Tag Archives: Jesse Puljujarvi

Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Rumors, Trades

Edmonton Oilers: Pretty Obvious Why Puljujarvi Wants Out

August 4, 2019 Beer League Hero

Whilst I’ve always been of the opinion that this has been agent-driven, the trade request has finally come out of Jesse Puljujarvi’s mouth and therefore I’m a bit disappointed it has come to this. The Cult of Hockey has a good post out now on this whole situation and a bit of insider info on the drama that I’ll get to later, but first I just want to talk about it from a different point of view.

I think that we need to take what we get with a grain of salt. At the moment, we’re getting a ton of coverage from the Oilers side of things or perhaps more the “local” side of things. I’m of the belief that most of what we’re hearing is coming from a former employee of the club, but I’ve got no proof to give you on that. It’s just a hunch. I think that the media machine is in full character assassination mode at this point (you’ll see on that later) and Jesse’s camp is unable to fire back. The people who are leaking the info know this and are taking the opportunity to get their shots in.

That being said, I don’t think any of this is coming from Ken Holland or Dave Tippett. As far as I understand, they’ve told Jesse that he has a spot on this roster if he comes back. NOT come back and earn it or come back and compete for it. It’s yours to lose… And yet, he still won’t back down from his request…

Now, because Edmonton is so “dedicated” to the Oilers, we’ve got a weekly update on this drama but it’s only coming from one source… Is that fair? Is it okay that we only get one party’s perspective? Because what it’s doing is making Jesse look like an asshole while the team is getting away unscathed.

I might be wasting my time because most of the fanbase is going to take the word of the media, but I really feel like things have to be said.

First off, the “trade request” translation from Jouni Nieminen might be a problem. I talked to a source out of Finland and was told this,

Translations between English and Finnish are hard and Finns speak so literal and blunt, even if they don’t mean to be. There are conditional words that are built into the language, so in English they don’t translate except as the more definitive version of the word being used. For example, deal and contract, there’s a distinction there, right? And in Jesse’s quote, he said, I’d like to, not, I will or I want; but the translation is the same unless you can see the changed form of the verb. The point is, the subtlety is lost. My opinion? I think he was stating his wishes and not making demands.

Translating from one language to another is always a pain in the ass no matter the language and we have to be careful when we do that (I’m talking from experience) and speaking as someone who lives in a non-English environment, when someone says something to you and you think you’ve got it but you’re not 100% sure, you tend to just go with it instead of asking the person you’re talking with to repeat what they’ve just said. Could that be construed as “arrogance” or “stubbornness”? Probably, but is that the first place you’d jump to? Doubtful. How many times does it have to happen before you’ve decided that you’ve done all you can and now the problem lies with the other person?

I feel that everyone is a teacher in one way or another and at one time or another and so I think I can safely say that everybody has had an experience giving instructions and not having the message get through. It really relies on your ability to communicate, doesn’t it? So why couldn’t experienced coaches like Todd McLellan, Glen Gulutzan, Manny Viveiros, and Ken Hitchcock get through to Pulju BUT Jay Woodcroft could? Who was really out there building Jesse’s confidence in a meaningful manner?

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When did this become more about portraying a 21-year-old in such a negative light because someone out there needs the validation that it wasn’t them instead of saying that the relationship is fractured and it’s unrepairable but at least everyone can amicably go their own way…

There’s a lack of accountability coming from the organization and I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised. When’s the last time an NHL club went public and said they were wrong in the development of a player?

I was passed along a message from a prominent NHL European head scout that basically said there are concerns about how much damage has been done to Jesse in the past three years. The note said that nobody is worried about his talent, it’s massive and that NHL execs are more fearful about what’s been done to him mentally. Adding to that, they felt that this was always going to be the thing with Jesse, how would he adjust to the game from where he’d been.

Puljujarvi and his agent took a wrong turn when they decided to go public (both times) instead of keeping quiet. They don’t have the ability to fight back in an insular market like Edmonton where the fans hate the media but eat every word they say.

The Latest from The Cult of Hockey

I have a great deal of respect for Kurt Leavins and the guys at The Cult of Hockey. I read all of their posts and listen to all of the podcasts. That said, I’m having a hard time with Mr. Leavins’ latest and so I’d like to comment on a few of the things said. You can read his article here.

While I have written and still think it’s possible Puljujarvi will be in camp this Fall, the bigger question has really become: How did we get to this point? There’s no question the organization has made its share of mistakes in developing the player.

I think it’s only fair to point out that Kurt isn’t coming at this from one side and that he’s just reporting what he’s been told. So if we’re going to have any negative feelings, they should be directed at the person who we think is providing him the info.

-It has been described to me by multiple sources close to the team how Todd McLellan invested hours upon hours into trying to un-lock Puljujarvi when he first arrived in Edmonton. One of Todd’s frustrations was Jesse’s inconsistency in getting to the net. There, the player’s size & skill combination could be a real factor. When Puljujarvi would do this and was successful Todd would not miss the opportunity to praise him. He would point out how positioning on the play was critical. But then the next shift Puljujarvi would stubbornly appear back on the perimeter again. Todd got frustrated.

Why in the world would McLellan be trying to change this kid’s game? Basically telling him, “What worked for you in Finland, ain’t gonna work in the NHL son.” Bob Stauffer has spoken to this sort of thing in the past, right? Breaking a player down and building him back up. Could you imagine if someone took a former World Junior MVP and said to him that his game, the style of play that got him to where he is today, won’t work and he’ll have to transform it?

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Can you imagine an 18-year-old player having inconsistencies in his game? Shocking. I know.

The Oilers gave Jesse 28 games as a very young teenager before sending him to Bakersfield where he was nearly a point-per-game player on a team with no real offensive talent to play with. Even then, his coach was benching him for “inconsistencies”.

What is it that Gerrard Gallant said about accountability?

“It’s a game of mistakes. You’re not going to be perfect every time you’re on the ice, and then when mistakes happen, you forget about them and you move on… I’m not holding my players accountable for making mistakes. If you worry about making mistakes, you’re not going to play a good game. I want you going out there and thinking you’re gonna make the good plays and do the right things on the ice. So don’t worry about your mistakes.”

Can you imagine if coaching greats like Todd McLellan and Ken Hitchcock had adhered to that philosophy where Jesse would be today?

-Part of McLellan’s struggle was that he was often in the position of being “the bad cop” on the staff. Perhaps a good complimentary step would be to assign a coach to him whose job would be to “catch Jesse doing things right”? So this past fall Manny Viveiros was brought in. One of his key assignments was to attach himself to the young Finn which he did. But Manny didn’t even make as much progress as McLellan had. And remember: Viveiros has a reputation of being able to connect with today’s player. Observers say it was if advice would go in one ear…and right out the other.

Two things here,

I thought Viveiros was brought in to help with the PP (Obviously not).
At what point was Viveiros assigned to Jesse? Was it before or after Pulju’s hips started to bother him? Was Jesse his only assignment? What kind of methods were used to attempt to “get through” to him?

Is it possible that 98 had already checked out by the time that Manny was given this task? Additionally, is it out of the realm of possibility that getting through to kids in junior and the NHL are two completely different balls of yarn?

-New head coach Ken Hitchcock was so confident that he had the answer he reversed a decision to have Puljujarvi spend the rest of the season in Bakersfield. Much to the consternation and confusion of the Puljujarvi camp, the Oilers recalled him yet again. Hitchcock is the very personification of stubborn when it comes to insisting that players play for him a certain way, especially without the puck. But as it turned out Hitch (the 2^nd winningest coach in NHL history) didn’t have the keys to the car, either. The winger’s TOI over his last 10 games topped 10 minutes only 3 times. 3 other times it fell into the single digits. Yes, the bad hip also contributed to that.

What a mistake this was… Everything was going so smoothly at that point too. It wasn’t long after this that the trade rumblings started to come out…

So we go from “bad cop” McLellan to “tyrant” Hitchcock in an attempt to “unlock” Jesse? What in Sam’s Hell is going on? How does this line of thinking even make sense? Sure, the “good cop” routine didn’t pan out (allegedly) but what about Jesse’s time in the AHL said to anybody that he should be recalled let alone recalled then given a game to show what he’s got, and then thrown back to the bottom-6?

Puljujarvi has been one of the team’s best forecheckers since he landed in Edmonton and yet, the team never capitalized on his reach and speed. Instead, they wanted him to “grind” better or be a better net=front presence.

-Meanwhile, though all of the above, his teammates struggled to connect with him on the ice. Often, especially on the power play, Puljujarvi would repeatedly head to the wrong spot. He would literally bump into them. When they would try to explain it to him their words of advice seemed to fall flat. Was he not listening…or not agreeing? Eventually, although none of these players would ever dream of saying this in public…I am made to understand that they quietly asked just not to play with him anymore. There’s no suggestion they disliked him as a guy. Just that he was just hard to play with.

This is a massive problem with me and it speaks to the lack of proper leadership on the team. A leader doesn’t go to the person above him and say that it’s not working out with a teammate on the ice. If anything everybody tries to find a way to make things work out. You do what it takes until it works.

John Shannon spoke to this earlier in the year, hinting that Connor and Leon didn’t want to play with Jesse and Bob Stauffer has said on countless occasions that Pulju didn’t build up enough credit with his teammates.

Is it possible that Jesse’s teammates’ words fell flat because he’d heard them talking smack about him? And boo hoo, cry me $20M worth of tears. Jesse’s hard to play with. Give me a bloody break! Who sounds like the entitled ones now?

Now how would you feel if you were making strides with a teammate and things were going really well, the confidence was building, the trust was returning and then seeing that teammate traded? How would your trust level fluctuate? How would you feel if you just wanted to get an opportunity to show what you have but your other teammates have gone behind your back to tell the coach not to give that to you? That’s some high school behavior right there.

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This team cannot have the young stars calling the shots, I don’t care who stands at the blueline together before each game. They’ve got to bring in a veteran player who can still play and wouldn’t have a problem telling others how he sees things.

That’s where it went wrong with Lucic’s “leadership”. As soon as he lost his hands, he lost his clout. I’m sure the players still respected Milan, but it’s not the same as having an older player who can still produce AND show the young leaders how it’s done, right? These are the days I really wish the Oilers could’ve secured Jaromir Jagr’s signature back in the day… He’s exactly the kind of player I’m talking about. Too bad Calgary ruined his last year in the NHL…

Did you know that Puljujarvi played over 30% of his PP TOI last season in the first month of the year and over 30% of that TOI was spent in game 1 versus NJ. So what I’m wondering is where these occasions are that we’re being told about when he wasn’t in the right position? Pundits say it happened, but I never hear when or during which game. I feel like they weren’t last year because we’ve been hearing about them since his rookie season and if the coaching staff was using those instances from year one as an excuse not to play him on the PP in year three, that’s bullshit. I can’t honestly see that being the case, but are we then blaming the rink size or the language barrier here or what?

Did Jesse perhaps just not understand? I think we’d all have time for that issue, right? Well…there has been a lot of ink spilled on Puljujarvi’s perceived language barrier. However, one particular person who was in that dressing room last season was asked about that very factor, and he answered:

“No, he knows way more that he lets on”.

That same person (who shall remain anonymous) was then asked, “So what’s the problem with Jesse, really”?

The answer, shrugged back, was once again: “He’s just stubborn”.

Huh. You don’t say…

Some folks are going to say this quote came from Connor McDavid, but it didn’t. I can assure you of that. It probably would’ve come from someone who Jesse would’ve spent actual time with.

Say, have you ever met a 20-year-old who has been through what Jesse has that wasn’t stubborn?

I’ve heard that Leon used to get pretty pouty when he wasn’t playing with Connor. I don’t recall him getting held accountable during those days. Weird because the pouting worked for him, he’s now McDavid’s full-time winger.

I hope for the love of Christ that Holland flips the script on these boys and the media coverage of the team. The culture of all of it is still off in my opinion and we’ll find out this season too. We’ll see who’s racking up points in the garbage games IF there are any and what’s getting reported throughout the season.

So…if you’re a prospect for whom things have just not gone your way (and again, not all his doing by any means) at some point…don’t you figure out that “stubborn” isn’t a trait that is going to do you any favors?

If this isn’t all of his doing, according to the person providing Leavins with this info, I’d sure like to read some reports with as specific examples and quotes from players stating so. Saying the team is on the hook for this debacle.

It’s pretty obvious why Jesse Puljujarvi wants out.

Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, Rumors

Edmonton Oilers Rumors: Were the Oilers in on Sissons? Plus @TPEHockey’s 2019 World Junior Summer Showcase Preview

July 24, 2019 Beer League Hero

Edmonton Oilers GM Ken Holland has done a masterful job and undoing the handy work left by former general manager Peter Chiarelli. The bottom six forwards are deeper than they’ve ever been, the goaltending tandem is of NHL caliber, and the Oilers top-6 has the potential to be one of the most dangerous in the league just as long as James Neal’s season last year was an “outlier” as TSN1260’s Jason Gregor is calling it.

It’s really hard to refute Holland’s performances to date, I mean, a week ago everyone was up his ass giving him failing grades for the Oilers off-season so far and then he found a way to do the unthinkable by dealing Milan Lucic’s contract. I reckon some folks just don’t have the patience to see things through these days… The summer is long when there’s no hockey to watch.

I’ll go back to what I’ve said previously, Ken Holland is simply reversing some of Chiarelli’s mistakes.

Drake Caggiula out, Josh Archibald in.
Jordan Eberle out, James Neal in.
Ryan Strome out…

And so here we are waiting to see who Mr. Holland is going to bring in to replace Ryan Strome and on that note, I was passed this message a couple of days ago but life got in the way of getting a post out at the time.

“Keep an eye on 98. It sounds like a there’s a team from a small hockey market in the states, who just moved a major piece off their blueline, that has their eye on him.”

I’m under the impression that before he re-upped with his team, the Oilers were in on Nashville’s most recent RFA signing, Colton Sissons. Considering the message from my source above, a trade to acquire him (and perhaps more) might’ve included Jesse Puljujarvi and possibly a defenseman, my guess that defender might’ve been Matt Benning but I’ve got nothing substantial on that. It’s just a hunch given how he’s been in the rumor mill for some time and that the Oilers have guys like Joel Persson and Ethan Bear coming not to mention Evan Bouchard at some point as well. Bob Stauffer sort of spoke to that a couple of days ago on his show,

“Maybe the way to go might be to get a prospect from another organization that’s looking for traction/chance to breakthrough as well. I wonder if you’d consider doing that with an organization that’s maybe short of 45 contracts. Maybe there’s a guy you’d like to get off your 50-man list and maybe no money-wise but maybe just to create a bit more flexibility moving forward.”

I asked around about a possible Eeli Tolvanen exchange and was told: “No way that happens.”

Personally, I can’t really see that deal having made sense from NSH’s point-of-view. They are stacked on the wings and they have seven NHL defenders ready to go, so why add another winger and dman? So anybody reading this might chalk it up to hearsay, but then I think we could politely remind ourselves of the trade Calgary just made to acquire Milan Lucic and how that didn’t really make much sense to their team either…

The one last thing that makes me wonder about a Puljujarvi to Nashville is their coach. Would Peter Laviolette have time for Jesse? I mean, of all the teams, the Preds are really laden with vets and maybe that’d be the perfect place for Pulju. Also, he’d be closer to his best friends in Carolina (Sebastien Aho) and Dallas (Roope Hintz).

Trades happen for a plethora of reasons and they don’t always make sense. Sometimes perfectly reasonable trades don’t happen too. It’s just how NHL hockey works sometimes.

TPE Hockey’s 2019/20 WORLD JUNIOR SUMMER SHOWCASE PREVIEW

The World Junior Summer Showcase (WJSS) is an off-season showcase to give an idea of who could be on the roster come the World Juniors at New Years. Sweden and Finland each field a roster of their best U20 players while Canada and the US roster two different teams. The showcase isn’t a tournament so the teams don’t compete for anything, although the players are competing for a roster spot at the real World Juniors.

The competition is set to begin on July 26th and run until August 3rd in Plymouth, Michigan according to www.teamusa.usahockey.com

Canada

Canada’s team will be highlighted by the consensus #1 pick for the 2020 draft in Alexis Lafreniére. He’s expected to put on a show and display why he will go 1st next summer. Two other 2020 prospects in Justin Barron and Braden Schneider will also appear on Team Canada on their blueline. Both are projected 1st rounders. Speaking of the blueline, Bowen Byram and Noah Dobson will be their top players. For forwards expect Joe Veleno, Alex Newhook, Barret Hayton, and Kirby Dach to dominate. In net, Edmonton’s Olivier Rodrigue is the Team’s go-to-guy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1GlzDh6Drw

USA

The Americans, unfortunately, don’t feature any 2020 prospects due to a weak year from the US. Nonetheless, this team is very good. The 2019 draft class featured a ton of American talent. Obviously, Jack Hughes won’t attend, but Alex Turcotte, Trevor Zegras, Cam York, Cole Caufield, and Spencer Knight will all be there. This team is stacked with great players. Even when divided into two squads the Americans will be the best at this showcase.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOgi9bbsZu4

Finland

After last year’s WJC victory the Finns are in a rebuild of sorts. Without Kaapo Kakko the team isn’t great. Anton Lundell will be very fun to watch as he’s a top 5 prospect for the 2020 draft. He’s coming off a strong performance as a draft minus one player at last year’s WJC. Finland will look to their top 2019 picks in Patrik Puistola, Ville Heinola, Mikko Kokkonen, and Anttoni Honka. In net, they’ll play Justus Annunen, but with Ukko-Pekka Luukonen gone their goalie crop is weak.

Sweden

If you’re looking for an exciting team, look to Sweden. With two electrifying 2020, top 10 picks in Lucas Raymond and Alex Holtz you don’t want to miss a single one of their games. Aside from those two the Swedes still poses some fun, fun players. Jonatan Berggren, Nils Höglander, Sam Fagemo, Victor Söderström, Toby Björnfot, and Philip Broberg are all can’t miss players.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3YNqwlJNB0

I’m really looking forward to seeing these powerhouses go at it! Give Max (@TPEHockey) a follow if you’re a draft geek like me!

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.

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Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Rumors

Edmonton Oilers: Stauffer and Spector on Markus Lehto – “HE TRIED TO SQUEEZE KEN HOLLAND!”

July 12, 2019 Beer League Hero

In response to an interview Markus Lehto gave Sportsnet 690 in Vancouver where he said that he never said that if Jesse Puljujarvi wasn’t traded, he’d play in Europe, long-time Oilers reporter Mark Spector was a guest on the July 11th edition of Oilers Now and he and host Bob Stauffer had quite a bit to say about Lehto’s comments,

MS: Well, the lead quote in my story (on July 19th) and I reported it exactly as he (Lehto) said it was, “If he doesn’t get traded, he will play in Europe next year. He will not play in Edmonton.”

We’ve been through this before Bob, we’ve all been in the business a long time. That was a direct quote from Markus Lehto in reference to Jesse Puljujarvi and that he said that directly to me over the phone. We’ve all been in the situation where we misunderstand someone or maybe someone says something that kind of means two things and what it appears in print it looks worse than he meant it. I’ve been through those. We correct them and we talk about them and we tend to get a phone call right away, Bob, when we mess up. And three weeks later, four almost, and all of a sudden Markus Lehto is claiming he was misquoted.

So, I would say to you, if he was misquoted my phone would’ve ran the next day. I would also say to you that I texted him this morning and I have not recieved anything back from him. I asked for a chance to have a chat and he’s not responding. This is an agent who is just a guy who said something that he’s maybe having a hard time backing up. I don’t know why he’s backing off it Bob.

This is the part of the interview where Bob Stauffer interjects and lets us know why Lehto is backing off,

BS: Oh! I think we know why he’s backing off it! C’Mon! You know how this works here, he tried to squeeze Ken Holland! That’s what he tried to do. He sat there, looked at the timing of it (the trade demand)… When do a lot of trades get made Mark in the National Hockey League?

MS: After the draft.

BS: Right. Right after the draft. Like, on the Saturday of the draft there were a bunch of deals that went down. So, Ken Holland, that quote that came out that you had out on the Wednesday, I actually interviewed Ken Holland about two hours after that came out. I had a separate one on one interview and we discussed it.

Ken Holland to @Bob_Stauffer on Puljujarvi: "I'm not trading anybody because they want to be traded. But if we can find something that works for everybody, I'll look at it. If not, I'm not doing anything." #Oilers

— Reid Wilkins (@ReidWilkins) June 20, 2019

Stauffer continues here with a bit of insider knowledge with regards to why Lehto is back peddling on his trade demand now,

BS: I had another agent say to me today, “Well, you know why he’s now saying that? Because they don’t have anything for him at the price point that he’d be qualified at in the NHL for him over in Europe.

MS: It’s one of those situations where an agent, he took a risk, and that’s fine, that’s what agents are supposed to do and the risk has not worked out his way and that’s fine too, Bob. As a reporter, we’ve got two things here, we’ve got our objectivity and our accuracy/honest, right? I’ve been doing this 30 years. Have I ever had a player say to me, “I think you took that quote the wrong way.” Yeah! I mean 30 years of writing, I messed up a quote once in a while. Have I ever misreported a lead quote like that, that was never spoken? Not in 30 years, I have not, Bob. And I don’t intend to.

MS: I’m okay with whatever Markus Lehto does, but when he starts saying he was misquoted, now he’s on my reputation. Now he’s saying, “Spec quoted me dishonestly.” and that’s where I come in. I wouldn’t be on your show, I wouldn’t complain about this, he can do what he wants, go get rich, I hope Jesse Puljujarvi has a 1000-game career somewhere, but start to tread on our reputation as reporters and we’ve got to step in here. He’s said exactly what he said. He said it to me and I reported it three weeks ago and at that time Markus Lehto did not stand up and say, “Hey! I didn’t say that!”, he didn’t say that for three weeks.

Other Notes

Edmonton has yet to fill their final coaching spot on Dave Tippet’s staff and we’d heard names like Mark Lamb in the past and even Stu Barnes, but I’m wondering if it’s someone who has ties to BOTH Ken Holland and Dave Tippett. A fella like Lindy Ruff comes to mind for me.
Tyler Wright and Archie Henderson were brought in after Detroit decided not to retain them in an effort to upgrade the Oilers amateur and pro scouting departments. I think this is great! Some new blood and a different voice in those meetings should go a long way. Are the anti-Old Boys Club fans out there with their torches and pitchforks?
Former amateur (and pro) scout Mike Chiarelli is on his way to Minnesota according to Jim Matheson.
I’m hearing now that the chances that Milan Lucic is an Oiler at the start of training camp is down from 90% to 70%.
There are rumblings that a Calgary/Vancouver/Edmonton trade might go down. Is this the Lucic/Neal/Eriksson trade that was supposed to happen a month ago?
I’m not sure if the Oilers want to move another veteran defenseman, but Kris Russell’s name is coming up and could Calgary be interested in him should the find a way to deal TJ Brodie?
Keeping with the Oilers/Flames theme, some folks on the Twitter machine are proposing a Lucic/Puljujarvi for Neal/Bennett trade and I think that’d be really good for the Oilers but it does raise some questions. If JP wants top-6 TOI, how’s he going to get that in Cow Town? Their top-6 wings are sorted. How would Calgary ownership feel about cutting bait on their premier free agent signing after only one season? How would James Neal’s personality fit into the Oilers dressing room? Can Sam Bennett become the top-6 forward he was drafted to be?
If you’re a draft geek like me, there’s going to be an intense battle for the 1st overall pick between a very famous French prospect out of Rimouski by the name of Alexis Lafreniere and an emerging power forward called Quinton Byfield. I think Byfield is going to overtake Lafreniere because he’s 6’5″ and skates like the wing. He’s got edges like a little guy and he loves to punish the opposition physically. The other thing that is in his favor is that his birthday is in August, so that means he’s about as young as you can get for a draft prospect and he’s already near a point-per-game in the world’s best junior hockey league.

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Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Rumors, Trades

Edmonton Oilers: 2019 Free Agency Day 1 Review + Bob Stauffer’s Jesse Puljujarvi Trade Scenarios

July 2, 2019 Beer League Hero

Did you get the feeling that after the Oilers hired Ken Holland to be their new GM that he’d be making big moves right away? Were there any indications that he might try to build up the roster bit by bit instead of blowing it up? Was there anything that he said that lead you to believe that major changes were coming?

I didn’t think so. So why is it that so many people were disappointed yesterday? Holland did do what he said he was going to and that’s to add speed and depth to the bottom-6. So wouldn’t we want to give him some credit there? I’d say it’s looking pretty deep so far. Lots of competition and that’s what we want, right? We don’t want to be gifting AHLers jobs right at the onset of training camp anymore and Holland is doing a pretty decent job of preventing that.

Am I disappointed the Oilers couldn’t get their hands on Gus Nyquist? Sure. But I never really expected him to sign in Edmonton, so I’m pretty meh on it. Besides, there are lots of good free agents still out there and the longer they go without getting a contract, the less they’re more likely to sign for and that would be perfect for Edmonton. Look at this list,

Pat Maroon (More on him at the end)
Ryan Dzingel
Michael Ferland
Tomas Vanek
Marcus Johansson
Jason Pominville
Patrik Marleau
Joe Thornton
Justin Williams
Jake Gardiner
Derrick Brassard
Pontus Aberg
Nick Cousins
Niklas Kronwall
Ben Hutton

Tons of useful players still out there. So don’t fret that Edmonton didn’t make some blockbuster signing on day one of free agency and actually be happy they signed the players they did to short-term cheap deals because it sounds like push will be for the 2020 off-season to make some big moves. You should see the list of players that could be unrestricted…

Taylor Hall
Torey Krug
Tyson Barrie
Tyler Toffoli
Chris Kreider
Justin Faulk
Sami Vatanen
Robin Lehner
Brayden Schenn
Cody Eakin
Charlie Coyle
Jaro Halak
JG Pageau

Wow! If they make it there, next summer will be HUGE and you’ll really want the Oilers to have a lot of cap-room then.

But let’s talk about the players that Edmonton did sign.

THE NEW GUYS

Mike Smith is a player I did not like at all before yesterday but I’m going to love the shit out of him as an Oiler. “He’s the best puckhandling goalie the Oilers have ever had!” is how one source of mine described him. This is a player who is on the verge of retirement I reckon but he still has some magic left in him. He’ll be a great help to the Oilers locker room and even though he’s coming off his worst season ever, I will overlook that because we don’t judge on one season, right? He has a long stat sheet that’s full of above average numbers that I would prefer to take into consideration when judging the former NHL All-Star and Gold Medal-winning Olympian. For $2M, I’ll take him.

Markus Granlund was described to me by another source out of Vancouver as “someone who plays centre and wing – kills penalties – works hard. Good versatility.” Ken Holland praised him for how professional he is. Now, I’ll be frank here, he’s never stood out to me when the Oilers have played Granlund’s teams in Vancouver or Calgary but if the plan is to improve the PK, then this is a good add. I don’t need anything flashy out of him, but what I do want is a smart player here and someone who is an upgrade on Tobias Rieder.

The Finn averaged 2:22 on the kill for Vancouver last year, so he was a trusted member of the penalty killing crew and he also scored 19 goals spending most of his TOI with Brandon Sutter and Loui Eriksson a couple of seasons back. $1.3M per is a bit high for me, but what are we talking about here? A 3rd liner for under $1.5M is pretty decent in reality, especially if he scores in double digits.

Tomas Jurco used to be a pretty well thought of prospect in the Red Wings system when they had Martin Frk coming and Tomas Tatar. I guess things never really panned out for him as they moved him on to Chicago for a 3rd round pick in the 2017 draft that turned into another well-regarded prospect, Keith Petruzzelli.

Jurco, to me, is another Ty Rattie or Valentin Zykov. The tools are there but something is missing. He’s depth scoring but I’m not sure if he’ll even make it up past the 3rd line in Edmonton. He had a good playoff for Carolina’s farm team in Charlotte mind you, 18pts in 18 games. He’s there to provide competition and as I said above, to make sure the Oilers aren’t rushing teenagers and first-year pros onto an NHL roster. He could turn out to be this year’s Alex Chiasson if all the stars aligned. 700k? sounds good to me whether he’s getting that in Edmonton or Bakersfield.

Gaetan Haas and Joakim Nygard I have no expectations for. They’ll be who they’ll be but we won’t know that until we see them at training camp and into the exhibition games. One thing I’ve heard folks complaining about online is how he wasn’t even the best player on his team let alone the league he played in and to that I say, it’s not always about the stats… Sometimes the skill set and fit for the team is more important. Also, look at where Melker Karlsson sat on his team’s scoring the year before San Jose brought him over. Edmonton just needs some players who will work their asses off, play smart, and maybe contribute on the scoreboard from time to time. You never know with these guys, right? I mean, we’re not talking about 21-year-old kids coming over. Both Haas and Nygard are closer to thirty than twenty-one years old.

THE RE-SIGNINGS

Alex Chiasson is a player I’m glad the Oilers could re-sign. I like the term ($2.15M) and the length of the deal (two years). He’s kind of like an introverted Pat Maroon. He works his butt off, he sticks up for his teammates, he gets to the mucky areas, he stands in front of the goalie and actually screens him, plus he’s sneaky good at finding the open space for a scoring chance. He is streaky though, so fans have to come to grips with that, but he scored over 20 goals last season and Edmonton really needs as many 20 goal scorers as they can get.

Jujhar Khaira, I still don’t know what to figure about him. I reckon at $1.2M over the next two campaigns, he’ll be worth his pay. My friend Jeremy says JJ is working VERY hard this off-season to prove to the Oilers that he’s ready to take the next step and solidify his spot on the team. Now, be that as a left-winger or a centreman, that remains to be seen, but there are a couple of things I really enjoy about JJ’s game,

He’s tough as nails and already has a reputation league-wide as someone not to mess with. Cross-checking that one dman in the neck last season probably helped that a bit too.
He’s so powerful when he gets the puck. I really like watching him exit the D-zone with the puck.
He’s got pretty good hands for a man his size.

Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, Keith Fries, NHL, NHL Entry Draft, Prospects, Rumors, TPE Hockey, Trades

Edmonton Oilers: Bob Stauffer On the Potential Return for Jesse Puljujarvi

June 25, 2019 Beer League Hero

Every day it’s going to be touch and go with regards to my favorite Finnish Oiler, Jesse Puljujarvi, isn’t it? Yesterday morning on Oilers Now, after opening the show up with “Rock You Like a Hurricane” (can you lay it on any thicker Bob?), Bob Stauffer really sort of laid out what the possible return for Pulju might be in a trade and went as far as to explain why in detail. I’ll put the transcriptions below so you don’t have to chase down the audio.

Well, here’s where we’re kind of at right now. Logic dictates, the teams that are interested in JP, they’ve probably let the Oilers know at this stage because they probably want to have things in place by July 1st.

Let’s say you have a RFA forward that’s played roughly the same amount of games as Puljujarvi, Puljujarvi by the way is an RFA as well, and you’re thinking, “You know what? We think Puljujarvi has a higher upside than our guy and our guy is probably going to be required to be paid $1.75M-$2.25M. Maybe we bring Puljujarvi in and we just qualify him and he gets, you know, 10% bump on 925k base, which would take him just over a million bucks.”

You’re going to need to know that before you dip into free agency. Mmmkay? If you’re the Oilers, you’re going to want to know what you’re getting back for Puljujarvi and I would suggest to you that there’s multiple teams that are in on him, Ok? And if you’re Edmonton, you’re going, “Are we getting back a guy that is $2M-$2.5M, cause if we do get that guy back; that might take us out of the mix of some potential mid-range free agents that we’re looking at up front.

Clearly the Oilers have experienced defensemen. They’ve got a plethora now, especially with the addition of Broberg, of some young “D” that are coming. It’s probably the deepest part of the organization, Evan Bouchard, Broberg, Dmitri Samorukov. Caleb Jones, Ethan Bear, William Lagesson… Not out of the realm of possibilities in three years from now, three or four of those guys could be in the Oilers defense moving forward.

So why not use one as a sweetener in a trade to open up some cap space?

But up front there’s movement that’s potentially available. I put a tweet out last week believing the Oilers could spend $2.5M-$3M, maybe $3.5M at the high-end on one forward and then sign a couple other forwards one 1-way deals at like 800k. So, we mentioned Brett Connolly yesterday on Twitter. Could he get $4M somewhere? He might. I’d have to talk to Gerry Johannson about that. In a perfect world in Edmonton, if he could get him at $3Mx3, he might make sense. I’m just not convinced they can get him at that price point.

Some names out there, assuming that maybe a guy like Brett Ritchie doesn’t get qualified out of Dallas, he was making $1.75M last year… Daniel Carr was a free agent, he is a UFA by the way, Ritchie an RFA. Maybe those are guys you can get in the 800k to $1M range. In fact, I’m sure you could if you offered them a 1-way deal.

You know… If you deal Kris Russell out, that will open up a significant amount of cap space and then you wouldn’t really have to worry about this sort of thing… The Oilers might even be able to sign TWO mid-range free agents. Imagine that! Picking up Joonas Donskoi AND Brett Connolly… Crazy, right?

So time will tell on that front, but you need to know what you’re going to get back. An argument could be made what makes the most sense for Edmonton is a guy who has spent the last couple of seasons in the minors and is ready to take the next step. So, for the sake of argument, we’ve mentioned Julien Gauthier out of Carolina. Sebastian Aho is with the Carolina Hurricanes, Gerry Johannson is gonna be busy cause he’s got Aho and Brayden Point and those guys are huge players for the organizations they’re with. My guess is with Sebastian Aho believes he can make Jesse Puljujarvi a player and if I was Carolina, Tom Dundon, and trust me, it’s Tom Dundon, I would be willing to make that bet.

The analytics folks are probably just salivating at the idea of buying low on Puljujarvi here and given how involved they are in Carolina, it makes perfect sense why they are getting the push here from the media.

So the Hurricanes look at moving a prospect to Edmonton for Puljujarvi, I’d think they would contemplate that. Would Tampa Bay do it? They have tons of 2nd round and 3rd round players over the last few years contributing on their farm team, they need a younger cheaper guy. Maybe they look at Puljujarvi. People mention Pittsburgh, possibly. And again, what’s the return going to be?

If I’m looking at the Hurricanes farm roster, I would think Janne Kuokkanen or Morgan Geekie would be players worth considering. They’re 5×5 pts/60 are 0.49 and 0.44 respectively, whereas Julien Gauthier’s sits at 0.37. I mean none of them scream “NHL PLAYER!!!” but we are where we are and I can see why Gauthier would stand out. He scored 27 goals and has seen a substantial increase in his production since the season prior, going from 25 points in 2017/18 to 41 in 2018/19. He’s also 6’4″ and 225lbs too.

I don’t really know what Bob’s talking about regarding Tampa’s “tons of 2nd/3rd rounders that have been contributing. Junior scoring sensations Boris Katchouk and Taylor Raddysh have just finished up their rookie seasons in the AHL and combined for 69pts between the two and really their 5×5 pts/60 wasn’t much better than the Canes’ prospects above (0.20 for Katchouk and 0.43 for Raddysh). Alexandre Volkov is another player who might garner interest but you have to wonder after two 40+ point seasons in the AHL, can he take the next step? The oldest “prospect” of the group, Carter Verhaeghe, is the only one producing for Syracuse but he IS an RFA… Over the last four seasons in the AHL, this young man has produced seasons of 15, 29, 48, and 82 points. This past year he had a 5×5 pts/60 of 0.63 but he’s also 23 years old.

Bringing us to Pittsburgh. Do they have any RFA prospects? They do, but they spent good chunks of the year with the Pens. Teddy Blueger is a 24-year-old Latvian forward who posted 39pts in 45 games for the Baby Pens last season and had a 5×5 pts/60 of 0.6. He might be tempting. Another player is Zach Ashton-Reese, he was a highly sought after NCAA free agent but has been a bit riddled with injuries in his two seasons with Pittsburgh so far. He did have a cup of coffee in Wilkes-Barre last year, 11 games where he put up 9pts. I watched him a little bit and he’s a thick guy who goes to the dirty areas. He was a really good scorer at the collegiate level but that hasn’t quite translated to the NHL yet.

I just can’t recommend any of these guys I listed in an exchange for Jesse Puljujarvi though. But what about these RFAs?

Again, not my first choices, I’m just trying to do what I can here. Both players haven’t been able to get going at all with their NHL clubs and have spent times in and out of the AHL for the past two or three seasons.

I do think a US market would probably work better for Puljujarvi, I think he needs to be gradually brought along. But to me, the best place, if I was Markus Lehto, the best place I’d be happiest with for Jesse would be Carolina. So we’ll wait and see on that front but it’s my belief that it has to get done in the next 3-4 days IF it’s going to happen. He’s going to be one of the story lines.

I don’t quite get why Stauffer is saying that Pulju needs to be gradually brought along? Isn’t that part of the reason Jesse doesn’t want to play for the Oilers? Because they’re not giving him the ice-time he thinks he can perform best in?

For Markus Lehto, would he be happiest for himself that Jesse would be playing in Carolina because he has a client there already in Teuvo Teravainen? Jim Rutherford was the GM in Carolina when Lehto was dealing with Teravainen and his issues getting NHL TOI in Chicago, right? What happened there? Chicago needed to unload a contract and Teuvo was included as the sweetener. Rutherford was also the GM in Pittsburgh when another one of Lehto’s clients, Kasperi Kapanen was having trouble getting traction in that organization and what happened with that? He was the main piece of the trade that brought Phil Kessel to Pittsburgh. So there’s a working relationship between Pittsburgh’s GM and Lehto.

One texter wrote in and in so many words told him how stupid it would be for the Oilers to trade Puljujarvi to the Hurricanes for Julien Gauthier and his reply was, “Well. We’ll have to see.” The writing is pretty much on the wall, eh?

I think for myself, I’m having a hard time trying to nail down the want for Edmonton here. I don’t buy this “cap space” narrative at all from the Oilers end. Move Russell, Lucic, or Sekera with the 1st rounder and Voila! Cap space! Or is it that they want Puljujarvi out? Has it been the organization all along that has been pushing this and Lehto and Jesse simply playing along?

Ken Holland was sounding pretty tough before the draft and now it sounds like the stance has softened which is a bit disconcerting. Now we’re hearing that the returns for JP could be a 2nd round pick or middle-6 winger or an RFA who’s played a similar amount of games to Jesse but yet to break through… It’s all over the place and that screams confusion or misinformation…

The best thing, I think, is for the Oilers to give this the Drouin treatment and maybe wait this out until the week before opening night, see who’s in a tight spot and then try to work out a deal there. Too add to that, Kasperi Kapanen and Teuvo Teravainan have turned out pretty well for their new clubs. That should simply be the expectation for Puljujarvi as well here, and with that, the Oilers had better not be accepting an AHL prospect in return.

Some of you might think that Jesse Puljujarvi stinks. He’s not a good player and he has no value at all and that’s fine. I happen to disagree. He does have value and if he didn’t, “lots and lots of GMs” wouldn’t be calling trying to fleece Holland.

So we wait… Will the Edmonton Oilers continue to trade young players and receive pennies on the dollar or will they flip that script and do something different this time?

Beer League Heroes