Julien Vauclair was born October 2, 1979 in Delémont, Switzerland. The third round, 74th overall selection of the Ottawa Senators in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft, Vauclair honed his skills in the Switzerland National League before coming to North America in 2001-02.
A stay-at-home defenceman, Vauclair played four seasons with Lugano, is a two-time member of Switzerland's World Junior Team (1998, 1999) and has represented his country six times at the World Championships (1998-2002, 2004-2005) and twice at the Winter Olympics (2002, 2006).
In 2001-02, Vauclair made his North American debut with the AHLs Grand Rapids Griffins and spent the better part of the next two seasons with the AHL's Binghamton Senators. Although he spent the majority of the 2003-04 season in Binghamton, Vauclair went on to make his NHL debut with the Senators later that same year.
