EDMONTON — The long and winding road that’s been Jesse Puljujarvi’s career as an Oiler has all but reached a dead end.
The only sensible move for all involved is to let him turn around and take a new path with another team.
Puljujarvi was scratched for the first time this season when Evander Kane made his return to the lineup after a 31-game absence from a wrist injury.
The Oilers are carrying a roster of 22 players upon Kane being activated from LTIR with Kailer Yamamoto and Ryan Murray replacing him there. Coach Jay Woodcroft opted to use 11 forwards and seven defensemen for the fourth-straight game resulting in Puljujarvi being the latest winger to sit out in recent games following Warren Foegele and Derek Ryan doing the same.
“Those decisions aren’t easy decisions,” Woodcroft said. “When you start getting back to full health, the coach’s job and the coaching staff’s job is difficult. We have a lot of really good players.”
With due respect to Foegele and Ryan — who both scored in a 5-2 win over the Kraken — them missing games is notable. Puljujarvi being scratched is a much bigger deal.
This is the 2016 World Junior Championship MVP who was drafted fourth a few months later. This is a player who has legions of fans because of his social media charm and strong underlying numbers. This is someone who’s 24, still fairly young by pro hockey standards, and leaves his ardent supporters dreaming of when that full potential will be realized.
If that’s going to happen, the odds of it happening in Edmonton have essentially gone out the window. Puljujarvi can be an unrestricted free agent in 2024 and nuptials between him and the Oilers clearly won’t be renewed by then.
Woodcroft insisted Puljujarvi will be back in the lineup soon, and there’s no reason to doubt that. Yet, Tuesday’s scratching was just the latest and clearest indication that it’s time to cut the cord as soon as possible.
In fairness to GM Ken Holland, it’s not like he hasn’t been trying to make that happen.
Puljujarvi has been on and off the trade market for nearly four years. That market has been as dry and cold as Edmonton in January whenever there’s been a great desire for a trade either by the player or the team.
Puljujarvi first requested a trade in early 2019 and held firm even though Holland and then-coach Dave Tippett came aboard. He played a year in Finland, but Holland refused to sell him low.
The right winger decided to come back to the Oilers in January 2021 and was one of the best stories on the team for a calendar year.
Jesse Puljujarvi. (Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
Assistant coach Glen Gulutzan, the lone member of the staff to see Puljujarvi in the flesh in the winger’s first stint, saw a different player that year. To Gulutzan, Puljujarvi was physically engaged in a way he never was before and was a beast in front of the opposition’s net.
Puljujarvi’s 25 goals put him third behind superstars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl that year. In 84 games, he was sixth on the team in scoring with 48 points — which was 16 more than Yamamoto.
His five-on-five analytics were also elite. He got tons of primo ice time with McDavid and Draisaitl, but he did his part to drive play. Puljujarvi’s 52.9 Corsi For Percentage over the 2021 year trailed only McDavid among regulars. He was fifth in goals for percentage and second in expected goals.
The Oilers had an effective forward with an excellent $1.175 million cap hit.
But the last two-thirds of last season and the first half of his campaign haven’t been kind to Puljujarvi.
First, his production started to dip in December 2021. Then, he got COVID just before the holidays. Injuries, illnesses, and a complete and utter lack of confidence followed as his offensive production ground to a halt.
By the playoffs, that top-six ice time with McDavid and/or Draisaitl was basically a thing of the past. His ice time in minutes played did not reach double digits in nine of the 16 games.
When the summer came, this time it was Holland and his management team that wanted to facilitate a trade. Holland couldn’t find a taker because, with the Oilers in win-now mode, he refused to accept discounted future assets for a player who was a bona fide top-six forward just months prior.
Instead, the Oilers avoided arbitration with Puljujarvi and signed him to a $3 million contract. Holland’s sensible gamble has turned into a boat anchor.
Puljujarvi has four goals and 10 points in 45 games, his confidence so shaken that he questioned his very existence as an NHL player to the Finnish press last month. The Oilers once wanted something tangible in return for Puljujarvi. They’re now praying another team takes the contract off their hands, so they can reinvest his salary to fix other holes on the team.
That certainly appears to be nothing more than wishful thinking.
The Oilers could kick themselves if Puljujarvi once again becomes a very good five-on-five offensive producer when he goes elsewhere. They’ll just have to live with that possibility.
Puljujarvi just hasn’t proven he can do it in Edmonton over the last 13 or so months. Although his Corsi For and expected goals for percentages are still on the positive side of the ledger, that’s not enough to justify his $3 million salary — not in a flat-cap environment.
It’s obvious to anyone that Puljujarvi, a restricted free agent with arbitration rights again in the summer, won’t be an Oilers for much longer.
After Tuesday’s healthy scratch, the end of the relationship can’t come soon enough for everyone.
Advanced analytics via Natural Stat Trick.
Contract information from PuckPedia and CapFriendly.
(Top photo: Rich Graessle / NHLI via Getty Images)
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