Jesse Puljujarvi is back in the NHL.
The former Edmonton Oilers winger signed a two-year deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday, weeks after joining the team on a tryout in early December.
His contract will pay him an AAV of $800,000.
After undergoing double hip surgery this past offseason, the 25-year-old joined the Penguins and initially was practicing and working with the club’s training staff. He wound up with their AHL affiliate Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in early January and has played in 13 games for them, scoring four goals and nine points with a +8 plus/minus rating.
Drafted by the Oilers fourth overall in the 2016 draft, there were few players who had been more controversial in town over his seven years with the franchise. All in all, he scored 51 goals and 61 points in 317 games with the Oilers, who traded him to the Carolina Hurricanes in Feb. 2023 for Patrik Puistola, an unsigned forward in Finland, whom the club didn’t offer a contract.
Puljujarvi had played 17 games down the stretch run for the Hurricanes, scoring two assists, and added another assist in seven playoff games.
“We just hope to give him an opportunity here if he proves healthy enough where he can help out. It goes back to the question about depth and trying to find more avenues to find it,” Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas said at the time Puljujarvi joined the team. “For me, it’s his ability to get on the forecheck, get to the net, disrupt the defense (sic) of the other team when they’re going back on the puck, and then get to the net and really start to get under the skin of people.
“I think that’s when he’s at his best.”
Puljujarvi will now look to join a Penguins team that is struggling this season. Coming out of the All-Star break, they have a 22-17-7 record for 51 points, leaving them seven out of the second Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference.
More must-reads: