Hurricanes acquire Puljujarvi in trade
The Carolina Hurricanes acquired winger Jesse Puljujarvi in a trade Tuesday with the Edmonton Oilers, a buylow pickup for one of the NHL’s top Stanley Cup contenders.
Carolina sent the rights to 22-yearold unsigned draft pick Patrik Puistola to Edmonton in the swap of young Finns.
The Hurricanes hope to unlock Puljujarvi’s offensive potential after the No. 4 pick in 2016 has put up just 117 points in 337 NHL regular-season and playoff games. The move helps replace what Carolina expected out of Max Pacioretty before the veteran winger re-tore his right Achilles tendon last month.
“Jesse possesses a great blend of size and skill, and he will add to the depth of our forward group,” Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell said. “He has familiarity with some of our other Finnish players, and we see him as a great fit for our team and locker room.”
Puljujarvi, 24, joins countrymen Sebastian Aho, Teuvo Teravainen, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Antti Raanta with the Hurricanes. He played on a line with Aho for Finland at the 2016 world junior championship and led the tournament with 17 points in seven games.
Carolina leads the Metropolitan Division and trails only the league-leading Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference and league standings. Before leaving for a two-game Western Conference road trip, coach Rod Brind’Amour said the upcoming trade deadline was not a distraction for his team.
“I think we’re pretty set on our group – I don’t think we’re moving people out,” Brind’Amour told reporters in Raleigh, North Carolina. “We’ll see. The good news is what is it three, four days away and then it’ll be over. We can all move on after that.”
Not before many other teams around the NHL finalize deals before the deadline Friday afternoon.
Trading Puljujarvi and not retaining any of his salary allows Edmonton to
clear his $3 million off the books in preparation to make more moves. The Oilers, who are giving up more than three goals a game, are on the lookout for help on defense.
Vladislav Gavrikov from Columbus, Jakob Chychrun from Arizona and Mattias Ekholm from Nashville are all potential options. Gavrikov and Chychrun have each been held out of game action for weeks to avoid the risk of injury.
Any team acquiring a player already out with injury will have to be especially careful after the league sent a memo Tuesday to all 32 front offices warning them about increased scrutiny in that department. The league will be watching teams that acquire anyone on longterm injured reserve and waits until the start of the playoffs to activate those players, when the cap is no longer in effect.
Stanley Cup champions Tampa Bay in 2021 and Chicago in 2015 famously used the LTIR loophole with Nikita Kucherov and Patrick Kane, respectively, to use up space while they were out before plugging them into the lineup for Game 1 of the first round.