Weekly Rumours – A Puljujarvi update and a look at the Penguins
4 years ago
This time of the year is traditionally pretty quiet for the rumour mill. Teams that are off to hot starts don’t want to mess with their success and will wait until closer to the trade deadline to make meaningful acquisitions while teams that are sputtered out of the gates are likely going to want to wait another few weeks before considering drastic changes.
For the Oilers, there really is no need for them to make a move right now. If they keep winning up until December, then there may be a serious conversation about moving out a right-handed defenseman and after that, there could be talk of them being buyers at the trade deadline. Until that point, Ken Holland will probably let this group continue to ride the wave of success that they’re currently on.
One storyline that is still lingering around Edmonton is @Jesse Puljujarvi. I haven’t talked about him for close to a month in these rumour updates and with Chris Johnson of Sportsnet bringing up his name the other day, I figured it’s a good place to start:
PULJUJARVI UPDATE
The former fourth overall pick is off to a really solid start in the Liiga with five goals and six assists in eleven games. Fellow Oilersnation staff member Dustin Nielson loves to share Puljujarvi’s goals on Twitter and usually, it leads to a handful of fans saying that it doesn’t matter or that he’s playing glorified beer league hockey. I thought Nielson had a great response the other day:
Honestly, it’s worth keeping tabs on simply because he is an Oilers prospect and if he rips up Liiga this year, then it will only help his trade value. I doubt it will ever turn him into an ‘A’ level trade-chip, but it will help.
As I mentioned earlier, Chris Johnson of Sportsnet brought up Puljujarvi the other day and said that the player would have no issue with spending the entire season in Europe. Some Oilers fans seemed rather surprised by that nugget of information, but I wasn’t. I also don’t think it affects his trade value for this season. Any team that acquires the Finnish winger will no doubt view him as a more long-term project as opposed to an option to immediately help their team.
While trade is no doubt more likely to happen next summer, I still think there is an outside chance that Ken Holland finds a new home for the disgruntled prospect before the trade deadline and I don’t believe the idea that Puljujarvi will stay in Finland all season changes that as I doubt a team would have wanted to bring him back into the NHL half-way through the season anyway.
PENGUINS NEED TO MOVE A D-MAN
The Pens currently have nine defensemen on their NHL roster and according to Elliotte Friedman, they might have to hold onto all of their options for a little while longer. The trade market just isn’t there early in the season and GM Jim Rutherford doesn’t want to risk losing anyone to waivers.
They would prefer to deal @Jack Johnson and his horrendous contract, but that’s going to be very difficult to do. There has been some chatter around 25-year-old Juuso Riikola and Friedman even mentioned that the @Montreal Canadiens have considered making a move for him. I wouldn’t be shocked if the Jets threw their hat in that ring as well.
The issue is further complicated by the fact that their forward group has been decimated with injuries. No one really knows when @Evgeni Malkin will return, @Bryan Rust and @Nick Bjugstad are out long-term, and Alex Galchenyuk hasn’t played in over a week. Not a good situation for the Penguins.
JOHN HYNES ON THE HOT SEAT
The New Jersey Devils have been arguably the biggest disappointment so far this season. They had a busy summer, adding PK Subban, Jack Hughes, and Nikita Gusev and expectations were very high. They haven’t come close to living up to them through six games and now there are whispers that a coaching change could come if they don’t start winning.
The team announced yesterday, that Assistant GM Tom Fitzgerald will be joining Head Coach John Hynes on the bench and while Hynes says that he made the call, I’m not sure I believe him. To me, this is a GM wanting to get a better look at what’s wrong with his team and sending his Assistant to investigate.
There’s a chance that I’m reading too much into it, but this is a high-pressure year for the organization for a handful of reasons, the biggest being the status of star winger Taylor Hall. It’s well known that he’s a pending UFA and it’s well known that he’s sick of missing the playoff.
If things don’t get better in New Jersey, it will be very difficult for GM Ray Shero to convince Hall to skip out on testing the market and sign long-term in New Jersey.
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