Might be for the best as I've said though, if we could get him signed to a 3-4 year deal in the 3-4 mill range after next season ... we can't afford another guy asking for 6+ if he really breaks out next year.
See, theres a tradeoff
1) Have him be average, a 20-20 guy, likely means our team stays average but we pay him less
2) Have him emerge as a star, pay him big bucks, likely means he improves our offense and thus our team in a huge way. This means we pay him a lot more.
I have no clue why so many want option 1 with Pulju. The goal is for him to be star game-driving winger, if that means we have to pay him more so be it. Just means Chia and co have their work cut out for them in the offseason. With contracts like Sekera, Lucic and Russel dump one and vwala we have a solution.
This would be like Caps fans with OV, Backstrom and Oshie saying they hope Kuznetsov is average so they can pay him less.
Instead he broke out and after a few seasons was a major reason to their success and a key player. Now when the cap crunch came they traded a sweetner asset in Grubauer to rid themselves of a bad contract.
For arguments sake, what would you rather prefer?
1) 40 point verage Pulju +expensive bottom pairing Russel + sweetner like Bear
2) 80 point Pulju + cheap bottom pairing guy
I know which choice I make.