Player Discussion Jesse Puljujarvi 2022-2023 Season (MOD note in OP)

[Bryanbryoil]

I think that he needs to realize that he is a 3RW that excels on the forecheck and defensively and that we should start to give him a regular PK shift. Trade Yamamoto for Soucy and be done with it.

 

[frag2]

I think that he needs to realize that he is a 3RW that excels on the forecheck and defensively and that we should start to give him a regular PK shift. Trade Yamamoto for Soucy and be done with it.

I get the feeling coaches don’t trust him enough to let him PK. You’d think all them fancy advance stats painting him that positively defensively, he’d get a run at it.

 

[SnipeShowJB11]

I think that he needs to realize that he is a 3RW that excels on the forecheck and defensively and that we should start to give him a regular PK shift. Trade Yamamoto for Soucy and be done with it.

That is fine and dandy, unless Jp and his agent have a different price tag in their minds about "what he is". I think they still think he is a 4+M player. Maybe 5+. His history shows he is difficult to deal with.

That is why I jettison him. Guy looks like casper the ghost anyways. Hey, if Yammo gets your more, trade him too.

 

[Furious Nerd]

Here's a link to a page with Pulju's fancy stats: MoneyPuck.com -Shot Maps

Despite getting favourable zone starts and elite linemates the team only has an expected goals for number of 42.3% when Pulju is on the ice.

Last year it was 64.7%, but in 2018 it was also 42.9%.

These stats have little to no predictive value for measuring individual performance. Pulju's numbers are all over the place year over year, but he's the same player.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

I'm seeing the physical elements from the player and he's going to the paint and so far this season has been geting scoring chances and creating short passes to send others home. Kane and Hyman have both been sent free on goal by Pulju on nice plays.

He has been around the play.

Why would we dump the player when he's likely value at 3M. Holland stitched himself in a cap corner but overpaying modest contributions with other players through the lineup. Even reupping Kulak, typically a 5-6 D this much is far more than the player was paid before. Kulak tried to lobby that he was going back to Montreal. He even said he wanted to be back in Montreal. Theres been hardly any mention on the board about that. Nor is there any clear indication Montreal even wanted the player they used to bench back. We're paying Kulak about 1M too much just because he said he was looking elsewhere.

I have to respectfully disagree about your assessment on PJ.

Sure he has made the odd nice play but that is to be expected, and far below expectations given the line mates he has had, his salary, size, pedigree and potential.

He is right now a 3rd and possibly a 4th line player on a team deeper on RW, with serious confidence issues that a raw rookie would have, not a 6 year NHL veteran.

I would love to see him succeed and see the first half of last year, but see the same PJ that struggled throughout the last half of the year and entire playoffs.

As for Kulak he has nothing to do with PJ and we probably disagree on his relative use and salary, and as this is a PJ thread will leave it at that.

I get the feeling coaches don’t trust him enough to let him PK. You’d think all them fancy advance stats painting him that positively defensively, he’d get a run at it.

Playing defensive hockey and being effective on the PK are two distinctly different things. I am not sure PJ has the quick hand skills needed on the PK.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I have to respectfully disagree about your assessment on PJ.

Sure he has made the odd nice play but that is to be expected, and far below expectations given the line mates he has had, his salary, size, pedigree and potential.

He is right now a 3rd and possibly a 4th line player on a team deeper on RW, with serious confidence issues that a raw rookie would have, not a 6 year NHL veteran.

I would love to see him succeed and see the first half of last year, but see the same PJ that struggled throughout the last half of the year and entire playoffs.

As for Kulak he has nothing to do with PJ and we probably disagree on his relative use and salary, and as this is a PJ thread will leave it at that.



Playing defensive hockey and being effective on the PK are two distinctly different things. I am not sure PJ has the quick hand skills needed on the PK.

If Pulju doesn't get on track offensively then the one year sounds like the right window. Last year he had good low GA and also was supporting offense if not getting on the board himself. This year that hasn't happened yet but he has been making plays.

he plays some big boy game on a team that is decidedly soft most nights. At his best he can be a cannon ball. Maybe he figures it out here. Maybe he never does. But if he supports offense and defense I'm OK with him being a third on a topsix line. I believe very much that top lines can connect with only duos. They can ignite. The third is there as support player. Mostly Pulju does that. We'll see what happens this season.

I'm not convinced Pulju doesn't have the hand skills and reach sufficient to pk. I would like to see him more on it. In EV play he gets to plenty of pucks. He has exceptional wingspan and reach and decent anticipation on own zone. Maybe my bias but I prefer size on pk, and really I prefer size in many aspects.

 

[McTonyBrar]

I think that he needs to realize that he is a 3RW that excels on the forecheck and defensively and that we should start to give him a regular PK shift. Trade Yamamoto for Soucy and be done with it.

No thanks.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

That is fine and dandy, unless Jp and his agent have a different price tag in their minds about "what he is". I think they still think he is a 4+M player. Maybe 5+. His history shows he is difficult to deal with.

That is why I jettison him. Guy looks like casper the ghost anyways. Hey, if Yammo gets your more, trade him too.

That's the problem, unless his camp realizes that he probably isn't a top 6 guy at this point in his career then he may have to de dealt because he won't sign another deal with us.

I get the feeling coaches don’t trust him enough to let him PK. You’d think all them fancy advance stats painting him that positively defensively, he’d get a run at it.

Maybe, personally I think that his reach, size and stick would be awesome for PKing.

 

[Spawn]

Time for all the ~$3M players to separate themselves from the guys making ~$1M. Foegele, Yamamoto and Puljujarvi are making $9M combined to bring nothing more than an average 4th liner right now.

 

[McDNicks17]

Here's a link to a page with Pulju's fancy stats: MoneyPuck.com -Shot Maps

Despite getting favourable zone starts and elite linemates the team only has an expected goals for number of 42.3% when Pulju is on the ice.

Last year it was 64.7%, but in 2018 it was also 42.9%.

These stats have little to no predictive value for measuring individual performance. Pulju's numbers are all over the place year over year, but he's the same player.

You're talking about a four game sample size where one xGF is a 10%+ swing.

Pretty close to 20% of his total xGA was in one shift with Niemelainen haha.

 

[harpoon]

We're paying Kulak about 1M too much just because he said he was looking elsewhere.

And so far he hasn’t been value for that money either. Not by a long shot. Hopefully he turns it around. We need better performances from that guy for sure.

 

[Drivesaitl]

And so far he hasn’t been value for that money either. Not by a long shot. Hopefully he turns it around. We need better performances from that guy for sure.

I'm amazed how much were paying for a 5-6 D that was waiver wire material just a few seasons ago and that was benched and scratched often in Montreal and really had nothing at all to do with their run. But they package it up here as if he's some kind of quasi shutdown top 4 player. he ain't any of it.

I get people want to be optimistic but In Kulaks case theres been a lot of runway and this is pretty much what you get. He's 29 in a couple months. The Kulak wants to go back to montreal stuff was offputting considering what the org here were giving him. Maybe he just really likes Montreal. I dunno. Seemed like just a contractual bargaining point to me, which was made more strange because Montreal wasn't interested.

 

[harpoon]

I get people want to be optimistic but In Kulaks case theres been a lot of runway and this is pretty much what you get. He's 29 in a couple months

I wouldn’t dispute that. He’s a couple years younger than I would have guessed though. So maybe there’s some improvements that could still happen? I thought he was better than expected last season (aside from the odd game here and there) and pretty solid in the playoffs. But he’s been less than expected so far this season. He’s made a couple of decisions with the puck that have had me lol from the comfort of my sofa. But to be fair to him the entire d-corps has been kind of hit and miss through the first four games. I’m expecting Manson to do his job. He’s not working with the best material, but individuals can be better played to their strengths when setting the pairings imo.

Apologies for the Kulak diversion in the Puljujarvi thread. I’ll stop now.

 

[Perfect_Drug]

Time for all the ~$3M players to separate themselves from the guys making ~$1M. Foegele, Yamamoto and Puljujarvi are making $9M combined to bring nothing more than an average 4th liner right now.

Pedestrian start to the season by all 3.

Not happy with how poor they've collectively been.

 

[booyakasha]

I'm perplexed as to why a player like Puljujarvi has his own thread.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

Pedestrian start to the season by all 3.

Not happy with how poor they've collectively been.

Foegele has kind of been as advertised while Jesse and Yamamoto aren't chipping in offensively. I'd rather a $5 million level forward and a $1 million depth guy than what these guys have been bringing.

 

[Perfect_Drug]

Foegele has kind of been as advertised while Jesse and Yamamoto aren't chipping in offensively. I'd rather a $5 million level forward and a $1 million depth guy than what these guys have been bringing.

Foegele is the guy who sent a suicide pass to Holloway, and now he's injured.

That alone should have had him pressboxed.

 

[belair]

I'm perplexed as to why a player like Puljujarvi has his own thread.

Because we're going to find out where he's going on the next four or five months. There's been a pretty consistent divide between POVs that either believe that this player is something of a defensive wizard and this player being an overly expensive depth option that doesn't fit into our long-term payroll.

I like what we've seen from the Foegele - McLeod - Puljujarvi line early on, but my concern is that their line isn't enough of an offensive zone threat to get the kind of icetime we need a third line to cover consistently.

 

[Trafalgar Sadge Law]

Foegele has kind of been as advertised while Jesse and Yamamoto aren't chipping in offensively. I'd rather a $5 million level forward and a $1 million depth guy than what these guys have been bringing.

Foegele has been the biggest griefer of the 3 by a longshot. At least the other two you're seeing some semblence of improvement (Pool playing more physical/going to the net and still being a puck thief, Yamo playing more behind the net to make himself a more realistic cycle option). Foegele uh... fights after causing his teammates' injury to begin with now?

 

[Garbo Man]

Foegele has been the biggest griefer of the 3 by a longshot. At least the other two you're seeing some semblence of improvement (Pool playing more physical/going to the net and still being a puck thief, Yamo playing more behind the net to make himself a more realistic cycle option). Foegele uh... fights after causing his teammates' injury to begin with now?

Yamo has been too busy laying on the ice 90% of each game after being lightly bumped by anyone on the other team

 

[booyakasha]

Because we're going to find out where he's going on the next four or five months. There's been a pretty consistent divide between POVs that either believe that this player is something of a defensive wizard and this player being an overly expensive depth option that doesn't fit into our long-term payroll.

I like what we've seen from the Foegele - McLeod - Puljujarvi line early on, but my concern is that their line isn't enough of an offensive zone threat to get the kind of icetime we need a third line to cover consistently.

back to Europe.
kid can't play in the NHL.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

back to Europe.
kid can't play in the NHL.

Looks like 90% of our team doesnt belong in the NHL right now.

Puljujarvj, Yamamoto and Foegele all need to pick it up.

 

[Ritchie Valens]

Archibald scored for the Pens. I didn't hate the guy when he was here like a lot did, but he should never, ever be higher in league scoring than any of your top 6 wingers at this point of the season.

 

[CycloneSweep]

Archibald scored for the Pens. I didn't hate the guy when he was here like a lot did, but he should never, ever be higher in league scoring than any of your top 6 wingers at this point of the season.

It’s early in the season lots of guys have more goals than guys who should be better.

By this logic, wingers who are also garbage for letting Archibald have a goal and they don’t
Kucherov, Huberdeau, Eberle, Ehlers, Wheeler, Meier, Raymond, P.Kane, Arvidsson, Farabee.

 

[Ritchie Valens]

It’s early in the season lots of guys have more goals than guys who should be better.

By this logic, wingers who are also garbage for letting Archibald have a goal and they don’t
Kucherov, Huberdeau, Eberle, Ehlers, Wheeler, Meier, Raymond, P.Kane, Arvidsson, Farabee.

Those guys are everyday players, Archibald played spot duty. I can't speak for his play time this year with the Pens but 5 games in, those guys you mentioned are all usually on the scoresheet by now and none of them have Draisaitl or McDavid as their centers