Not the best news for one of the Vancouver Canucks’ blueliners.

On Thursday, Rick Dhaliwal of Donnie and Dhali — The Team reported that defenceman Noah Juulsen is expected to miss the remainder of the 2024-25 season. Dhaliwal stated that Juulsen is having surgery on his hernia.

Juulsen has been battling a nagging injury for the past couple of months. He was placed on injured reserve last month, missing over two weeks of action due to an undisclosed injury. He returned to play three games, last appearing in the Vancouver lineup on Feb. 2 in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Detroit Red Wings.

The 27-year-old has played in just 35 of the Canucks’ 58 games this season. He didn’t register a point but posted a plus/minus of -12 while averaging 16:17 of ice time. Against the Red Wings, Juulsen saw less than 12 minutes of action.

It will be the third time in Juulsen’s career that he has failed to score a point in the NHL during a season. Granted, he only played 12 games with Vancouver during the 2022-23 season and four with the Florida Panthers in 2020-21.

The Surrey, B.C. native entered the 2024-25 campaign coming off the best season of his NHL career. In a career-high 54 games with the Canucks, Juulsen posted a goal and six assists for seven points, playing in two of the team’s games during last year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, which saw Vancouver make it all the way to Game 7 of the Pacific Division Final, losing to the rival Edmonton Oilers.

Juulsen is set to be an unrestricted free agent this summer. He’s in the final season of a two-year contract that he signed with the Canucks in June 2023, with a cap hit of $775,000.

In 157 career appearances, Juulsen has notched three goals and 14 assists for 17 points.

The Canucks (27-20-11) are fourth in the Pacific, one point ahead of the Calgary Flames for the last Wild Card spot in the Western Conference.