Question 1-Who is Puljujarvi? He’s never really done anything yet.
Question 2-If he didn’t play for a Canadian team would anybody be talking about him?
He’s big; so far that’s about it and with his high of 16 minutes in penalties he’s not exactly running around looking for somebody to hit.
Sorta looks like he’s all potential; no performance.
With Preds roster stacked with players they don’t have a place for a potential player.
People would talk about him, because he was a #4 overall draft pick, and until Columbus kind of surprised with Dubois, he was hyped as #2/3 with Laine. He has a very high prospect pedigree... higher than any player we've had in our system since Seth Jones. So people are going to talk about him, for sure. In the 2016 WJC he led the tournament in scoring - ahead of Laine, Matthews, Aho, Tkachuk. He was seen as a player on the order of those guys. That's first line, near-franchise player potential. That's too good a resume to give up on after 3 years stuck in an organization that is somewhat notorious for not developing players well.
Now, some players do bust, even with that kind of resume, and Puljujarvi could turn out to be one such rarity. Especially with his health issues clouding the picture. But then that's why we are even able to talk about giving up a #3C for him... otherwise you never get a sniff at those kinds of players unless you have a high lottery draft pick.
I like Bonino, but I don't think he does a lot more for us than Sissons does. At most we have 2 years left of Bonino, and a fully capable #3C replacement in Sissons already in hand. And we talk about needing to let one of Smith or Granlund walk next summer so that we can fit Josi's extension under the cap. Well, if Bonino is traded instead, maybe we don't have to lose one of those guys. I think the stars are aligned nicely for us here. It's a rare conjunction of opportunities. I mean, I don't know if Edmonton would do this, but I think we'd be crazy not to take this chance.
My only caveat is if there is "behind the scenes" stuff with Puljujarvi that go deeper than the up-front red flags the fan sees. If there are serious questions about his attitude, maturity, ability to recover from his surgeries, etc... I mean REAL things beyond fan gossip... those are data points we don't have which could still tip the balance against a deal. But lacking that inside information, I think we'd be crazy not to pursue this trade. It is a gamble we are in a great position to take.
And frankly what I'd do is if we have to take Gagner back to balance cap, I'd be inclined to bury him and save that extra $1.075M... that would bring our cap space up to a shade over $3M. With that, we could sign Boyle and still have a comfortable cushion. Leave Puljujarvi in Finland to try to get himself back on track, and add Boyle for size and leadership for this season.