There could be some more movement involving young wingers ahead of the draft. TSN’s Ryan Rishaug reports that there are now "as many as four teams" are kicking the tires on Edmonton Oilers winger Jesse Puljujarvi, but further suggests that the return heading to Edmonton will be “marginal.”
It certainly doesn’t appear to be gearing up for a great return on investment for the Oilers, who selected Puljujarvi fourth overall in 2016. He’s had some analytically strong performances in recent seasons, especially when playing with the Oilers’ top players, but a late-season injury and unlucky playoffs tanked his trade stock. While he did have a solid 14 goals and 36 points in 65 games this year, he had just three points in 16 playoff games, earning the ire of the Oilers fan base.
Counted on to be a solid complementary player, Puljujarvi screams “talent that will succeed in a different system,” but he really hasn’t shown enough offensive ceiling at the NHL level for Edmonton to recoup first-round-level value. With a relatively small amount of teams in the market for his services too, it’s just not looking good for Edmonton to make a winning trade to move on from the Finnish winger.
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