I'm surprised people still think he needs more time in Liiga. If he could, he should be on the first plane over. Liiga starts today, but I think he's ready to go back to the NHL.
The most informative sources on his development in Liiga have been the fans in Finland. There is a plethora of info we can't dig into if we don't have a Finnish interpreter. Check out these tweet chains that offer some insight based on interviews in Finnish:
These are tweet chains, not single tweets. Click on them to read the chain.
Focus placed on developing Puljujärvi's checking game and mental aspects:
He's obviously not skimping on focusing on training, which is a good sign.
Analysis of Puljujärvi as an offensive threat:
Reminds me in a small way of Hall who got limited minutes with McD with "bad stats" but elite offensive stats before we traded him. At some point, Yamo was deployed properly, as the type of player he is, and Pulju will eventually have to be too.
We know he got double hip surgeries, which went well. Seems Oilers management didn't take them seriously enough at the time:
That could hold a player back a bit too. See: Klef in the bubble
As per Lehkonen'a father, focus this year appears to be on checking, 2-way game, physicality again:
https://twitter.com/LonnbergMari/status/1311319394342010880?s=19
Gee, a young 22 year old needs to work on his 2-way game? You need to develop him? good plan. Sounds like the situation with AA, except Jesse is way younger and with way more upside.
Finally, really old article. Still interesting:
https://twitter.com/LonnbergMari/status/1056086277232230400?s=19
If the last year in Liiga has done any good, he should be closer to realizing his obvious potential.
He is 22. He is the same age as Yamo. He has something to prove, and we should not forget that we WANT him to kill it as a top 6 RW solution. Oilers will give him opportunities and foster his development, as a good organization that wants to win does. Opportunity knocks, he can seize it or sail it. We are crazy not to take that flyer and help him get there.