Player Discussion Jesse Puljujärvi 4th Overall 2016 Draft. Part V: Called Up 11/10/17

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sooni

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Oct 23, 2014
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I would give him change to play with Connor&Draisaitl if they keep them together and first pp minutes. Maybe first ten games to see what he can do. If he is out of the form. Just send him back to Finland for one more year. There is no freaking idea to keep him in bench or play him less than 13min. He needs to step up or come back to learn. There is zero excuses because now he had fully healthy Summer and he had time to practice like needed. He needs to produce 60+ point season or close to that.
 

ChicagoBullsFan

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Jun 6, 2015
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I would give him change to play with Connor&Draisaitl if they keep them together and first pp minutes. Maybe first ten games to see what he can do. If he is out of the form. Just send him back to Finland for one more year. There is no freaking idea to keep him in bench or play him less than 13min. He needs to step up or come back to learn. There is zero excuses because now he had fully healthy Summer and he had time to practice like needed. He needs to produce 60+ point season or close to that.

So you are expecting 60 point regular season of Jesse Puljujärvi are you sure he can do that?.
60 points is a pretty tough claim for 19 yrs old kid and anyway it would be good to put a little realism these expectations.
 

shoop

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Jul 6, 2008
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I would give him change to play with Connor&Draisaitl if they keep them together and first pp minutes. Maybe first ten games to see what he can do. If he is out of the form. Just send him back to Finland for one more year. There is no freaking idea to keep him in bench or play him less than 13min. He needs to step up or come back to learn. There is zero excuses because now he had fully healthy Summer and he had time to practice like needed. He needs to produce 60+ point season or close to that.

He won't be playing with McDavid and Draisaitl. McDavid and Draisaitl probably won't be playing together. If they are Draisaitl will be McDavid's right winger. Ideally Puljujarvi is ready to play with Draisaitl as his centre.

He absolutely is not going back to Finland. Better to have him start the season in the bottom six than out of the NHL, if he isn't ready for top six work.

On the off chance he isn't ready for the NHL he is best to be in the AHL. If he isn't a first call up from the AHL on the right wing that's a concern. Another season in Bakersfield helps his development on and off the ice far more than returning to Finland.
 

Risingwind

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Feb 26, 2015
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If Pulju can become a 60 point winger then the Oilers take another step in being a strong cup candidate. RW remains a bit of a mess overall, it would be great for the team to get some scoring wingers on the right side so they don't have to rely on Drai when they want someone to play there and get results. It opens up all sorts of possibilities.

Seeing how difficult the adjustment period has been so far for Pulju, I'm kind of expecting that his first playoffs will consist of confusion and adjustment as well. Hopefully Juice will be able to smooth out this transition.
 

smokersarejokers

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He won't be playing with McDavid and Draisaitl. McDavid and Draisaitl probably won't be playing together. If they are Draisaitl will be McDavid's right winger. Ideally Puljujarvi is ready to play with Draisaitl as his centre.

He absolutely is not going back to Finland. Better to have him start the season in the bottom six than out of the NHL, if he isn't ready for top six work.

On the off chance he isn't ready for the NHL he is best to be in the AHL. If he isn't a first call up from the AHL on the right wing that's a concern. Another season in Bakersfield helps his development on and off the ice far more than returning to Finland.

I get what you're saying. He should go back to Bakersfield if he isn't quite ready.

However, it would really suck to lose out on the huge mentorship opportunity with Jussi Jokinen in Edmonton on a 1 year contract. Being around Jussi for a full season would be massive for a young Finnish player.
 

BB88

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Jan 19, 2015
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I get what you're saying. He should go back to Bakersfield if he isn't quite ready.

However, it would really suck to lose out on the huge mentorship opportunity with Jussi Jokinen in Edmonton on a 1 year contract. Being around Jussi for a full season would be massive for a young Finnish player.

I think that's why
1) There's 0 chance he goes to Finland next year, 2) starts the season in the NHL, Jokinen could do wonders for him.
Jokinen won't mentor him if Pulju is in the AHL.

Jokinen- RNH/Strome- Pulju 3rd line should create matchup problems and be a good place for Pulju to get his game going. He had some dominant moments in the AHL, which are getting forgotten here way too often.
 

Risingwind

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Feb 26, 2015
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Jokinen won't mentor him if Pulju is in the AHL.

Jokinen- RNH/Strome- Pulju 3rd line should create matchup problems and be a good place for Pulju to get his game going. He had some dominant moments in the AHL, which are getting forgotten here way too often.

I think he should be rolled out on the 3rd line as well. Slepy has seniority over him so put Slepy on the 2nd line and Pulju on the 3rd to start the season out. Then have Jokinen explain to him that he needs to start playing for realzies now, no more spinning around aimlessly. Pulju should wrestle a top6 spot for himself over the first half of the season and we'll see where we're standing then.

Alternatively it's going to be RW shopping at the deadline. Might be a good idea to load up on a vet RW and D anyway.
 

teravaineSAROS

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Jul 29, 2015
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Jesse's old coach gave some critique about his current form, saying that Jesse has put on weight and subsequently slowed down and seemed out of breath at the end of shifts. That tells me that there could be a clash of philosophies between a lighter, mobile forward vs heavier and slower one. Playing in Finland would have involved only a fraction of the travel time compared to NA leagues and much less games played, which enables more focus on strength training and such. On the other hand maybe the Oilers didn't believe he'd be any closer to contributing in NHL and wanted him over because of that. He would have gotten a pretty sweet deal on FEL standards and probably only made more this season because he was dressed for so many NHL games. It might have been just a money thing.

He put on lazy weight or muscle weight!? I hope you're saying it's healthy mass making him gas out faster
 

Ippenator

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Jan 6, 2016
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He put on lazy weight or muscle weight!? I hope you're saying it's healthy mass making him gas out faster

I think he was in fact overcontitioned and that was why he got so easily exhausted. The kid is a an absolute training nut, so I really doubt he would get any lazy weight. He was complaining in some interviews during the season that he might be in fact training too hard. He would seriously need continuous guidance by the hand with his training. The kid needs to understand that especially in hockey it is so much more important to train with quality than with quantity.
 

vulcan

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Jan 2, 2017
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20G 30A 50P would be a hell of a season for him after the year he had last year. I wonder if we're being biased a bit by Draisaitl having such a remarkable improvement from his rookie year to his second year. I'm not sure such a leap forward in development like that happens all that often.

Just for comparisons sake, Mikko Rantanen in his draft+1 year absolutely destroyed the AHL. 60 points in 52 games. A much more impressive season than Pulju's decent but unspectacular 28 in 39. Rantanen spent the bulk of his time this past season on the first line with MacKinnon and only managed 39 points.

Anything is possible of course, but I can't help but think that Pulju is both unlikely to get the type of opportunity Rantanen got this year and so far hasn't demonstrated to be a better prospect than Rantanen was coming out of his draft+1 year.

Rantanen's 39 points to Mackinnon's 53 is a proper ratio for those two. Rantanen can probably be a 50 point player if MacKinnon can have a breakout 70 pt year.
 

kelsier

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Aug 17, 2013
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Last season was really pretty bad for Pulju, but it should still be compared to Rantanen's final FEL season, because with those seasons their age was the same and they both had the same amount of seasons in a pro league. Pulju scored 28 points in 39 games in the AHL while Rantanen incredibly scored also 28 points, but in 56 games in FEL. Although I do think that it is a bit more difficult to score points in FEL, I would still say that Pulju's AHL season was a bit more impressive than Rantanen's last FEL season.

The worrying thing for Pulju last season was though that his skating was clearly worse than his previous season. I am seriously suspecting that he gained too much weight in a short time and also that he has been over training physically and became probably exhausted during the season. Unless he fixes his training, he might really be in danger of getting surpassed by Rantanen, as he has been already for several years been training with one of the best physical trainers in hockey. This trainer is Hannu Rautala, who also has trained Ristolainen with great results and started last season training Laine with good results.

I agree that it's tad bit more difficult to score points in FEL than in the AHL. A misconception amongst many hockey fans out there that don't follow European leagues. Age is very relevant when comparing players' performances, but there must be some age difference here in advantage of Puljujärvi when comparing Mikko's D season to Jesse's D+1 (I just cba'ed to do the math). 28 points in 39 games for sure sounds better than 28 in 56 games. However, there's a vast difference here if you take a closer look. Rantanen was already one of the better wingers of his team, yet he either didn't get to play power play or was used in the second PP unit (can't remember which), while I'm sure Puljujärvi was basically handed all the minutes he could take to gain more experience (someone who watches AHL can correct me if wrong). Rantanen was pretty badly misutilized by his coach in TPS and ultimately lead him dropping down to 10th overall (feel he had potential for more).

I would be extremely pleased to see Jesse becoming the better player as that would be great for the country. He also has better natural physical tools no doubt (not a knock on Rantanen by any means as he's a beast on his own right). Still at the moment Puljujärvi has fallen behind on the trajectory expected of him. Hopefully the Oilers know how to get him on the right track and perhaps even follow the footsteps of Draisaitl.

Rautala is as you said, probably the best physical coach in the country. Yet Jesse's problems aren't related to physical aspects of the game. He needs to get the puzzle together inside his skull more like.
 

Risingwind

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Feb 26, 2015
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He put on lazy weight or muscle weight!? I hope you're saying it's healthy mass making him gas out faster

I understood it as muscle weight, but of course without extensively using illegal substances the body will always store additional water and fat tissue together with new muscle tissue. If you think of the physical ability of an individual as having multiple dimensions then the strength-endurance balance could be one axis along that. He would have then moved some distance towards the strength end, with all the entailed implications such as the one his old coach mentioned.
 

kelsier

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Aug 17, 2013
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My only hope is that he doesn't bust honestly. He just turned 19 so it's not too late.

One "underwhelming" season doesn't equal to bust. For all we know we could be tearing it up with McDavid next season. A player rarely is ready for the league at D+1 so lets not pass judgement too early. I remember well when Laine tore his knee, couldn't skate the next season and people were like, doh, wasted talent. Now look at where he is. These are just kids, some take less time and some more. Jesse will adapt and find his game. With these tools it'd be crazy if he didn't.
 

Risingwind

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Feb 26, 2015
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If you look at past drafts it's not so clear cut to say how the 2014 draft class will turn out, for example. So far we have witnessed that Pulju isn't a McDavid-level prospect. I don't see the point in labeling him as a 'bust'.
 

Joey Moss

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Aug 29, 2008
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He's 200 already and looks like he could put on 20 lbs of muscle.

Guy is going to be an absolute monster, we can't get rid of him.
 

McJC

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May 2, 2010
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It's funny because I thought it was his best attribute, but he really needs to work on his skating. I do like his willingness to shoot though
 

BB88

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It's funny because I thought it was his best attribute, but he really needs to work on his skating. I do like his willingness to shoot though

I still put a lot of that on his offseason knee surgery.

He likely added weight& wasn't able to train 100% which lead to what we saw. Now he should be healthy and hopefully is training right& like a crazy person to fix it.
 

GameChanger

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Jun 29, 2016
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It's funny because I thought it was his best attribute, but he really needs to work on his skating. I do like his willingness to shoot though

It's strange as he also had times when he was skating faster than almost anyone. His willingness to shoot can be a great assett, but at times I thought he overdid that a bit. Especially with lesser line mates.

Quite a few have already written Jesse off, but he had just 18 games with at least 10 minutes of ice-time last year. Besides the points he scored he hit the posts 4-5 times and was robbed a point or two, so there's a good chance with more ice time and some PP time the total stats will start to look much better.

He was actually doing fine or even more than fine, but in the last 10 games he scored just one point. In those games they kept giving him non-offensive line mates (e.g. Pouliot and not-so-ready-yet Caggiula) and his ice time started to get very limited. Based on last year I'm pretty sure he'll be doing fine at least if he's given offensive enough line mates. And if not he should be given some offensive freedom himself as there's no use in putting him in 0-0 playing line.
 

Still DRAI

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Jun 15, 2013
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He's 200 already and looks like he could put on 20 lbs of muscle.

Guy is going to be an absolute monster, we can't get rid of him.

Not only that, but look at the size of his head and hands compared to the rest of him. Unless there's some lens angle magic happening, he's still got the whole puppy-dog proportions thing going on that's common in teenagers who are still growing. While this isn't an exact science or anything, I'm guessing that he's one of those dudes who keeps growing slowly into his 20s, I could see him at around 6'5" and 225 by the time he's physically matured.
 

Aerchon

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Jul 20, 2011
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My only hope is that he doesn't bust honestly. He just turned 19 so it's not too late.

4th OA are very hit and miss. As JP goes he really "shouldn't" be a bust. There is no real weakness to his game that can't be improved enough to make him a solid NHLer.

I think its a matter of when not if JP will be a productive NHLer.

No need to rush him either.
 

Zenos

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Oct 4, 2009
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I would give him change to play with Connor&Draisaitl if they keep them together and first pp minutes. Maybe first ten games to see what he can do. If he is out of the form. Just send him back to Finland for one more year. There is no freaking idea to keep him in bench or play him less than 13min. He needs to step up or come back to learn. There is zero excuses because now he had fully healthy Summer and he had time to practice like needed. He needs to produce 60+ point season or close to that.

That would be an absolutely enormous season for him. To put that into perspective, only two oilers players eclipsed 60 points last season. And the next four in line (all of them established top 6 players) weren't really close.

I think 40-50 points would be more realistic. Similar to how many Draisaitl had in his "breakout" sophomore season.
 
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