to me the criticism that Edmonton mishandled Puljujarvi only stands up because of the result.
But I disagree. What could the Oilers have done differently? I've heard some argument that he should have been sent down longer. How so?
His main issue after being drafted was that he was not adapted to the North American game, both with playing style and with language, so staying in Europe was far from obvious as a real option, and 10/10 experts would have said it was obviously the wrong answer.
So, he got a taste of the NHL, getting scratched every other game for developmental reasons (still the same playing pace as the NHL) and was sent to the AHL eventually. Along the way he was given an extreme amount of one-on-one coaching and help, including attempting to hold his hand through learning English. And yes there were high profile people hired with a #1 focus being JP's development. These were not the actions of an org who jumped the gun or rushed the player in any way whatsoever. The only time you could argue that was when Hitchcock came in and asked that JP get called up, which was against the plan they had for him, but the new coach wanted to try, and even he said he wanted to spend a ton of one-on-one time with him to try to reach him, not that he wanted another winger. Again, even that decision to rush him was for developmental reasons, and the issues with JP were apparent well before then anyway.
Along the way, he's been given AHL time along with NHL time, and btw this was a very high draft pick who felt strongly he should be in the NHL full time. This is the exact path that countless top 3 picks have succeeded with.
At some point you have to accept the simplest explanation. Sometimes players who excel in lower leagues just don't fit in the NHL. At some point you have to put it on the player, and if JP thinks going to a different org will help, he's so wrong.