Puljujarvi has yet to come of age
Finnish product can’t mask frustration with his lack of production this season
As Jesse Puljujarvi finishes off his first full NHL season with his sloppy grin and tongue hanging out of his mouth, he may look like he doesn’t have a care in the world.
But forget the outward appearance.
With four goals in his last 40 games, he’s a boy of few words who’s hiding a frustration that’s through the roof.
While two kids in his 2016 draft class — 19-year-old Columbus centre Pierre-Luc Dubois, taken third overall, and sixth-overall winger Matthew Tkachuk, who turned 20 halfway through the season — have had excellent years, Puljujarvi has found little comfort thus far.
He hasn’t caught up to the pace of the game on a consistent basis so his skills aren’t able to take over naturally. And until he does, there will be nights like Saturday against the Flames where the 19-year-old Edmonton Oilers winger gets 13 uneventful minutes.
Here’s the thing with Puljujarvi: His former Finnish world junior linemate Patrik Laine is 19-goingon-25 in Winnipeg with his confident air, and Sebastian Aho, who centred that great junior line, is 20-going-on-30 in Carolina with his smarts and a two-way game.
Puljujarvi’s birth certificate says he’s 19, but he’s really not.
“Somebody said Jesse’s 19-going-on-17 with the way he carries himself and how happy-go-lucky he seems,” said Oilers coach Todd McLellan. “Whether that’s fair or not, I don’t know. But he is a young 19.”
Puljujarvi said this year is better than last season’s truncated 28 games before he was sent to AHL Bakersfield because, “I’m playing every game.”
He’s played 54 in a row, going back to Nov. 30. He doesn’t buy the idea that he only needs one shot to go in to regain his confidence. He doesn’t think he’s getting many chances.
“How many games has it been? Carolina, I scored, but how many since? Nothing has been open,” said Puljujarvi, who’s gone six games without a goal and has scored only once in 13 games since March 15.
The coaching staff is shielding Puljujarvi, playing him on the third line against No. 5 and No. 6 defencemen, although McLellan has said a lot of times, his line of Ryan Strome and Milan Lucic looks like it should be their second line.
Puljujarvi’s not playing with Connor McDavid now because McDavid isn’t comfortable with him on his right-wing quite yet because he doesn’t process things quickly enough for the captain’s all-world game.
Maybe the same goes for Leon Draisaitl if he’s at centre and not on McDavid’s wing.
If McLellan, who like all guys behind NHL benches, is in the business of winning, thought Puljujarvi was ready today for McDavid or to play higher up in the lineup, he’d be there. Coaches aren’t paid to be patient. General managers are because they’re big picture guys.
The coaches have made one mistake with Puljujarvi, though. He should be on the second power play unit on the left side, with his big right shot, so he can use it like Laine in Winnipeg, but as one longtime hockey observer said, “if that’s the case, then Jesse has to be told the play is running through him for the time he’s out there and he has to do something with it.”
Former Oilers first-overall draft pick Nail Yakupov didn’t, and he had a ripping shot, too.
To a loud, protesting bunch in Oilers Nation, he’s their new Yakupov. They keep griping that he should be playing with better people and he’d produce better results. They complain he’s playing with Lucic, who’s dragging him down. They agree with former NHL GM Craig Button who said Puljujarvi should have been back in Finland for another year after being drafted fourth overall in 2016.
“That’s one man’s opinion and Craig’s entitled to it. When Jesse’s coming out with the size and strength he has and us wanting him to adapt to life over here, it was important he be in North America,” said McLellan.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the firstoverall pick in 2011, can certainly see Puljujarvi’s frustration.
“I’ve been there. When I was 19 in the lockout year, I got four goals all year in 40 games,” he said. “The first year of pro is a whirlwind, you’re just having fun. There’s so much adrenalin, you don’t get a chance to get frustrated but in your second year, guys know you, they play you harder and when things don’t go your way, it’s easy to get frustrated.”