on Matt Tkachuk for him. Olli never showed a smattering of skill at the NHL level. At least we got an 18 goal season out of Jake. #ThanksJim
Juolevi
Dan Woodley 2 goal 5 games drafted 7th in 1986
Olli Juolevi (The likely winner ) had same number of goals an assist and 4x the games for Vancouver
Who could have been drafted instead
Both cold have been replace by top player
In 1986 Leetch
In 2016 Matthew Tkachuk
Close and I think the voting will go joulvi but Woodley wins for me