Silvertips’ Juulsen calls potential of being first-round pick ‘unreal’

Published 8:03 pm Thursday, June 25, 2015

Noah Juulsen still has a hard time believing he finds himself where he stands today.

Two years ago, Juulsen was an unheralded 16-year-old WHL prospect, a player who was just hoping to have a good showing at Everett Silvertips training camp and possibly make the team.

Now he’s on the cusp of possibly being selected in the first round of the NHL draft.

The NHL draft takes place this weekend in Sunrise, Fla., with the first round taking place Friday and rounds two-through-seven happening on Saturday. And Juulsen has worked his way up the draft board to where it’s possible he’ll be among the special 30 who hear their name called Friday night.

“(Being drafted in the first round) would be a pretty big thing,” Juulsen said from Sunrise, having arrived Tuesday to attend the draft. “I didn’t really see myself being where I’m at now. There’s an opportunity now, and it would be unreal if I was picked in the first round.”

“I’m excited,” Juulsen added. “I’m a little nervous, but I’m really excited. I’m not really expecting to go in the first round, but we’ll see.”

Juulsen, an 18-year-old defenseman from Abbotsford, B.C., was Everett’s fourth-round pick in the 2012 bantam draft and spent the past two seasons with the Tips. Last season he broke out in a big way, registering nine goals and 43 assists in 68 games to put himself on the NHL radar.

Scouts rave about Juulsen’s total package. Though slender, Juulsen has the frame to pack more pounds onto his 6-foot-1 frame. He’s a good skater who’s capable of jumping in the play offensively, though he’s more inclined to stay at home. He has a booming shot that allows him to play the point on the power play and that was the source of most of his points last season. And he’s willing to play physical as he’s arguably the biggest hitter on the team.

Juulsen also made great strides as the season progressed. Playing alongside overager Ben Betker the entire season on Everett’s top defensive pairing, he had his hiccups early on as he was asked to deal with the opposition’s top offensive threats on a regular basis. But as the season progressed he became more and more reliable, finishing second on the team in plus/minus at plus-22.

Juulsen’s progress saw his draft stock rise steadily throughout the season. In the NHL Central Scouting Service’s midterm rankings he was listed 38th among North American skaters, which projected him as a second or third rounder. However, he was ranked 22nd in Central Scouting’s final rankings, putting him on the fringe of the first round.

“He’s a legitimate contender (to be selected in the first round), much like Travis Sanheim’s game continued to grow last year (before being selected No. 17 by the Philadelphia Flyers),” NHL director of Central Scouting Dan Marr told NHL.com. “We’re taking the position with Juulsen that we had with Sanheim in that he’s a viable first-round candidate.”

If Juulsen does get picked in the first round, he’ll become the seventh Everett player to be a first-round selection, joining center Peter Mueller (eighth overall in 2006), goaltender Leland Irving (26th overall in 2006), center Zach Hamill (eighth overall in 2007), winger Kyle Beach (11th overall in 2008), defenseman Ryan Murray (second overall in 2012) and defenseman Mirco Mueller (18th overall in 2013).

Juulsen is certainly drawing a lot of attention from NHL teams. He attended the NHL Scouting Combine on June 1-6 in Buffalo, N.Y., and he was interviewed by 26 of the 30 NHL teams.

“I think (the interviews) went pretty well,” said Juulsen, who didn’t take part in the physical testing at the combine because he had to return home for his high school graduation. “I did quite a few of them. It was pretty nerve wracking because you didn’t know what they were going to ask. But it seemed like they went well.”

If Juulsen isn’t selected in the first round Friday, it’s a sure bet he’ll be one of the first names called Saturday morning.

Juulsen ensures the Tips’ return to the NHL draft as Everett had no players taken in last year’s draft.

Juulsen is the only Tips player certain to hear his name called in this year’s draft. Everett had two other players listed in NHL Central Scouting’s final rankings as defenseman Tristen Pfeifer was ranked 135th among North American skaters and defenseman Kevin Davis came in 163rd. However, those rankings put Pfeifer and Davis in the range where it’s questionable whether they’ll be selected.

Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.