PULJUJARVI REMAINS AN ENIGMA TO OILERS
First-round pick in 2016 sits one out as team tries to figure out why he isn’t contributing
On the same day the Washington Capitals presented former Cap now Edmonton Oiler Alex Chiasson with a ring, the Edmonton Oilers presented Jesse Puljujarvi with a watch, as in, ‘You’re going to watch this one from the press box.’
Puljujarvi sat out Thursday’s game against the Capitals as he and the coaching staff try to figure out ways to bring his game to where it should be 100 games into his NHL career, and that definitely isn’t a press box.
But there he is, having to hit the reset button eight games into his third season.
The polarizing Finn should be in Edmonton’s top six by now, but a journey that began when he arrived here in the fall of 2016 seems to always wind up in the same place it started, sheltered minutes on the third line. It’s like he’s starring in the Blair Witch Project and can’t figure out why two days worth of hiking brought him right back to the original haunted campsite.
He’s seen the odd, brief promotion, but so far hasn’t been able to get much going no matter where he plays (one goal and zero assists in seven games this year and 29 points for his career).
He had a brilliant training camp and shows flashes of being the player the Oilers hoped he’d be when they drafted him fourth overall, but he also goes long stretches where nothing much happens.
And he is well behind the progress being shown by the players selected around him in 2016: Pierre-Luc Dubois (third), Matthew Tkachuk (sixth), Clayton Keller (seventh) and Mikhail Sergachev (ninth).
The coaches, like everyone else, wish Puljujarvi could be the top six winger they so desperately need, but when a player is making rudimentary gaffes that should have been cleansed from his game a long time ago, giving him more and tougher minutes usually isn’t the answer.
As fans in Edmonton learned the hard way, the surest path to ruining a young player isn’t holding him back, but rather putting too much on his plate (Justin Schultz).
“Jesse is an important part of our team, our organization,” head coach Todd McLellan said. “His development has to get going to where he has a positive impact on the game. It’s not always goals and assists — as we’ve seen, there haven’t been many — but there are other areas of the game that are important.”
McLellan wants him to succeed more than anyone. It’s an insane notion to suggest that any coach whose job depends on winning would try to keep a talented young player down, but the 20-year-old is not picking things up as quickly as he needs to.
“He’s a young player, yes, but he’s been in the NHL three years and we have to treat him like we do just about every other player and hold them accountable,” he said.
“That’s where we’re at.” This isn’t to say he’s trending toward bust — he’s still a big player with speed and skill and a heavy shot — but unless there is a rapid uptick he will be a project that might be better served with a year in the AHL.
Growing pains are very common among young players, even those we all thought had it totally figured out.
Jujhar Khaira, for instance, was one of the few bright spots in a lost season last year, taking a big step forward in his evolution as a power forward in the NHL.
But six games in the season he had zero points and didn’t look entirely comfortable, so he spent the seventh game watching Pittsburgh and Edmonton from the press box.
It’s never the positive learning experience coaches try to sell it as, but it’s not the end of the world, either.
“I’d be lying if I said it was (positive),” said Khaira, who returned to the lineup Thursday against Washington. “Just like any other player in this dressing room, if you get scratched you’re not happy.
“But at the end of the day, you just have to work harder in practice and get back into the lineup and then do what you do instead of trying to be someone else. I have to go out there, play direct and use sitting out as motivation to stay in the lineup.”
McLellan said Khaira was starting to look like he’d lost some confidence, which didn’t make sense given how he’d grown into such a commanding presence last year, but the 24-yearold winger agrees.
“Confidence is a funny thing,” he said. “There are times when you walk into the rink and you just feel everything, and there are times when you don’t.
“It’s like any job out there, you have good days and bad days, good days and good weeks. It’s how you work through those bad times to come back stronger.”