George Richards, FHN Publisher
It has been a long road back from injury for Noah Juulsen, but the 24-year-old defenseman says he is completely healthy and ready to battle for a spot with the Florida Panthers.
Juulsen started last training camp with the Montreal Canadiens, the team that took him in the first round at the 2015 draft held in Sunrise but put him on waivers.
The Canadiens figured that was a safe bet, gambling that Juulsen’s lack of playing time over the previous two seasons would allow him to slip through so he could join Montreal’s AHL team in Laval.
Only the Panthers put in a claim — much to the Canadiens’ chagrin — and Juulsen had a fresh start in Florida.
“We don’t know what they’re thinking or what they want to do with him,” then-Montreal coach Claude Julien told reporters the day Florida claimed Juulsen.
“We were hoping to keep him and, unfortunately, he was picked up by them and maybe for his sake to be an NHL player — if he’s on their roster — it’s an advantage to him.
“You know we’re going to wish him good luck. He’s a good individual and … the last couple of years have been tough on him. So hopefully he finds his game.”
Said Juulsen: “I thought I was going straight to Laval. When you don’t play for over a year, you don’t think anyone is going to take you. I got the opportunity to come here and need to take advantage of that opportunity. Montreal was upset with what happened, but that happens in hockey.”
Less than a year later, Juulsen is fighting for a shot with a Panthers team that doesn’t appear to be an easy team to crack.
Although the Panthers have a couple defensive positions available what with the Keith Yandle buyout and Anton Stralman trade, Florida has a number of young defensemen battling for what appears to be one spot.
Juulsen says he wants it — and is ready to take it.
”Everything is good, i felt great out there today,” he told FHN on Thursday’s opening of training camp. “It was a good first skate, I had a great summer and I ready to get after it. This is a good team, it just depends on how my camp goes. There are a lot of d-men here, a lot of good d-men. I have to put in the work.”
Juulsen was an up-and-coming defenseman with the Canadiens, securing a spot on Montreal’s second pairing before getting hit in the face with a puck against the Washington Capitals on Nov. 19, 2018.
Since that injury, Juulsen has only played in a handful of games.
Even last year, Juulsen was slowed by injuries limiting him to four games with the Panthers and five with AHL Syracuse.
Last season, though, was a weird one.
Juulsen spent a lot of time working with Florida’s taxi squad after being recalled from his conditioning stint at Syracuse (he couldn’t stay there for long unless the Panthers wanted to risk losing him through waivers) but did not suit up for the Panthers after Feb. 25 against Dallas.
Just getting back into some games, both at the NHL and AHL level, was good for Juulsen.
”It was awesome, obviously it had been a long time since I played,” he said. “My goal this year is to play. That’s my plan. I have been setback a little bit with the injuries, but this is a normal season and I want to get back to playing and I think that’s going to happen.
Looking at the situation as it stands now, there are five defensemen who have a secure spot with the Panthers: Aaron Ekblad, MacKenzie Weegar, Brandon Montour, Radko Gudas and Gus Forsling — who came to the Panthers off waivers last camp as well.
Add NHL veteran Markus Nutivaara to that list and you have six defensemen with the Panthers expected to carry seven.
The list of defensemen Juulsen is fighting is almost as long as it includes Lucas Carlsson, Kevin Connauton, Max Gildon, Matt Kiersted, John Ludvig and Chase Priskie.
”It is an opportunity where our depth on the backend, if you look on paper, those guys may get a chance to play,” Florida coach Joel Quenneville said. “His situation was, early in the year he had a really good game and then he was in and out of the lineup and didn’t play much after that. He adds depth to our backend and we think there are four or five guys pushing for it. … He’s in that mix. Over the course of the season, guys in that mix are going to get a chance at some point during the year. It’s going to be performance based.”
Juulsen, if he does perform well at camp, has people who want to see him succeed here (Shane Churla drafted him in Montreal) and would hate to see him get picked up by someone else if he went through waivers again.
A number of the players he is battling don’t have to go through waivers and, aside from Connauton, no one else has as many NHL games (48) under his belt as Juulsen does.
Still, Juulsen if he is to make the Panthers, he is going to have to earn it.
Florida plans on keeping the best players they’ve got.
“Obviously you want to make it on Opening Night but my goal this year is to just play hockey,” Juulsen said. “Whether it’s here or in the AHL, I just want to play. It has been two years since I really played so sometimes you lose something. I need to play and I want to play.
“It gets frustrating mentally. Injuries, you can’t do anything about them. You don’t know how long it will take some times and the one I had in Montreal took a lot longer than I could have imagined. Yeah, it was frustrating. It wears on you. But I’m healthy now and ready to play.”