Dear Jesse…

Dear Jesse,

I know you probably won’t see this. But that’s okay, I wanted to write to you anyways.

It’s been a while since you said you weren’t coming back to Edmonton. It’s been a tough time for me. I’m losing lots of sleep over it.

You see, when you came to Edmonton we had such high hopes for you.

4th overall. A Finnish national star. A point-producing machine overseas. A pizza lover. A future star in the NHL.

You still have time, Jesse. You’re hardly over 21-years-old and I get why you would want to go.

Things have been tough here in Edmonton — believe me, I know. But things are changing.

We fire Chiarelli. We fired McLellan. We relegated Hitchcock. We brought in a new GM. We’ve got a new coach.

And most importantly, we got rid of the boat anchor holding you down.

That’s right, Jesse. Milan is gone.

You’ve played the most amount of time in your NHL career with him and while you guys had good possession numbers, you’ve been snakebitten offensively.

I don’t know if you’ve looked at the Oilers depth chart recently, but you’ve got a great opportunity here.

You’ve got a chance to come in and produce, flourish, grow. There’s nobody standing in your way anymore.

The nice thing is that you’ve shown an ability to produce in this league already. Of your 20 assists, 17 of them have been primary assists.

That’s impressive, Jesse, and we need a guy like you upfront.

Your new coach, Dave Tippett, has shown an affinity for being a good communicator. He can work with you on the skills you lack, and hopefully give you the time you need to continue to become a better player.

Ken Holland is going to play hardball with you, we’ve seen that, and I’d like to think you have a better chance of continuing to develop here in Edmonton.

We want you to be here — even if it’s for another year or two.

On Twitter: @zjlaing