Pretending Puljujarvi Is Ready Hurts The Club

The preseason has a couple major functions. Number one, they exist to get the veteran players back in game shape. Number two, they give clubs a chance to see where young or new players slot in on the depth chart. When it’s all over, the rust has been shaken off and teams know who is ready to perform and who is not.

Obviously, this preseason for the Oilers has been very abnormal. Not only did four players miss significant time to the World Cup of Hockey, but the club lost a couple right wingers in Yakupov and Versteeg. The Yakupov trade was telegraphed for months, but he’s still an NHL player sent for nothing. Kris Versteeg was a bigger surprise. While I had him pegged into the top nine without a doubt, the team apparently wanted him to be more of a part-time player. He found Calgary provided a better opportunity.

Considering that as of Monday morning the Oilers only had two NHL right wingers on their team, it is impossible for me to figure out how “opportunity” became better for Versteeg somewhere else by Tuesday. The only thing that could have happened, and we have to believe this is the case, is that the Oilers indicated to Versteeg that they wanted rookie Jesse Puljujarvi to play ahead of him.

I’ve spent a good portion of the last several days with my jaw agape about the way several extremely connected sports reporters have spoken about Jesse Puljujarvi and the club’s preference to play him in the NHL immediately. Not only has this apparently cost the Oilers the chance to sign a real NHL player, but they also opted not to fill the gaping hole on the roster with a waiver wire player. The Edmonton Oilers have abandoned the right wing position to fend for itself. It’s Lord of the Flies over there and we’re just waiting to find out who’s going to die before the grown-ups return.

I want to try to stress how poor Puljujarvi’s preseason has been. It is effectively the worst of any major rookie in the history of this failed rebuild. He has failed to create offense with either his speed or his playmaking ability. He hasn’t been finishing plays with shots on net. He’s been porous with turnovers. He simply has not made a difference at any stage of the preseason and the varied levels of competition you can expect there.

To wipe the slate clean after such a poor fall only to hope that things will be better now that the speed and skill will be higher than ever is pure madness. The rookies who came before during this rebuild generally earned their nine game tryouts with strong preseasons. This is what some of those high profile rookie preseasons looked like.

Paajarvi 3GP, 3-1-4, 8 SOG

Eberle 4GP, 2-1-3, 8 SOG

Omark 3GP, 1-2-3, 8 SOG

Hall 3GP, 1-2-3, 7 SOG

Nugent-Hopkins 4GP, 1-5-6, 4 SOG

Lander 4GP, 2-2-4, 11 SOG

2013 (There was no preseason for 2012)

Mark Arcobello 6GP, 1-3-4, 12 SOG

Tkachev 3GP, 0-3-3, 4 SOG

Draisaitl 6GP, 0-2-2, 10 SOG

McDavid 5GP, 0-5-5, 9 SOG

Slepychev 7GP, 2-2-4, 13 SOG

Caggiula 5GP, 2-0-2, 16 SOG

Puljujarvi 6GP, 1-0-1, 9 SOG

The original HOPE group were point per game players or almost that. Nugent-Hopkins actually led the Oilers in preseason scoring. Mark Arcobello showed up and immediately started contributing offensively. Vladimir Tkachev showed incredible speed and agility was packed into a 144-pound child’s body. McDavid didn’t score a goal, but he was his brilliant self and a point per game player.

The closest performing high-end rookie to Jesse Puljujarvi in recent past was Leon Draisaitl, and even he actually performed better offensively. When NHL competition ramped up to regular season speeds, Leon Draisaitl was exposed. He was an even higher pick with even more experience in North America, and he was not able to sidestep a weak preseason performance and miraculously perform well when the games started meaning something.

There is no shame in not being ready, but there is one in exposing a kid to the NHL before he’s ready. It can negatively affect the player and certainly will negatively affect the team. Puljujarvi’s English is rudimentary at best. He’s not familiar with the rink size and even he could express as much. He wasn’t effective at all in the defensive, neutral, or offensive zone.

The Oilers ARE going to give him nine games in the NHL, most likely right away. They do that despite the fact that he didn’t pass the test after the six games he saw over the last two and a half weeks. Unlike the CHL players who Edmonton drafted before him, Puljujarvi can play in the AHL right now and be recalled at will. Leon Draisaitl, Taylor Hall, and Nugent-Hopkins’ nine game audition HAD to happen at the beginning of the season. Puljujarvi’s audition can come now, December, or March if the team wanted (or needed) it. It can come after he’s earned it.

It won’t. It will happen now, barring a last second move. Just don’t let anybody tell you it’s because he earned it, because it doesn’t matter, or because there’s no harm in playing him. He hasn’t, it does, and there certainly can be.