The Pittsburgh Penguins have put former Edmonton Oilers winger Jesse Puljujarvi on waivers. He’s up for grabs. Will another team take him? Will the Edmonton Oilers?
He makes just $800,000 this year.
Some fans are unhappy in Pittsburgh.
Here is ChelPenguins @ChelPenguins:
Jesse Puljujarvi has been waived.
He hasn’t seen the ice since Dec 7th, before that, this is where he ranked among pens’ fwds:
• TOI/60: 12th
• Assists/60: 5th
• Points/60: 5th
• Rush attempts/60: 2nd
• xGF/60: 5th
An impactful speedy, physical winger got hosed by Sully
And at The Daily Hive, Edmonton hockey writer Preston Hodgkinson made the case for the Oilers to pick up Puljujarvi: “It’s a bit of a mystery why Puljujarvi has found himself in the Pittsburgh press box more often than not this season. He got off to a fantastic start with five points in his first six games, and while that may have started to drop off, he was still putting up fantastic underlying numbers.He may never live up to his high draft pedigree, but he has morphed into a solid bottom-six forward who helps move the puck in the right direction. This fits what the Oilers need in their forward group, and while he may not be the fastest skater in the world, he does add a little more speed to a group of forwards who lack in that department.”
My take
1. The Oilers do need to add to their bottom line. The current group of players is too slow and not physical enough. If Edmonton is going to match up in the playoffs against teams with fast and rugged fourth lines like Vegas and Florida, the status quo will no do. But is Puljujarvi the right fit here?
Puljujarvi is big and fast. But he’s now on his third NHL team. That’s three kicks at the can and three organizations sizing him up as not quite good enough. I put weight in that assessment.
2. When Evander Kane comes back and with the likely recall of Noah Philp down the road, things are going to get crowded at forward for the Oilers. From what I’ve seen of Vasili Podkolzin and Kasperi Kapanen, they’re both better bets to help the Oilers in the playoffs than Puljujarvi. I can see Corey Perry and Derek Ryan both pushed out of the line-up come the playoffs, so Puljujarvi would have to be a more useful player than either Podkolzin or Kapanen to grab a spot. That’s no likely to happen.
3. To make it as an NHLer, Puljujarvi has got to play solid two-way hockey at even strength, but also become enough of a checker that he can become a PK regular. If he he were to do that, given his size and speed, he could find an NHL job, playing the same kind of game as a Mattias Janmark or a Connor Brown.
But Puljujarvi never got any PK time in Pittsburgh. He’s not seen as that kind of player by his coaches. I’m not sure that he can’t become such a player, but time is running out. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a team lower in the standings pick up Puljujarvi just now and try him as a checking winger and PK guy. That might work.
But I’ll be astonished if the Oilers grab him, nor do I think they should. He’s simply not better than Kapanen, Podkolzin, Janmark or Brown.
At the Cult of Hockey
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