Vancouver Canucks trade Olli Juolevi to Florida Panthers

The Olli Juolevi era is over.

The Vancouver Canucks have traded the failed fifth overall pick to the Florida Panthers for a pair of depth players: Juho Lammikko and Noah Juulsen.

“We’re pleased to welcome Noah and Juho to Vancouver,” said Benning. “We would also like to thank Olli for his years of service with the Canucks organization and we wish him well in his future endeavours.”

Drafted by the Canucks fifth overall in 2016, Juolevi is widely considered to be a bust after failing to find his way in NHL. Since being drafted, he only has appeared in 23 games with the Canucks otherwise playing in the American League.

That compares to an number of defencemen selected after him in Mikhail Sergachev, Charlie McAvoy and Jakob Chychrun — all of whom have gone on to play over 230 NHL games.

Movement from players at the top of that class isn’t unhead of, however. Patrik Laine (2nd), Pierre-Luc Dubois (3rd), Alex Nylander (8th), Sergachev (9th), Logan Brown (11th), Jake Bean (13th) and Luke Kunin (15) are all with teams that didn’t draft them.

Juulsen, meanwhile, has been considered a bit of a bust in his own right. Drafted by the Montreal Canadiens 26th overall in 2015, the Canucks mark the third franchise for the 24-year-old right-shot defenceman. A Surrey native, he’s appeared in 48 NHL games scoring two goals and eight points. In the AHL, he’s appeared in 52 games scoring one goal and 10 points.

Lastly, Lammikko was drafted by the Panthers in the 3rd round of the 2014 draft and the 25-year-old forward has appeared in 84 NHL games over the last two seasons scoring four goals and 11 points. He’s also spent a fair share of time in the AHL scoring 20 goals and 57 points in 143 games.