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?

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?

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.

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.