The Canucks will enter 2025 with a handful of key pending UFAs on their roster. The most prominent of them is clearly Brock Boeser. But he’s joined on that list by season-salvaging goaltender Kevin Lankinen, second-leading goal-scorer Pius Suter, the newly-arrived Derek Forbort, and a handful of others like Mark Friedman, Phil Di Giuseppe, and Linus Karlsson.

But suppose the Canucks were to pick one of those pending UFAs to prioritize the re-signing of, we’d suggest it not be any of the aforementioned individuals but instead Noah Juulsen. That might sound odd, but let us explain.

Juulsen is 27 years old and will turn 28 in April. His current two-year, $775K average annual value (AAV) contract expires as of July 1, 2025.

He’s come a long way since being drafted 26^th overall by the Montreal Canadiens in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft. This is Juulsen’s seventh NHL season and just the fourth in which he’s played more than 20 games. Last year’s 54 games more than doubled his previous career high. But his performance thus far in 2024/25 is easily his best work yet.

As of this current moment, Juulsen is skating some pretty consistent minutes alongside Carson Soucy on what is ostensibly the Canucks’ second pairing. And he’s doing just fine in that role. Sure, he’s at literally zero points through 22 games. But scoring points isn’t really the object of the Soucy-Juulsen pairing. It’s eating minutes and avoiding goals against, and for the most part, they’re doing that.

Juulsen is currently averaging about 16:07 a night, up above his career average and well above any amount he’s played since his rookie days in Montreal. The amount of time on the ice has obviously increased since Filip Hronek exited the lineup, and in his absence, Juulsen has played as much as 19:46 in a night.

Now, he probably shouldn’t be playing that much. And, indeed, Juulsen’s numbers did look better back in 2023/24, when he was mostly playing an appropriate bottom-pairing role for the Canucks. We’re talking a 49.02% control of scoring chances and a 50.68% control of high-danger chances and breaking even-type stuff.

And it is true that Juulsen’s 2024/25 numbers aren’t quite up to that standard. Currently, he’s got a 45.71% Corsi, a 46.67% control of scoring chances, and a 46.81% control of high-danger chances. But here’s the interesting thing: this isn’t necessarily a symptom of Juulsen taking on greater responsibility this year. Some of Juulsen’s worst hockey came at the start of the year, and some of his best has come while paired alongside Soucy under much heavier minutes and matchups.

Yes, Juulsen’s possession metrics and other fancy stats go down as he plays more minutes against more talented opponents. But the numbers that really matter don’t. Away from Soucy at even strength, Juulsen has been on for four goals and nine against. With Soucy, in more minutes, Juulsen is at three goals for and just five against.

Again, it’s not quite breaking even. But it’s coming pretty darn close for a player who, by all rights, should not be playing these kinds of minutes in this kind of role.

And we haven’t even talked about some of Juulsen’s other qualities, like his leading the blueline in both hits and blocked shots per 60 or his being just two seconds behind Soucy for the team lead in average shorthanded ice time.

Juulsen is doing a lot, and this all serves to explain why the Canucks might re-sign him, in general. But why prioritize his re-signing? That comes down to a trait we’ve skillfully avoided mentioning to this point: Juulsen is right-handed. And that automatically makes him a rare commodity and one definitely worth keeping organizational hands on.

As of this writing, Juulsen’s 16:07 average ice time has him ranked in a tie for 74^th overall amongst all NHL RHDs. That puts him right on the cusp between top-four and bottom-pairing, which is where he’s been all season.

The rights of basic supply and demand make Juulsen’s current $775,000 compensation a real bargain rate. It’s literally the league minimum, and it ties Juulsen with six other RHDs for the 94^th through 100^th spots at the bottom of the salary chart.

There are just 32 RHDs on NHL contracts hitting UFA status this summer alongside Juulsen. Not all of them are genuine big-league players, either. The number of them currently playing more per night than Juulsen is about 20.

What that means is that if every NHL team went out this coming summer and tried to sign a quality NHL RHD, at least a few of them would come up short. That ensures that the demand for any RHD will be high, Juulsen included. Just having a RHD that can play any amount of NHL minutes has value. If they can play elevated minutes on a temporary basis and handle them fine enough, that’s just bonus value, and that’s what Juulsen offers.

And that’s why the Canucks should be prioritizing his re-signing now. If Juulsen is willing to extend his contract for anywhere in the neighbourhood of his current deal – or anything in the range of $1 million per season or below – the Canucks would be wise to ink that right here, right now.

The price for Juulsen can’t go down from where it’s at right now. But it can, and will, go up if Juulsen makes it anywhere close to the open market. The Canucks have plenty of time and opportunity now to ensure that doesn’t happen, and they should use it.
Juulsen may not be your typical UFA priority. But he’s a piece worth making sure to hold on to all the same.