Jesse Puljujarvi on possible Oilers return: “Never say never”

After a solid year in the Finnish league that resulted in a Young Player of the Year nomination, there are fresh rumblings circling these here Internetz that Jesse Puljujarvi may have softened in his stance about a return to the Edmonton Oilers. According to a report out of Finland by Janne Onnela (paywall), time may have healed some wounds here.

For the second time since the NHL shut down, we’re talking about the potential for the former fourth overall pick to make his way back to the Oilers after very publically taking his ball and going home. I’m not saying he didn’t have reasons to want out, obviously there was some kind of rip in the ginch that led him to instruct his agent to air out trade requests and we’ll never truly know what that is, but there are signs popping up lately that suggest the tides may be turning between the player and organization. Back in late April, Puljujarvi was playing video games on Twitch with friend of the Nation, Larvinen, when he was asked about whether or not he would consider a return to Edmonton. Here’s what I wrote about it at the time:

According to Onnela’s article, Puljujarvi repeated the same sentiment again recently so maybe bridges are being built and there’s actually a chance for a deal to get done? Is there some smoking building here? Follow me down the rabbit hole for a moment and pretend that this is actually possible and that Jesse Puljujarvi is legitimately open to playing in Edmonton. My first thought is that you’d have to give Ken Holland a lot of credit for waiting him out, right? Last summer and even into the season, Holland made it clear that he was in no rush to trade Puljujarvi away just because he asked for it. Rather than making a sell low trade like Pistol Pete would have probably done, Holland tucked the Puljufile away and may potentially retain an asset that stated he would never play for this team again. But are we close?

Back in May, Gregor asked Ken Holland for an update on the situation:

Seeing as this Puljusaga has been going on for well over a year now, it’s almost hard to believe that we’re still talking about this and yet here we are. Even with this latest round of news, that doesn’t mean that we’re anywhere closer to getting an answer one way or another, but maybe this change in attitude means we’re finally inching towards the finish line. With a new coach and GM in place from the time Jesse was last here, I always felt like Puljujarvi had as good of an opportunity to rehab his game with the team that drafted him as he did anywhere else, but I really didn’t think there was much chance it could happen. I mean, who wouldn’t want to play on a team with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl? Then again, would they want his baggage back in the room at this stage? Does anybody care?

As always, all we can do is wait.