Tag Archives: Markus Lehto

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

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

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.

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.

More from Stauffer,

BS: So what happened here is Lehto tried a power play. That’s what happened and this was rumbling since the Oilers were in Carolina, and I think we were in Carolina the first week of March. 

BS: I don’t like this course of action from the agent. I gotta tell ya. Now he’s blaming the media, he’s saying he’s being misquoted. I get it, I work for the OEG, I’m admitting the Oilers are culpable for the lack of development, but at what point is there culpability from the agent and for that matter, with the player?

MS: These are the games that are played, Bob, right? The games that are played are the agents taking care of his player and frankly, I think what happens is sometimes the agents tell the players… I’m not saying the agents are dishonest with players but they tell players what they want to hear maybe, ya know? They fill a player’s head full of all the positives and how great he is and how if anything going wrong it’s everybody else’s fauly. I don’t know if that’s what Lehto is doing with Puljujarvi, but I would suggest that… I certainly know if Jesse Puljujarvi was my son, I would say to my son to take a long look in the mirror and to separate the things that the Oilers have done wrong, and there have been some mis-steps on the Oilers part, there’s no question, but control the ones that you can control. Jesse Puljujarvi can be more successful and a better NHL player than he’s been and he can control a lot of those things regardless of what’s going on with the Oilers. He needs to focus on those things and make it appear, that it’s everyone else’s fault and that he has been hard done by.

Stauffer and Spector go on to talk about a scenario where Puljujarvi’s camp is getting squeezed because if they were going to go to KHL to play they’d probably have to be there by early August should the seasons over there start at the beginning of September. And so if they couldn’t find a way to do that, then perhaps Karpat (SM-Liiga) would be the next option down, but for sure they wouldn’t be able to cover the million or so dollars that Jesse would be getting paid in the NHL at minimum. Now that option’s out, so perhaps it’s time to revisit the Oilers and blame the media for putting words in the agent’s mouth…

You can listen to the entire interview right here.

This is a mess. Some of the local media and the fanbase are blaming Puljujarvi, some of them are blaming the Oilers, some of them are blaming the agent, and some of them are blaming everyone. The more days that transpire, the more I fall into that last category.

I feel bad for Jesse but I do agree with Spector in that he needs to grow up a bit here. It’s life hitting him square in the mouth for the first time and I’m not sure if he’s got the right people around him telling him the right things. He has to consider his actions here, right? I mean, if he gets traded and things don’t improve, all the guys that he’s traded for have to do is show up every night and work their bag off and Jesse will be forgotten and maybe that’s a good thing, maybe it’s not. Edmonton is a blue-collar town and while the fans are sick of losing, I think at the very least they’d be happy with a team that competed every night. So, if Pulju came back and performed as he did in the AHL, the fans would forgive him instantly. They forgave Zack Kassian and one could say Milan Lucic gets forgiven every time he wallpapers some guy but then he uses that up the next time he handles the puck, so it’s a bit of a rocky marriage there.

A new season means a new design! Click the image above to get the new Pulju shirt!

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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Edmonton Oilers: Puljujarvi’s Agent vs. Ken Holland – Round 1! PLUS the 2019 BLH Mock Draft

Wednesday, Jesse Puljujarvi’s agent, Markus Lehto, sent his third very public shot across the bow of the Edmonton Oilers’ boat using Darren Dreger and Mark Spector. Only this time the message was much more assertive,

“If he doesn’t get traded,” Lehto confirmed, “he will play in Europe next year. He will not play in Edmonton.” – source

When Ken Holland got wind of this, he fired his own shot back,

“At the end of the day, if you can do a deal that makes sense for the Edmonton Oilers, you do it,” said Holland, who spoke on Wednesday morning with Lehto. “If you can’t, you go over (to Europe) and watch him play, and hopefully he scores a lot of goals over there.” – source

Is Markus Lehto slow? He predictably goes to the press again (the draft and the trade deadline being the most popular times for GMs to make moves or plan future moves) to let the entire world know that he wants his client out of Edmonton with not even an ounce of leverage. I mean, is Lehto banking on his previous experiences with Kasperi Kapanen in Pittsburgh and Teuvo Teravainen in Chicago and thinking that this is going to be a piece of cake?

How in the world does he think that strong-arming one of the most experienced GMs in the NHL is going to go here?

Sad to say it, but Pulju’s value couldn’t be any lower right now considering the 7 goals he’s scored in the last 90 games for the Oilers and him coming off of double-hip surgery.

Jess was the 4th overall pick in 2016 and that’s great, but my man hasn’t turned the corner yet. Now, that doesn’t mean he won’t, it just means trading him and getting equal perceived value, won’t be an easy task nor is it even a fair ask.

Mark Spector wrote an article yesterday and he summed my thoughts up perfectly,

It is Lehto’s job to advise the player, but if I sat down next to Puljujarvi, this is what I’d say:

“Jesse, there isn’t a team that wants you to succeed more than the Oilers. They’ve got a high draft pick and a piece of their reputation invested in you. Sure, they mishandled your career by not letting you spend enough time in AHL Bakersfield. But, truth be told, you and your agent didn’t want to go there either, right?

I’m not convinced of this “refusal to go to the AHL” narrative going around. Jesse went down three times in three seasons. To me, that’s quite a bit in today’s age.

“You haven’t played much with Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl, or on the powerplay, but in the NHL you earn those prime spots. They don’t just get handed to you because of where you were drafted, most times.

Well, out of around 1000 minutes on the ice, he’s played the most with Milan Lucic and the 2nd most with Connor McDavid…

“Here’s what you should do: Have your agent negotiate a fair two-year deal with the new GM, Ken Holland. He’s an honest guy, and he’s saying you’ll get a full season on the third line, and a chance to learn how to play the NHL game under the new coach, Dave Tippett.

Yes!

“The Oilers are very lean on goal-scoring right-wingers. There probably isn’t a team in the league with a combination of better centremen and open spots on their flanks.

100%!

“Have Lehto get a handshake deal with Holland that, if we don’t like the way the 2019-20 season goes, he’ll trade you next summer. That way, he can say he tried to develop you, but the previous GM drafted you and it just wasn’t working.

“Give it one more year, take some of the blame for your slow development, then go out and prove you are a player. Score some goals, show the commitment that is necessary, and by Christmas you could be the No. 1 right-winger in Edmonton.

Seems like the right thing to do here. The other thing is, if he scores some goals, other GMs will want him even more.

“You’re just 21. This is the last place you’ll ever play that has as much invested in you as the Oilers have. Which, you’ll learn one day, is important.”

Sometimes it takes a while for young folk to mature. They can’t all be as collected as McDavid and Crosby, right?

As Ryan Rishaug has been saying for weeks, just through deductive reasoning, we can probably come to the conclusion that Puljujarvi’s problem with the team isn’t to do with the coaches or the medical staff or even the GM as most of those have been swapped out. It must be to do with the players because if you’re a young winger in the NHL that’s looking for one of the sweetest gigs in the league alongside Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid, or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and you STILL want out, then there’s a problem in the room.

I won’t put this all on Connor and the boys though. Jesse has to come out of his shell a bit and show some initiative but I can understand why he wouldn’t want to as well. The players he respects on the club don’t feel the same way maybe and that’s a deep cut for a young guy. He might not be as mature as the rest of the guys and thus he gets left out in the cold.

I wish I knew what kind of advice he was getting from the agent so we could have an opinion on who’s to blame here from that side because if Puljujarvi isn’t traded soon, he’s going to have to go through an entire summer with this cloud hanging over him and the close it gets to training camp, the more reporters and journalists are going to want to talk to him about “the trade request”, right?

As much as I love my man Jesse, I fully support the stance Ken Holland is taking. If Markus Lehto wants to play hardball, Kenny Holland won’t back down. Just ask Andreas Athanasiou who previously tried to hold out in Detroit but eventually came back to the NHL with his tail tucked between his legs and signed a two-year deal.

Pulju needs to come back and prove his worth to not only his teammates, the organization, the entire NHL, but also himself. Heading off to Europe until his wishes are met isn’t going to do that. It’s not going to help how he’s viewed neither. Then again, Milan Lucic has been asking out for three years and the boys still love him…

A new season means a new design! Click the image above to get the new Pulju shirt!

THE 2019 BLH MOCK DRAFT

  1. NJ – Jack Hughes – C – USNTDP (USHL/NCAA)
  2. NYR – Kaapo Kakko – RW – TPS Turku (FIN)
  3. CHI – Alex Turcotte – C – USNTDP (USHL/NCAA)
  4. COL (OTT) – Bowen Byram – LHD – Vancouver Giants
  5. LA – Cole Caufield – RW – USNTDP (USHL/NCAA)
  6. DET – Trevor Zegras – C – USNTDP (USHL/NCAA)
  7. BUF – Kirby Dach – C – Saskatoon (WHL)
  8. *VAN – Philip Broberg – LHD – AIK (SWE)
  9. ANH – Dylan Cozens – C – Lethbridge (WHL)
  10. *EDM – Matthew Boldy – W – USNTDP (USHL/NCAA)
  11. PHI – Peyton Krebs – C – Kootenay (WHL)
  12. MIN – Alex Newhook – C – Victoria (BCHL)
  13. FLA – Cam York – USNTDP (USHL/NCAA)
  14. ARI – Victor Soderstrom – RHD – Brynas (SHL)
  15. MTL – Arthur Kaliyev – LW – Hamilton (OHL)
  16. COL – Vasili Podkolzin – RW – SKA (VHL)
  17. VGK – Ville Heinola – LHD – Luuko (FIN)
  18. DAL – Raphael Lavoie – C – Halifax (QMJHL)
  19. OTT (CBJ) – Thomas Harley – LHD – Mississauga (OHL)
  20. WPG – Moritz Seider – RHD – Mannheim (DEL)
  21. PIT – Bobby Brink – C – Sioux City (USHL)
  22. LAK (TOR) – Ryan Suzuki – C – Barrie (OHL)
  23. NYI – Connor McMichael – C – London (OHL)
  24. NAS – Phil Tomasino – C – Niagara (OHL)
  25. WAS – Pavel Dorofeyev – LW – Magnitigorsk (RUS)
  26. CGY – Spencer Knight – G – USNTDP (USHL/NCAA)
  27. TB – Lassi Thomson – RHD – Kelowna (WHL)
  28. CAR – Jakob Pelletier – LW – Moncton (QMJHL)
  29. ANA (SJ) – Simon Holmstrom – RW – HV71 (SWE)
  30. BOS – Alex Vlasic – LHD – USNTDP (USHL/NCAA)
  31. BUF (STL) – Tobias Bjornfot – LHD – Djurgarden (SWE)

*I think there’s a high possibility that Edmonton and Vancouver swap picks. Perhaps in the oft-mentioned Lucic for Eriksson trade they’ll swap first rounders.

Rumor has it the Canucks are working feverishly to move up in the draft to pick Philip Broberg, but the problem is, they haven’t got a lot to work with. Chris Tanev might be their only real asset to trade and with his injury history, I don’t even know if he’s even considered a real asset now.

I hope the Oilers go with another forward in the 2nd round.

  • John Beecher – C – USNDTP (USHL/NCAA): Might be the fastest power forward in the draft.
  • Samuel Poulin – RW – Sherbrooke (QMJHL): Solidly built, hard-working winger whose dad was an NHLer. Strong shooter with good hockey IQ.
  • Egor Afaneseyev – LW – Muskegon (USHL): BIG guy (6’4″ 200lbs) who scored 27 goals and 62 pts in the USHL.
  • Albin Grewe – RW – Djurgarden (SWE): Highly skilled pest who’s been compared to Brad Marchand.
  • Brayden Tracey – LW – Moose Jaw (WHL): Big time scorer in the WHL who can skate, has an excellent work ethic, and fears nobody.

That is a lot of wingers, if you’re more for the Oilers picking up a center in the 2nd round, I think that Brett Leason might tickle Bob Green’s fancy, the speedy Jamieson Rees should be available, the pint-size Karl Henriksson should definitely be there, and Ilya Nikolaev, a thick two-way forward as well.

Should you fancy a defender in the 2nd, there’ll be a plethora of those, no doubt. Flint’s Vladislav Kolyachonok, Matthew Robertson, a great all-around defender from the Edmonton Oil Kings MIGHT be there, smooth-skating Ryan Johnson from Sioux Falls could be available, and the massive hard-shooting Antti Tuomisto from Assat in Finland I reckon will be around then too.

Unless Spencer Knight somehow falls to 38th, I wouldn’t touch a goalie until the 3rd round or later.

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

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Edmonton Oilers Rumors: New Questions Arise in Puljujarvi Mess and How the NHL is Helping the Oilers Win Another Draft Lottery

Yesterday, as a result of probably the dirtiest hit of the season, the NHL decided that it had had enough of Connor McDavid’s tough guy act and decided to sit him down for two games. And during what Oilers CEO Bob Nicholson described as a “critical” point in Edmonton’s season no less.

Look, Connor caught Leddy high. No denying that. Did he deserve a suspension? Not. One. Bit. I don’t think McDavid is happy at all and the fact that the Oilers CEO prepared a statement for this is pretty telling with regards to how the organization feels about the suspension.

That said, the timing probably couldn’t be better for 97 as an individual. Meaning, he was just coming off of a sickness and you could tell he wasn’t 100% vs the Islanders. A couple games off to recharge will probably be a good thing for him.

Now, if I were him and I was legitimately pissed off, maybe I’d take an extra game off after the suspension was up. Maybe the one where the Oilers play the Maple Leafs on national television. I mean, how many times have we seen McDavid get molested in the corners or slashed driving past a defender and nothing get called because “he’s too fast”?

If the NHL is making a statement here, that it’s not biased or there’s no favoritism here, then I hope that they instruct their refs to call every infraction against these stars too. Not just McDavid either. The league HAS to do a much better job of protecting its money-makers.

The NHL has done NOTHING to help its stars and guess what this might end up doing? It might end up gifting Jack Hughes or Kappo Kakko to the Oilers this summer…

Thank you, NHL!

NEW QUESTIONS ARISE IN THE PULJUJARVI DEBACLE

As I was listening to Jason Gregor’s show, I heard him say something very interesting,

The agent coming out last Friday to say maybe he should get traded when he knew at that time his was injured is the most ridiculous unprofessional thing he could do. All he did is throw gasoline on it. You couldn’t have traded him, he was injured. (source)

The agent knew about the injury?!! What the fack?! If that’s the case then Jesse should indeed get rid of this guy because he’s screwing everything up.

But then there was this quote from Keith Gretzky’s media avail yesterday morning,

Q: Do you think that had a bearing on how he was playing?

A: I think it was there a little bit for a while and it hasn’t improved. It’s gotten a little bit worse. They’ve tried different things and now this is the best route.

BOTH PARTIES HAVE KNOWN ABOUT THIS INJURY FOR SOME TIME NOW! Is what I’m lead to believe here…

Egg on my face… I was wrong. We move on.

But then there’s this issue of trust. I think most people were coming to the conclusion that perhaps Jesse’s knee had been hurt. After he was drafted he had surgery on his knee, therefore that is a logical conclusion to come to, right? Yesterday, John Shannon came out and told the world that the injury might not be a knee one.

Well, how in the hell would John Shannon be privy to that if someone close to Bob Nicholson (if not Nicholson himself) wasn’t leaking the information?

Now we’re on to boiling down the motivations of the agent in going public about moving on and the team in leaking out the information to Rishaug.

It’s very messy right now and for what? We’ve got the team talking through John Shannon and the agent talking through Mark Spector. To me, it doesn’t sound like anybody is looking for a peaceful resolve regardless of what I’ve been told privately.

One theory from the agent’s perspective might be that if Jesse goes on IR from season-ending surgery, he can’t go to the AHL. The AHL assignment seems to be a constant factor here.

Now I’m not 100% certain on OP’s tweet here but I trust his word. He’s a man of high character.

It’s a clever play on Markus Lehto’s part if it is true. He’d have to clear waivers next season in order to be sent down. No doubt he’d probably get claimed and in a roundabout way, has more or less forced a trade.

Another theory might be that both parties had agreed on a trade and wanted to get things done as quickly as possible in order to be able to make said deal at the draft (Thanks Mari!). Which makes a ton of sense given that’s probably when he’d have been traded anyhow.

The one problem I have with that scenario is, how are the Oilers going to get even close to what they’re asking for from other teams in return for Puljujarvi? Also, when is he supposed to raise his value?

The most prominent result of all of this is the one I posted yesterday where Jesse gets moved with Milan Lucic to a team like Ottawa who needs to hit the cap floor next year.

But, another possibility that is creeping into the public forum is the KHL.

Bob Stauffer mentioned a Finnish team playing in the KHL where “Jesse could make a million dollars tax-free.” That club happens to be Jokerit and if I’m not mistaken, is managed by former Oiler great Jari Kurri. Their coach is Lauri Marjamaki, who you might remember as the guy who dressed Puljujarvi at the World Championships a couple of years ago but kept him at the end of the bench. I’m not sure about that dynamic. Marjamaki seems to be well regarded, so you never know.

Maybe a season overseas would do a world of good. Jesse is only 20-years-old right now and there’s plenty of time to right the ship here. What better way to keep him in the family than to have him playing for Kurri eh?

I think the bottom line during all of this is that the team thinks their getting screwed by the agent, how else would the likes of Ryan Rishaug, John Shannon, Bob Stauffer, and Jason Gregor be getting their info? But also, the agent doesn’t trust the team one bit due to said leakage.

Just an aside, on Oilers Now, during the segment with Elliotte Friedman, did anybody else hear Bob say on his show yesterday that he had dinner with John Shannon the other night?…

I learn some new detail every day on this and I’m willing to bet I’ll learn something new today as well. You’ll have to wait until my next post to read what that is.

Big game tonight vs. Anaheim. Gotta get these two points in regulation if that 1% chance of the playoffs is to grow much and it’s going to be hard without the services of that goon Connor McDavid.

A new season means a new design! Click the image above to get the new Pulju shirt!
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Edmonton Oilers: Puljujarvi’s Agent Has Been Through This Before

Right now Jesse Puljujarvi is at home nursing a lower-body injury that not even he knows what it is or how he got it. The Edmonton Oilers simply told him he’s unable to play. Meanwhile, his agent, Markus Lehto, is making the rounds and getting in touch with other clients and GMs.

I don’t think a lot of fans know about this agent. What is he all about?

This article here from 2014 dives into Lehto’s past. It also discloses what kind of person he is and how he helps the players that he represents. Two quotes jump out at me that I feel are important.

“I think one part of the agent’s job is to be able to educate the client and the player about pro hockey,” Lehto said. “For example with [19-year-old] Teuvo, it’s pretty clear moving from the European culture to North America it takes time to get used to it. We are helping with that. He needs to understand what kind of hockey the NHL is. Coaches help with this, but the smaller details I can work with Teuvo to prepare for it physically and mentally.

“I know Teuvo is ready to play in the NHL. But is he going to play in 82 games with the Blackhawks, in the playoffs, is he going to get that spot with tough players to pass in the hierarchy? That remains to be seen. He needs to understand that, ‘Hey I’m going to fight for that spot, and I’m going to take it. If I don’t get it right way, yes, it means I’m going to be in the American League and I’m going to be the best player I can be, and I’ll get the NHL spot in November, December or January. That’s where the support comes in.”

I can only imagine how many times Lehto has had to tell young Jesse to relax and keep his nose to the grindstone with Hitchcock behind the bench…

This situation between Puljujarvi and the Oilers is one that is familiar to Lehto. He’s been in this position before with one of his clients.

TEUVO TERAVAINEN

Teuvo Teravainen wasn’t his usual cheerful self as he met with the media after the Rockford IceHogs’ game Sunday.

The 20-year-old Finn knew the questions before they were asked. As the Chicago Blackhawks‘ top prospect, he has become accustomed to queries about his development and his path to the NHL. He often has been more than happy to provide those answers.

But lately, it has been different for Teravainen. He expected to be in the NHL by now. Even when he was assigned to the AHL out of Blackhawks training camp, the center was optimistic his time in Rockford would be short. It hasn’t been. (source)

Back in 2014, Teravainen was upset that the Chicago Blackhawks still had him playing in the AHL, a league that didn’t quite adhere to the skilled puck-possession style of play that he was accustomed to. But the Blackhawks were preaching patience with him. They didn’t want him to change his game, just adapt to the way the game was played at that level.

“Teuvo is coming over [from Finland]. He’s 20 years old. This is a foreign country for him. He’s left a lot behind, his family. He’s learning the game on a smaller ice surface where things develop and happen a lot quicker…” – Mark Bernard, the Blackhawks’ hockey-administration director and minor league affiliations general manager (source)

This is how it should’ve been with Jesse but the Oilers shoved him right into the line up from day 1 and we’re left with similar problems that could’ve been alleviated had they brought him along properly.

This next quote from the agent (Lehto) is very interesting and that’s why I think this whole “Puljujarvi wants to be traded” schtick is a bunch of BS. Either someone in the organization wants Jesse gone or wants to undermine Gretzky and/or Nicholson and Pulju is the collateral damage.

“It’s about being mentally tough and seeing the big picture,” Lehto said. “No just floating around and going through the emotions and waiting for that day. ‘When is someone coming to pick me up?’ It’s not about that. It’s about playing hockey. It’s not NHL hockey, but you adjust.” (source)

The agent knows how the game works in North America for Europeans. He knows what the old hockey men want/expect and he passes that knowledge on to his young clients.

I think that this whole article, “Top Hawks prospect Teravainen dealing with frustration“, is a really good look at how Lehto handled a previously aggravated client.

For Teravainen, he had 12 goals and 22 assists in his first full year for Chicago before getting packaged along with the Milan Lucic of the time, Brian Bickell, in a cost-cutting trade to Carolina for two draft picks.

But after jerking him up and down the lineup in the 2015-16 regular season (and a playoff performance that admittedly wasn’t great in a 7-game series loss to the St. Louis Blues), Bowman elected to use Teravainen as the bait to get the Bryan Bickell contract off the books. (source)

That quote comes from a particularly interesting post from A Blackhawks blog called Second City Hockey. A bit of a “look back at what was and how it turned out to be” kind of post. Important if you’re one of those fans who has already made up their mind on Puljujarvi.

One difference I’d point out is that Chicago was actually good and had depth. They had the rope to do this kind of thing. The Oilers don’t have depth nor are they good… Yet.

I could see something akin to the Teravainen scenario going down for Puljujarvi in Edmonton. Maybe the Oilers send him to Bakersfield for the remainder of the season, although I don’t see the point if they’re going to be trading off the only wingers that score goals for them, and then they extend him this summer only to deal him next trade deadline.

What the Oilers should be hoping for is a Pulju breakout season so when they go to Ray Shero and tell them they’d like to trade for Taylor Hall, they have a tangible asset that they could dangle. Even if Shero said no, it wouldn’t matter because they’d still have a young winger on a good contract gaining value and producing for the club.

You’ll hear a lot about how “the player” doesn’t want to go to the AHL from the likes of Friedman and McKenzie and it’s just garble. No young player who’s spent as much time in the NHL as Pulju has wants to go to the AHL. So let’s not try and paint this young man into the same picture as Nail Yakupov. Got that Matheson?

KAPANEN, KASPERI

To a lesser extent, another client of Lehto’s, Kasperi Kapanen (TOR), has had his dark moments since he came to North America. It’s my understanding that he was very spoiled, described to me as a prima donna when he came over and needed to be set in his place by his player rep.

But he’s another young Finnish player that came over, had issues, was traded, It’s required some drastic actions to be taken in order for the player to get his head out of his ass in order to find his game, but in the end, things have seemingly worked out.

WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN?

Some who are reading this might take what I’ve presented here as some sort of indictment on Markus Lehto. That’s the farthest thing from the truth. All I’m attempting to do here is present Puljujarvi’s camp in a light that we might not be getting from the boys with the press passes.

Jesse’s agent is the type to get things done quietly. He’s not an antagonist. Why would he be here? Koskinen’s deal just put that much more cash in his pocket. The only way that we are where we are is if the team (or someone in the organization) had an agenda and is trying to accomplish their goal by leaking bad info to the media. So the agent’s hand has been forced.

Remember when Frank Seravalli said the relationship between Milan Lucic and the Oilers had become untenable without anything but his word? Do you reckon Gerry Johansson (Lucic’s agent) got in touch with Frankie boy directly or indirectly and told him that the shit’s hit the fan in Edmonton, he has to get moved? Of course not! Bob Stauffer, who’s a friend of Johannson, has told us what kind of agent he is. He’s said in so many words that he wouldn’t put up with that kind of behavior from a client and to buck up and play better if you want out.

I don’t think this stuff about Jesse is true but that might not matter now.

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Edmonton Oilers: Puljujarvi’s Agent Requests Oilers Trade Him

I knew there was a reason that there was so much talk about Jesse Puljujarvi before the Oilers loss to the Hurricanes tonight. His Agent, Markus Lehto, is making his rounds with the media letting them know that he’d like the Oilers to trade his client.

I got this message from my source which came seconds after a tweet from Mark Spector,

Markus Lehto, JPs agent, has quietly requested a trade from Edm on behalf of Jesse Puljujärvi. Happened shortly after tonight’s game.

https://twitter.com/SportsnetSpec/status/1096626282845089798

His agent had actually spoken to the Finnish media about Puljujarvi’s status on the team earlier in the day as well. I don’t have the interview but I had some followers tweet at me saying this,

So as I said in that tweet, anything can happen and it more or less has. The Oilers don’t have to move Jesse. They could move him to the minors and let him play out the year on a winning team and then re-visit in the summer when he’d probably have more cache on the market. I don’t think that trading him now would garner them a great return but you never know.

This just adds to the drama of the trade deadline this year, right? One thing I do know is the Oilers weren’t intending on trading him or they’d have been playing him more minutes. Now, I wonder if we’ll see him up with RNH or Connor to try and pump up his value in an attempt to appease the agent.

I think this is f*cked that it’s gotten to this point and that they should try and repair the relationship by punting Hitchcock to the stands for the rest of the year and giving Pulju the remainder of the season to show everyone what he’s got. The season is all but lost for the Oilers but it doesn’t have to be for Jesse. If he plays well, the value goes, if he doesn’t, he’s an RFA this summer and they move him at the draft.

My heart breaks.

So we stay tuned…

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