Report: Canucks among NHL teams who have shown interest in 21-year-old, 6’6″, left-shot defenceman Valtteri Pulli

It’s no secret that the Vancouver Canucks need help on their defence. They’re looking down every alley and making those desperate calls. Last year, the Canucks signed European free agent defenceman Filip Johansson, and according to Jeff Marek on the 32 Thoughts Podcast, the Canucks have shown interest in 21-year-old Valtteri Pulli.

“There are a number of teams that have shown interest [in Valtteri Pulli] but at varying degrees,” said Marek. “I’ve heard of a couple of different teams that have been really hard on him and a couple of like, yeah, maybe we’ll just kick tires. And I’m having a hard time trying to figure out who’s really aggressive and who’s just curious, but it sounds like the teams that have had interest, and again to varying degrees [are], the San Jose Sharks, which should surprise nobody considering how you know they want to, you know, redo the prospect pool there — the Winnipeg Jets, the Boston Bruins, the Vancouver Canucks, the Nashville Predators, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Islanders.”

Pulli is a 6’6″, left-shot defenceman who went undrafted but has shown some NHL potential this season. He’s scored three goals and added 11 assists through 47 games. Now, these numbers don’t jump off the page, but both the size and skating ability certainly pop in the game tape.

It was a great start to the season for Pulli but he is without a goal over his last 20 Liiga matches and only has one assist over that stretch of games.

The excitement obviously comes from the fact that this kid is 6’6″ and can move pretty well. He’s shown some flashes of offensive skill but from what we’ve heard, Pulli is a bit of a chaos creator on the backend. He’s still very young and you can’t teach size, so, this player definitely should draw interest from NHL teams. He feels like a player you’d be fine giving a go in the AHL next season and if things don’t work out, it didn’t cost you anything but a contract.

Marek said he just wanted to get the player’s name out there because at some point this season, Pulli is going to be a member of some NHL team.

We will keep an eye on the situation but this is not one that should see any news in the coming weeks. The Liiga regular season runs until March 11th and then we have the playoffs to get through. Pulli’s team TPS Turku is not projected to go on a long playoff run in Liiga, so maybe we could see a signing sometime late in March or early April.