Waived: [PIT] F Jesse Puljujarvi waived by the Penguins (cleared)

[Breakers]

I still think the drooling over the Finn’s at the world juniors was next level
Size
Iq
Passing
Shooting
Goal scoring

And Sebastian aho who fell to a later round turned out to be the best

 

[TheNumber4]

I still think the drooling over the Finn’s at the world juniors was next level
Size
Iq
Passing
Shooting
Goal scoring

And Sebastian aho who fell to a later round turned out to be the best

That whole First Line at those WJRs is such an interesting case study in Scouting. I feel like you could write essays on that line and what went right/wrong about the scouting.

In a nutshell and with hindsight and foresight at the time it breaks down to something like this for me:

Laine-Aho-Pool -> Elite Sniper-Elite IQ-Elite Motor

Elite Sniper was a bang on assessment of Laine. Elite IQ was an underrated aspect of Aho (it often is cause IQ plays can be subtle) which explains his draft position. And Elite Motor can lead to overrating cause it is the most noticeable. And that's probably where the scouting failed on Pool. Cause he was the rover for that line playing a "be everywhere all the time" type style, that he still kind of has to this day. But that probably had him overrated on a lot of other aspects of his game which his explains his draft position and subsequent failure.

 

[Kuljeskelen]

You mean like Aho or Teravainen? Nope, not this season…

They already tried him with Aho and he failed.

Bleh, tired me decided to forget his Carolina stint. Just so many times over years I've heard about communication problems so that one slipped on me. Ignore me. <3

 

[torniojaws]

That whole First Line at those WJRs is such an interesting case study in Scouting. I feel like you could write essays on that line and what went right/wrong about the scouting.

In a nutshell and with hindsight and foresight at the time it breaks down to something like this for me:

Laine-Aho-Pool -> Elite Sniper-Elite IQ-Elite Motor

Elite Sniper was a bang on assessment of Laine. Elite IQ was an underrated aspect of Aho (it often is cause IQ plays can be subtle) which explains his draft position. And Elite Motor can lead to overrating cause it is the most noticeable. And that's probably where the scouting failed on Pool. Cause he was the rover for that line playing a "be everywhere all the time" type style, that he still kind of has to this day. But that probably had him overrated on a lot of other aspects of his game which his explains his draft position and subsequent failure.

Still weird how he failed even when rejoined with Aho. Maybe the line in Carolina didn't have an equivalent sniper to finish their mutual plays?

 

[mattihp]

Still weird how he failed even when rejoined with Aho. Maybe the line in Carolina didn't have an equivalent sniper to finish their mutual plays?

In the first game it looked like it might work. He had a couple of good no look passes to Aho and a really good pass from behind the net in stride from just entering the offensive zone.

 

[Norwegianoiler]

Still weird how he failed even when rejoined with Aho. Maybe the line in Carolina didn't have an equivalent sniper to finish their mutual plays?

That the opposition was better than junior quality explains most of it.

 

[Kahvi]

Remember that Aho is a year older and was already drafted. He had 0 points in 5 games at the WJC before his draft. He broke out at Liiga the next season, finishing PPG

 

[InsideLaine]

In the first game it looked like it might work. He had a couple of good no look passes to Aho and a really good pass from behind the net in stride from just entering the offensive zone.

Actually its nuts, I too remember it like this. The excitement! And then, nothing, it just fell apart.

 

[tailfins]

Martin St. Louis cleared NHL waivers during the early part of his career. After being signed as an undrafted free agent by the Calgary Flames in 1998, he struggled to secure a regular spot in their lineup. In the 1999-2000 season, St. Louis was placed on waivers by the Flames and went unclaimed by other NHL teams. Shortly afterward, he was assigned to the Flames' AHL affiliate.

There are numerous examples of goalies because they tend to develop more slowly than skaters.

Edit: Found some other examples .

2. Chris Kunitz​

• Kunitz was waived by the Anaheim Ducks early in his career and claimed by the Atlanta Thrashers. He was later reclaimed by Anaheim, where he became a key player. Kunitz won four Stanley Cups (three with Pittsburgh and one with Anaheim) and represented Canada at the 2014 Winter Olympics, winning gold.

3. Michael Ryder​

• Ryder cleared waivers in the Montreal Canadiens system early in his career. He later became a consistent NHL scorer, reaching the 30-goal mark multiple times and winning the Stanley Cup with the Boston Bruins in 2011.

4. Craig Anderson​

• Anderson was placed on waivers multiple times early in his career, including stints with Chicago and Florida. He eventually established himself as a reliable NHL goaltender, notably with the Ottawa Senators, and became one of the league's best at his peak.

5. Rich Peverley​

• Peverley cleared waivers while with the Nashville Predators and was later claimed by the Atlanta Thrashers. He went on to play a key role with the Boston Bruins during their 2011 Stanley Cup championship run.

6. Devan Dubnyk​

• Dubnyk's career appeared to be on the decline when he cleared waivers and was traded multiple times. After signing with the Minnesota Wild, he revived his career, earning Vezina Trophy consideration and becoming an All-Star.

7. David Perron​

• After being placed on waivers by the Pittsburgh Penguins, Perron rejuvenated his career with the Vegas Golden Knights during their inaugural season and later returned to the St. Louis Blues, winning the Stanley Cup in 2019.

8. Nikita Zadorov​

• Zadorov cleared waivers early in his career but eventually became a reliable NHL defenseman with significant physical presence, carving out a strong role with teams like the Colorado Avalanche and Calgary Flames.

IMO Stefan Noesen is the guy you’re looking for.

Not a one season turnaround - it took him a long time. And he isn’t a star now. But solid NHL player and valuable member of the Devils this year.

He was a 1st round pick. Early part of his career derailed by injuries. Waived multiple times. Needed to remake his game in the AHL in order to carve out a spot in the NHL.

 

[Heldig]

Imagine if the Oilers selected Matthew Tkachuk instead of JP? Holy crap.

 

[TFHockey]

Imagine if the Oilers selected Matthew Tkachuk instead of JP? Holy crap.

Imagine if the Oilers had sent Jesse to the AHL like they should have at the very beginning. Imagine if they had another Finnish player in Bakersfield who was older and could translate for him and help him adjust to life in North America.

Imagine if they had given JP time and allowed him to develop into an NHL player.

Many people have said Puljujarvi is all tools and no toolbox. He never put it all together. That is on both him and the Edmonton Oilers organization.

What a failure.

Now insert Nail Yakupov where you see any reference to Jesse Puljujarvi and you'll have two posts for the price of one.

 

[Rcknrollkillnmachine]

It's on Jesse and his short-sighted agent but I do blame Edmonton a lot for how they mismanaged him.

He can still eke out a role in the NHL but I feel he'll head to Switzerland for the money. Shame as I remember getting goose-bumps when Kapanen scored the wrap-around goal in 2016 WJC when I lived in Helsinki and how my (now ex) Finnish wife went to bed during the game since she was too nervous as for her Russia always seemed to be an obstacle. Had to wake her up after they won that incredible game to tell her Finland were the World Champions. Good days and what a team that I was blessed as a non-Finn to witness.

Jesse was incredible then at Kärpät but I think the smaller ice in the NHl has been his downfall.

 

[mattihp]

It's on Jesse and his short-sighted agent but I do blame Edmonton a lot for how they mismanaged him.

He can still eke out a role in the NHL but I feel he'll head to Switzerland for the money. Shame as I remember getting goose-bumps when Kapanen scored the wrap-around goal in 2016 WJC when I lived in Helsinki and how my (now ex) Finnish wife went to bed during the game since she was too nervous as for her Russia always seemed to be an obstacle. Had to wake her up after they won that incredible game to tell her Finland were the World Champions. Good days and what a team that I was blessed as a non-Finn to witness.

Jesse was incredible then at Kärpät but I think the smaller ice in the NHl has been his downfall.

Winning the kiddie champs and being world champions is like when Lisa Simpson was queen of the world (of spelling)

 

[Rcknrollkillnmachine]

Winning the kiddie champs and being world champions is like when Lisa Simpson was queen of the world (of spellingI think one year

Didn't your Swedish youth team go into therapy after losing to Finland back around 2015 or so? It was highly publicized at least in the Finnish newspapers at that time.

I also recall how the Swedish press couldn't believe Finnish players had Swedish names (like my ex's family are Suomenruotsalaiset) but that's for another thread.

 

[mattihp]

Didn't your Swedish youth team go into therapy after losing to Finland back around 2015 or so? It was highly publicized at least in the Finnish newspapers at that time.

I also recall how the Swedish press couldn't believe Finnish players had Swedish names (like my ex's family are Suomenruotsalaiset) but that's for another thread.

I don't follow rival national teams all that much, so wouldn't know about the swedes.

 

[TheNumber4]

Imagine if the Oilers had sent Jesse to the AHL like they should have at the very beginning. Imagine if they had another Finnish player in Bakersfield who was older and could translate for him and help him adjust to life in North America.

Imagine if they had given JP time and allowed him to develop into an NHL player.

Many people have said Puljujarvi is all tools and no toolbox. He never put it all together. That is on both him and the Edmonton Oilers organization.

What a failure.

Now insert Nail Yakupov where you see any reference to Jesse Puljujarvi and you'll have two posts for the price of one.

I imagine if JP went to the AHL for extra seasoning, he’d still end up a bust.

In his first Pro season, he still played 39 AHL games. With 28 games in the NHL.

If all 28 of those NHL games were AHL games instead do you think that changes his trajectory?

 

[TFHockey]

I imagine if JP went to the AHL for extra seasoning, he’d still end up a bust.

In his first Pro season, he still played 39 AHL games. With 28 games in the NHL.

If all 28 of those NHL games were AHL games instead do you think that changes his trajectory?

That's certainly possible, but we'll never know.

Jesse should've been in the AHL for more than 39 games. He probably should've been down there for a few seasons building his confidence and understanding of English and the North American game. If you're going to expend top draft capital on a player it follows you should invest time and effort developing that player. Edmonton has done this with other players. They failed to do this in the cases of Puljujarvi and Yakupov.

 

[mattihp]

That's certainly possible, but we'll never know.

Jesse should've been in the AHL for more than 39 games. He probably should've been down there for a few seasons building his confidence and understanding of English and the North American game. If you're going to expend top draft capital on a player it follows you should invest time and effort developing that player. Edmonton has done this with other players. They failed to do this in the cases of Puljujarvi and Yakupov.

I think he was pretty clear about going home if he spent more time in the AHL, so that probably was a big part of him staying up. Should have loaned him back home, maybe.

 

[Connor McConnor]

Imagine if the Oilers had sent Jesse to the AHL like they should have at the very beginning. Imagine if they had another Finnish player in Bakersfield who was older and could translate for him and help him adjust to life in North America.

Imagine if they had given JP time and allowed him to develop into an NHL player.

Many people have said Puljujarvi is all tools and no toolbox. He never put it all together. That is on both him and the Edmonton Oilers organization.

What a failure.

Now insert Nail Yakupov where you see any reference to Jesse Puljujarvi and you'll have two posts for the price of one.

Nah, he'd still be a bust. He played 28 games his rookie season and showed glimpses. His 2nd year he was okay. The problem is, you can't "develop" hockey IQ. The guy just can't see the game fast enough. Some players can manage to get better at this over time but it's pretty rare. I think he got a bit too full of himself to be honest, because if he transitioned his game to be a bottom 6 player earlier, he probably could have eked out a solid NHL career. But he still pouted when he wasn't used as a top 6 player and the Oilers abided, largely because of the draft capital they had invested in him. He also was threatening to go back to Finland if the Oilers kept sending him down to the AHL so some of this commentary is completely hindsight without context.

 

[TFHockey]

Nah, he'd still be a bust. He played 28 games his rookie season and showed glimpses. His 2nd year he was okay. The problem is, you can't "develop" hockey IQ. The guy just can't see the game fast enough. Some players can manage to get better at this over time but it's pretty rare. I think he got a bit too full of himself to be honest, because if he transitioned his game to be a bottom 6 player earlier, he probably could have eked out a solid NHL career. But he still pouted when he wasn't used as a top 6 player and the Oilers abided, largely because of the draft capital they had invested in him. He also was threatening to go back to Finland if the Oilers kept sending him down to the AHL so some of this commentary is completely hindsight without context.

It would've been better for his development to play in Finland or the AHL.

Obviously all of this is hindsight.

I think the context of this conversation and what happened to Puljujarvi is pretty clear.

 

[Mitch nylander]

There is one thing that amuses me not only about Pizza boy but the top picks from the 2016 draft. Even after matthews--the top picks were hyped.

Auston Matthews
Patrik Laine
Pierre-Luc Dubois
Jesse Puljujarvi
Olli Juolevi
Matthew Tkachuk
Clayton Keller
Alex Nylander
Mikhail Sergachev
Tyson Jost


Only Matthews and Keller are with the same team that drafted them. Both Laine and Dublois were more or less given away this off season. I remember when the BJS passed on Puiljujarvi and people thought they were nuts. Turns out they knew what they were doing. On the oiler board most of us wanted Tkachuk--but the momeht JP dropped to us--we wanted him

8 year out the top 10 had a ton of busts, but still a pretty deep draft

Matthew Tkachuk - Auston Matthews - Clayton Keller
Jesper Bratt - Tage Thompson - Jordan Kyrou
Brandon Hagel - P-L Dubois - Alex Debrincat
Patrik Laine - Brett Howden - Ross Colton
Sam Steel - Trent Frederic - Taylor Raddysh
Beck Malenstyn - Luke Kunin - Mikey Eyssimont
Extras: Dillon Dube, Michael Mcleod, Jesse Puljujarvi, Tyson Jost,

Mikhail Sergachev - Adam Fox
Jakob Chychrun - Charlie Mcavoy
Samuel Girard - Filip Hronek
Ryan Lindgren - Dante Fabbro
Jake Bean - Andrew Peeke
Extras: Dennis Cholowski, Josh Mahura, Vincent Desharnais, Logan Stanley

Filip Gustavsson
Joseph Woll
Carter Hart
Extras: Connor Ingram

 

[tarheelhockey]

Still weird how he failed even when rejoined with Aho. Maybe the line in Carolina didn't have an equivalent sniper to finish their mutual plays?

He simply wasn’t nearly a good enough player to skate first line minutes with Aho. His skating was very poor (he has had hip surgery since then, so maybe injury was a factor) so he was usually late arriving to the puck. And even when he was near the puck, showed no hockey sense at all and just didn’t do anything meaningful to advance the play. The only thing he was good for was putting a body on opponents, usually after they’d already made the play they wanted to make.

2 assists in 17 games tells you all you need to know. He was just floating around wasting ice time for most of that time. Having him on the ice with Aho meant taking away Teravainen or Svechnikov, so it wasn’t a hard decision to end the experiment quickly.

 

[TheNumber4]

That's certainly possible, but we'll never know.

Jesse should've been in the AHL for more than 39 games. He probably should've been down there for a few seasons building his confidence and understanding of English and the North American game. If you're going to expend top draft capital on a player it follows you should invest time and effort developing that player. Edmonton has done this with other players. They failed to do this in the cases of Puljujarvi and Yakupov.

Top 3 draft pick forwards rarely are given that much time in the AHL. In fact, if they were agents start getting pissy and advocating for them to come up. Consensus opinion would say they should have been up early to consider their draft year. In Pool’s case he was physically mature, has nhl skating and size.

I really don’t think any development path makes these busts, not busts. Sometimes players just don’t have it.

 

[NotAVacuumSalesman]

Imagine if the Oilers had sent Jesse to the AHL like they should have at the very beginning. Imagine if they had another Finnish player in Bakersfield who was older and could translate for him and help him adjust to life in North America.

If only the Oilers were to bring in Jussi Jokinen to help him... nah, maybe it just a dream..

 

[bobbythebrain]

It's on Jesse and his short-sighted agent but I do blame Edmonton a lot for how they mismanaged him.

He can still eke out a role in the NHL but I feel he'll head to Switzerland for the money. Shame as I remember getting goose-bumps when Kapanen scored the wrap-around goal in 2016 WJC when I lived in Helsinki and how my (now ex) Finnish wife went to bed during the game since she was too nervous as for her Russia always seemed to be an obstacle. Had to wake her up after they won that incredible game to tell her Finland were the World Champions. Good days and what a team that I was blessed as a non-Finn to witness.

Jesse was incredible then at Kärpät but I think the smaller ice in the NHl has been his downfall.

Blame Edmonton for what?

Both coach and GM said his communication was a problem. They also gave him specific instructions to work on. He did none of them. He refused to work on his English or his skills. The coach even called him stubborn
Jesse was picked up by a fan walking home with all his gear and sticks. Does that sound like someone with friends on the team or someone who communicates?

In the AHL his coach said his protection needed work, again, he did nothing

Team Finland even dropped him early. Why you think that is?

Anyway, it's not even debatable if Edm is to blame. JP and his agent came out and admitted he was at fault the way he handled his development . His 2nd camp back he was asked if he worked on his English. He replied no