{"id":471073,"date":"2025-07-02T14:56:45","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T18:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=471073"},"modified":"2025-07-02T14:56:45","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T18:56:45","slug":"defenceman-signs-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/07\/02\/defenceman-signs-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Former-First-Round Pick Defenceman Signs In Vancouver"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former first-round pick defenceman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/j\/joseppi01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-06-25_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pierre-Olivier Joseph<\/a> signs a one-year deal with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/07\/01\/vancouver-canucks-defender-signs-out-east\/\" target=\"_self\">Vancouver Canucks<\/a>. With an average annual value of $775,000. Joseph adds defensive depth to the organization. He split his time between the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/blues\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">St. Louis Blues<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/penguins\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> last season.<\/p>\n<p>He registered two assists through 23 games, while struggling defensively in St. Louis. Due to an injury bug running through Pittsburgh, the Penguins reacquired the defenceman to bolster their ranks. Through 24 games, Joseph scored just one assist and continued his defensive struggles.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"bluesky-embed\" data-bluesky-uri=\"at:\/\/did:plc:7a47nphhiy37rrori2vrrvo5\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3lsyu45xe3c2t\" data-bluesky-cid=\"bafyreiccedwure6lmmaun5mjsdfyzuzdwukq3l34xohkwuzkvdjti6wzpy\">\n<p lang=\"fr\">Pierre-Olivier Joseph \u27a1\ufe0f VancouverLe d\u00e9fenseur qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois est embauch\u00e9 par les Canucks! \u269c<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; <a  href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/did:plc:7a47nphhiy37rrori2vrrvo5?ref_src=embed\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">RDS (@rds.ca)<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/did:plc:7a47nphhiy37rrori2vrrvo5\/post\/3lsyu45xe3c2t?ref_src=embed\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2025-07-02T18:34:52.054Z<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/embed.bsky.app\/static\/embed.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Pierre-Olivier Joseph Signs with Vancouver Canucks<\/h2>\n<p>From Laval, Quebec, Pierre-Olivier (PO) Joseph spent his pre-draft seasons with the Charlottetown Islanders of the QMJHL. He got off to a slow start in 2015-16, scoring just eight points through 48 games. As a bigger, rangier two-way defenceman, a lot of Joseph\u2019s game relies on solid two-way production. This was on full display in his draft year, where he scored 39 points through 62 games.<\/p>\n<p>After being drafted 23rd overall in 2017 by the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/07\/11\/nhl-sweaters-best-and-worst-of-the-arizona-coyotes\/\" target=\"_self\">Arizona Coyotes<\/a>, he would improve on his pre-draft numbers even further in the 2017-18 season. Through 63 games, he scored 46 points. Finally, he split his final QMJHL season between the Islanders and Drummondville Voltigeurs. Between the two teams, he would score 47 points through 62 games, while providing great defensive play.<\/p>\n<h3>NHL Career so Far<\/h3>\n<p>Although he was drafted by the Coyotes, Joseph would never play a professional game with the organization. Instead, he was moved to the Pittsburgh Penguins in a deal that centred around <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/kesseph01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-06-25_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Phil Kessel<\/a> to Arizona. He played well in his rookie AHL season, scoring 17 points with good defensive play through 52 games.<\/p>\n<p>Since 2020-21 however, he\u2019s bounced around consistently between the AHL and NHL. Joseph failed to show growth through his first four seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Due to a lacklustre 2023-24 season, the defenceman would sign with the St. Louis Blues for one year. Unfortunately, a systems change didn\u2019t help much, and Joseph was moved back to Pittsburgh, where he continued to struggle at the NHL level. On a __ year deal, Joseph is likely on his last chance to establish himself on an NHL roster. At 25 years old, Joseph will have to show significant improvements in his two-way game to live up to his first-round pick potential quickly.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main photo by: Brian Bradshaw Sevald-Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former first-round pick defenceman Pierre-Olivier Joseph signs a one-year deal with the Vancouver Canucks. With an average annual value of $775,000. Joseph adds defensive depth to the organization. He split his time between the St. Louis Blues and Pittsburgh Penguins last season. He registered two assists through 23 games, while struggling defensively in St. Louis. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5231,"featured_media":136709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4547,34,4548,26],"tags":[662,1646,5820],"class_list":["post-471073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","category-canucks","tag-nhl-free-agency","tag-pierre-olivier-joseph","tag-vancouver-canucks-news"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5231"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471073"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":471991,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471073\/revisions\/471991"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}