Jesse Puljujärvi’s successful career in Edmonton has reached a dead end, writes Riku Isokoski.
Jesse Puljujärvi (left) chased Vancouver Canucks’ Quinn Hughes with a grin on his face. AOP / USA TODAY Sports
Already at the end of last season, there were signs that Jesse Puljujärvi’s living space in Edmonton was getting cramped. Especially in the playoffs, Puljujärvi lost its power and largely also its position in the team’s hierarchy.
The beginning of this season has continued the line of the playoffs – the power points are at zero after five matches, and the playing time has been reduced to just under 13 minutes per match.
A concrete example of the shrinking of the “Bison King’s” living space is the fall of force majeure responsibility to practically zero. At the moment, it would also seem that the way to the team’s fiery top chains is blocked.
For Puljujärvi, the story is starting to repeat itself. For the second time in his career, Puljujärvi is drifting into a dark side track in Edmonton.
But a moment? During his second period in Edmonton, Puljujärvi has been praised a lot, at least in Finland, for how he has been more ready for the NHL and played very well in places.
Now, at least there hasn’t been any talk of strong game performances for a while, especially since the pure numerical result has been very thin.
Puljujärvi is known to be one of those players whose performances rarely lack attitude or work ethic. In the NHL, however, Puljujärvi’s player profile should be able to bring a lot more to the table.
Since his first Edmonton season, Puljujärvi’s big problem has been the lack of formation of a decent player identity. The potential would be enough to be a power forward of the star class, but the reality has been closer to a lower chain crusher.
What has been striking about Puljujärvi’s play this season has been that he tries to bring added value through strong tackling. Compared to last season, Puljujärvi’s Tackles have increased from 4.6 to around 13.3 per 60 game minutes.
Of course tackles are loved in Alberta, but otherwise Puljujärvi is not a particularly significant player for Edmonton at the moment. The gameplay as a whole is too crowded and inefficient fiddling.
Of course, with the current chainmates Warren Foegele and Ryan McLeod, there are no opportunities for the kind of power points that could arise on the wing of Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl.
However, Puljujärvi has also been able to experiment with superstars over the years, but even then the results didn’t blow the bank.
More than chain friends, the problems are both in Puljujärvi’s player identity and in Edmonton’s difficulties in finding the optimal box for him.
The saga between Edmonton and Puljujärvi, which has lasted more than six years, has reached the brink of the inevitable. The downturn that continued at the beginning of the year is unlikely to end in an environment where everything has already been tried, usually with rather weak results.
For Puljujärvi, it would be desirable for the transfer to another club to take place as soon as possible. However, the performances of the previous two seasons in the big picture gave a strong message that you can expect results as a player of the top chains.