Bad News for the Vancouver Canucks as Defenseman Noah Juulsen Will Miss the Remainder of 2024-25 Season

It hasn't been the season that Noah Juulsen had hoped for as he entered a contract year in what is his fourth campaign as a member of the Vancouver Canucks organization.

Over the weekend, Noah Juulsen was placed on injured reserve for the second time in 30 days, with what was described as an undisclosed injury and it turns out, it's a lot more serious than most were expecting.

In a post on social media on Thursday, Rick Dhaliwal of Donnie & Dhali revealed that Noah Juulsen will miss the rest of the 2024-25 season after undergoing surgery to repair a hernia this week.

Juulsen, a native of Surrey, British Columbia, appeared in 35 games for the Vancouver Canucks this season where he was held point-less while adding 21 penalty minutes and was a minus-12.

The 27-year-old last played on February 2nd against the Detroit Red Wings when he skated in 11:57 during the 3-2 overtime loss.

As mentioned, this was a big season for Noah Juulsen as it's the final year of a two-year contract he signed one day before the free agency window opened in 2023.

Anything can happen between now and July 1st, but it seems pretty likely that Noah Juulsen will hit the open market as an unrestricted free agent and that his time with the Vancouver Canucks is over.

The Vancouver Canucks have prospects like Tom Willander and Cole McWard who are close to being NHL ready and it wouldn't make sense to re-sign someone like Noah Juulsen to block their path to the league.

Vancouver's defensive corps could look a lot different next season, with Carson Soucy reportedly on the trade block and Derek Forbort and Noah Juulsen set to become UFAs, and it'll be interesting to see if Patrik Allvin ends up signing a veteran to play a third pairing role when free agency opens.