Jesse Puljujärvi has 4th most goals among Oilers players and has a 40 pt pace

[MardyBum]

North Division

A player can play in the north division and still be improving.

Scaryy

 

[bossram]

As a Canadian division viewer, I think Pulu has been pretty impressive IMO.

People here are railing his production with McDavid, which is fair enough. But he adds a lot of two-way elements (forecheck, cycle game, can keep up with McDavid in transition) that have drastically aided McDavid's shot/chance share numbers. The Oilers (and McDavid) are much better at controlling the play with Pulu on the ice.

He just doesn't quite have the touch or skill to put up piles of points, but he does a lot of the Little Things that help the team.

It's so amazing to me when basically everyone agrees that "points are everything", yet when ranking/evaluating players, the only criteria most people rely on is points.

 

[PumpkinBomb]

Pretty sure Anthony Bitetto could put up 40 points on a line with McDavid

Yup it's all McDavid /s
Pretty sure Anthony Bitetto could get primary assists on these goals:







He doesn't play PP very much, but probably gets 1st PP minutes next year, and as far as the eye test goes, he looks great.

Works hard in the corners and for pucks, back checks hard, and he has a great shot.

 

[MardyBum]

D+6, sorry.

Puljujarvi most likely won't reach a Wheeler type ceiling, but a 50-60 point physical winger who's good in his own end is extremely valuable.

Sure. If he becomes that.

Or he's a great depth player who can fill in on the top line.

Or he's somewhere inbetween.

The important thing is he's shown he's an NHL level player, and will be great for the Oilers moving forward.

 

[Sky04]

D+6, sorry.

Puljujarvi most likely won't reach a Wheeler type ceiling, but a 50-60 point physical winger who's good in his own end is extremely valuable.

Still has room to grow and he's cheap, was just wondering theres a thread made for 40 point player but realized it was George.

 

[Mulletman]

Imagine if Puljujarvi was half decent at finnishing McDavid's feeds. We could be looking at McDavid setting a new career high in single season assists. His record is only 75 assists and he's got 65 assists right now with Puljujarvi fumbling McDavid's set ups left and right game after game...

 

[RattsSSV]

Another HF special of the typical stats analysis without watching the player. Maybe watch him play and see what he brings to the team.

Pulju is the easiest person to cheer for.

 

[Szechwan]

Another HF special of the typical stats analysis without watching the player. Maybe watch him play and see what he brings to the team.

As a Vancouver fan, I think he brings some much needed work ethic along the boards to the Oilers, and can definitely see him finding a niche and being a useful player long term. I always thought he was rushed, its nice to see his decision to go home seems to have righted the ship.

That being said, and this goes for all teams, not just the Oilers- don't make a thread on the mainboards about a "40 pt pace" if you want to be taken seriously.

 

[RattsSSV]

As a Vancouver fan, I think he bring some much needed work ethic along the boards to the Oilers, and can definitely see him finding a niche and being a useful player long term. I always thought he was rushed, its nice to see his decision to go home seems to have righted the ship.

That being said, and this goes for all teams, not the Oilers- don't make a thread on the mainboards about a "40 pt pace" if you want to be taken seriously.

Yeah it's really foolish to do so however to my knowledge OP isn't an Oilers fan.

 

[bucks_oil]

No, the dots were connected, you compared him to guys who didn't score 40 until their draft+4.

Puljujarvi hasn't scored 40 yet. The poster you responded to said 40p in draft+4 is still a bust, which is stupid (although you went back 31 f***ing years as well, and he's in his D+5?) none of that matters, he still hasn't scored 40 points. So the comparison doesn't matter.

He's proven he's a solid NHL player. He's still young and has a lot of room for improvement.

That's an odd interpretation of the exchange, but in any case:

1) The OP said 40 point pace... not 40 points.
2) Rodney Dangerfield said, 40 points in year 4 is still a bust - I disagree with that position and presented my argument including multiple examples. I'm refuting his blanket statement - it is clearly false.
3) You are right, it's D+5,.. year 4 was suggested by Dangerfield, so I went with it. In any case, the majority of those guys listed didn't hit a 40 point pace until D+5 anyway.
4) I used 40 point pace when picking those guys out... so the point still stands
5) I'm not sure why going back to 1990 bothers you. If the point is to identify late-bloomers, you need to go back far enough to observe the players ~full career.
6) The point was not to compare him to those players, it was to refute "<40 points in 4 years = bust"... although I stand by my closing... I do think it is interesting that most of the guys on that list were big, strong, two way guys with good (but not necessarily elite) offense.

In any case, back on topic, the OP clearly made the point that it's not the offense that matters, its that he's showing he can play a rounded game at this level and that it has been a solid season for him that calls into question the bust labels he had leading in.

From your final statement, it seems we agree on that.

 

[DonM]

He sure does look to have improved. 4th in goals on a team notoriously lacking depth isn't super impressive, but it's ahead of where I thought he'd be this year.

 

[Bobby Terrance]

Good for him, hope he becomes the player we thought he'd be.

 

[Wats]

He's an example of development being important and rushing players to NHL just because some parts of their game is ready isn't smart.

 

[CristianoRonaldo]

Good on McDavid.

 

[nbwingsfan]

Obviously an improvement but a ~40pt pace in your D+5 when you're stuck with McDavid isnt what you want from a 4th overall pick. Going to still need a big improvement offensively.

 

[nbwingsfan]

Very happy with his progression this season. His contributions go far beyond goals and points. Teh kid is an excellent forechecker, goes to the dirty areas and gets Connor the puck so that Connor can work his magic.

You can get that kind of player much, much later in the draft though

 

[CupofOil]

Glad he finally found some rhythm in the NHL but...

In the last full season, 40 pts would put him 167th in scoring, tied with Micheal Ferland, Duncan Keith and Alex Kilorn. There’s still a gap between playing well and playing dominant. I hope he can build on it without pressure.

He's doing almost all of his scoring at even strength though. A lot of the guys higher on the scoring list get more PP time I'm sure.

Also, anybody who watches him play regularly can see that he impacts the game a lot outside of scoring. His overall game is quite good and he's one of the most tenacious forecheckers in the league, he creates lots of turnovers in the offensive zone.

 

[OKR]

As a Canadian division viewer, I think Pulu has been pretty impressive IMO.

People here are railing his production with McDavid, which is fair enough. But he adds a lot of two-way elements (forecheck, cycle game, can keep up with McDavid in transition) that have drastically aided McDavid's shot/chance share numbers. The Oilers (and McDavid) are much better at controlling the play with Pulu on the ice..

I don’t think everyone is judging him only on points, some ofc are but not all.

What i think most people are trying to say that while he also aides McDavid, lot of that help he produces is mostly down to how well McDavid can utilize him, put him elsewhere in the lineup and he becomes just another player that does a lot but with very little results.

I think it’s a fair argument tbh. I’ve seen around 90% of his games, and what i’ve seen from him so far all points to that. He played in stacked Liiga team, rarely if ever looked like the best player on the team but ended up with the most points, same happened in U20 tournament. Got a call up for Team Finland in World Championships, got more pedestrian linemates and role and ended up with 0+0 for the tournament and provided next to nothing in terms of impact to the game. This same applied to his start in the NHL as well as start of this season.

I think people want to see if he can break that trend, because we already know he can get points playing on a stacked line and be a complimentary player for great players, now we need to see if he can also do that for lesser players, before we call him great.

 

[bossram]

I don’t think everyone is judging him only on points, some ofc are but not all.

What i think most people are trying to say that while he also aides McDavid, lot of that help he produces is mostly down to how well McDavid can utilize him, put him elsewhere in the lineup and he becomes just another player that does a lot but with very little results.

I think it’s a fair argument tbh. I’ve seen around 90% of his games, and what i’ve seen from him so far all points to that. He played in stacked Liiga team, rarely if ever looked like the best player on the team but ended up with the most points, same happened in U20 tournament. Got a call up for Team Finland in World Championships, got more pedestrian linemates and role and ended up with 0+0 for the tournament and provided next to nothing in terms of impact to the game. This same applied to his start in the NHL as well as start of this season.

I think people want to see if he can break that trend, because we already know he can get points playing on a stacked line and be a complimentary player for great players, now we need to see if he can also do that for lesser players, before we call him great.

Who's calling him great? Yeah some are, but the consensus is that he's been a nice addition to the Oilers. What's wrong with being a good complimentary player? He's not going to carry his own line offensively, but lots of guys can't do that anyway.

The people saying he's just piggy-backing off McDavid are literally just looking at points. But Pulu's isolated shot/chance impacts are very good. He's helping the team by making plays that contribute to possession, getting in on the forecheck, helping out defensively, etc.

Being a very good compliment to a star player is a lot more than can be said for many of McDavid's former wingers.

I'm not even an Oilers fans, but Pulu has very clearly been a good addition to the Oilers and is very clearly their 4th or 5th best forward right now.

 

[Soundwave]

The pace stuff is tricky because the goal numbers he's scoring at is pretty high in the top 6 actually. He got put into the top 6 in the Ottawa game 12 games into the Oilers season and has scored 14 goals since then.

So 14 goals in 39 games = 0.3589 goals per game pace.

That's higher than Tavares and Nylander this season for example, and virtually identical with Marner.

I mean that's not terrible for a player making 1.1 million dollars.

In terms of outright goals he has more than Laine, Tkachuk, Dubois, Monahan this year as has been mentioned.

Assist totals had room to grow though, but I think this is a pretty successful season for him and he's still learning and getting more comfortable with the NHL game. I don't think this is his roof.

It isn't as simple as "just play anyone with McDavid, they'll score goals!". Puljujarvi has more 5 on 5 goals in less time with McDavid than Nugent Hopkins does. If you could put anyone there, the Oilers would just put Kahun or Turris and sit back and watch the 20+ goals roll in. Doesn't work like that. Not to mention with McDavid he's actually scoring at more like a 30 goal rate.

 

[Stephen]

Pretty insane that Puljujarvi is outscoring Laine this year.

 

[OKR]

Who's calling him great? Yeah some are, but the consensus is that he's been a nice addition to the Oilers. What's wrong with being a good complimentary player? He's not going to carry his own line offensively, but lots of guys can't do that anyway.

The people saying he's just piggy-backing off McDavid are literally just looking at points. But Pulu's isolated shot/chance impacts are very good. He's helping the team by making plays that contribute to possession, getting in on the forecheck, helping out defensively, etc.

Being a very good compliment to a star player is a lot more than can be said for many of McDavid's former wingers.

I didn’t say there is something wrong with it.

But matter of the fact is that so far only players he has complimented are players who’re some of the best of their respective leagues, and been a total non-factor with lesser players. I personally wouldn’t call a player that needs to be stapled to a superstars hip to have any impact; ”good”.

That’s why we need to see what he can do without McDavid so we can tell if he has actually proggressed and how much.

 

[Soundwave]

I didn’t say there is something wrong with it.

But matter of the fact is that so far only players he has complimented are players who’re some of the best of their respective leagues, and been a total non-factor with lesser players. I personally wouldn’t call a player that needs to be stapled to a superstars hip to have any impact; ”good”.

That’s why we need to see what he can do without McDavid so we can tell if he has actually proggressed and how much.

Puljujarvi has more ES goals with McDavid this year than Nugent Hopkins does, and Nugent Hopkins gets more playing time with McDavid.

So that's not bad, he's outproducing a no.1 overall pick with McDavid in goals at least while at evens.

 

[Zerotonine]

Color me surprised another thread that turns into nothing more then an oilers bashing thread.

Never change HF

 

[780il]

Pulju has been so much better than his production shows this year. With all the negative comments I wonder if there's someone with major critic of his play who's actually been watching him play this season? He's very impressive. That speed, the physical play, smart passes. And he doesn't play PP at all but is going to have his chance in the future. That could really boost up his point totals.

A lot of idiots that don’t acc watch the player but have a lot to say, nothing new. “Draisaitl’s a product of Mcdavid” or “(insert press box player name) could put up 50 points with Mcdavid”... We’ve seen this shit a million times lmao.