Friedman Says Anaheim, Detroit, and Carolina have Looked at Puljujarvi

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Edmonton Sun

It appears Ducks are looking hard at Jesse Puljujarvi

“There’s an air of inevitability to a Puljujarvi trade, with Verbeek showing up in Minnesota on Monday and Nashville Tuesday to possibly get his own read on things.”
“With Warren Foegele coming off injured reserve very soon, maybe he takes Puljujarvi’s spot at right wing on the third line.”
“The Ducks, if they want to deal with the Oilers, might be thinking of a test drive with Puljujarvi until the end of the season, when his contract is up and if they like what they see, they could re-sign him for less than his $3 million.”
“The Oilers, as we all know, want to clear up some cap space ($3 million) to likely go after a defensive D man at the trade deadline.”
“Anaheim has five picks in the first two rounds in June. Only two are theirs and really appetizing (one in round 2, one in round 3. They also have Boston’s pick (Hampus Lindholm trade) and Colorado’s (Josh Manson trade) in the second round and Minnesota’s third-round (Nicolas Deslauriers trade).”

BLH’s Thoughts: Will Ken Holland finally get his 2nd round for JP? Names like Maxime Comtois, Cam Fowler, John Klingberg, and Max Jones have popped up. I wonder if young wingers Jacob Perreault or Brayden Tracy (both have 11pts for Anaheim’s AHL club) might be more to Edmonton’s liking though because Bakersfield is going through a bit of a crisis at the moment.

I’m also curious if a deal is made with the Ducks, will it be a bigger one? Adam Henrique fits Ken Holland’s trade target criteria. Would he take another crack at Dmitry Kulikov?

Sportsnet

32 Thoughts

“I do think this will be Jesse Puljujarvi’s last season in Edmonton — with everyone recognizing it is time for a fresh start — the question is when it happens.
“At times, I’ve heard Anaheim, Carolina and Detroit have at least looked at it, but I don’t think anything’s ever been close to what the Oilers would consider.”
“Right now, battling with injuries and for the playoffs, they don’t want to be shorthanded. But, when they get healthy, they’ll look at trade options or possibly even waivers.”
“If it goes to the summer, I’d imagine Edmonton doesn’t qualify him and he signs elsewhere. Hope he finds inner peace well before then.”

BLH’s Thoughts: I don’t know if Carolina spends assets to bring in Jesse. The smarter play is to get him in the summer time, but even then they’ve got Svechnikov, Jarvis, Necas, Teravainen, and Pacioretty already taking up top-6 spots on the wing. Teravainen is having his own shit season but he’s got one more year left on his $5.4M deal after this season, so I don’t know if he gets traded but maybe he won’t have to be as Jordan Staal will be a UFA and that’d open up $6M in cap space. They could have Marty Necas slide into the middle then.

Anaheim makes more sense and that club has been connected to him since the start of the year. Detroit doesn’t seem likely to me, but maybe Montreal does. Marty St. Louis seems to have a way with struggling youngsters or just young players in general and I think a lot of fans out east are looking at Jesse and comparing him to Kirby Dach. I don’t see it, but to each their own.

Waivers would be a disaster.

GM31: Oilers @ Blues

Who’s Hot for St. Louis in their Last Five

#10 Brayden Schenn – (1g 3a) – I like Schenn. He’s your blood and guts throwback forward.
#90 Ryan O’Reilly – (2g 2a) I’ve often wondered how O’Reilly would look on Edmonton’s team. He’s just so good at both ends of the ice and on the dot. I think he’d be a perfect 3C and he’s a UFA this summer… Can you see him sticking around St. Louis?
#25 Jordan Kyrou – (1g 3a) This guy is as fast as McDavid but the Oilers have $9M super defender to sort that out… Just hope Bouchard doesn’t get caught out against Kyrou or Mark Spector will have his piece already written for him.

Who’s Hot for Edmonton in their Last Five

#97 Connor McDavid – (5g and 7a) Captain Connor continues his torrid pace. I was too young for Gretzky’s destruction of the NHL, so I can’t remember what it was like to watch him work his magic in the early 80s, but in the early 90s when Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr were ripping things up, that was right in my wheelhouse and every time they stepped on the ice they were a threat to score. The Power play for Pittsburgh was almost pointless as they were near invincible.
#29 Leon Draisaitl – (4g (on 11 shots!) and 5a) Do you think Leon will sign another long-term contract with the Oilers if they don’t win a Cup before his deal expires? I’ve always thought he’d be the first to jump ship and wouldn’t that be something seeing as one of the reasons Ken Holland paid Darnell Nurse $9M was to entice Draisaitl and McDavid to stick around in a few seasons.
#93 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – (3g and 5a) Weird. A hockey player finally realizing his potential as he approaches 30 years old. Honestly though, I can’t think of any players who went from 50/60pt forwards to 80/90pt ones as they closed in on their 30s. I hope Nuge has a massive season and finished the year with career highs in everything.

BLH’s Thoughts: Zach Hyman is rolling too. That hatty vs. Nashville brought his goal totals to four in his last five games. He’s tacked on four assists too. Tyson Barrie has six points in his last half dozen minus one as well.

You know who’s ice cold but continues to get more ice time that some other players who might be more skilled? Mattias Janmark. Can you remember the last time he got his name on the scoresheet for something other than a penalty? I mean, if the Oilers are showcasing Puljujarvi (he scored last time Edmonton and St. Louis played…), wouldn’t it make sense to actually play the guy more than ten minutes a night? Did Woodcroft see how good Jesse looked when he had two shifts with 97 and 29?

What do you think? Does Jesse spend Christmas celebrating or packing up his belongings and heading elsewhere? Let me know in the comments below.

The Blues have three wins in their last ten games and are sliding fast. It’s a winnable game tonight in my opinion and the more wins Edmonton piles up here before Christmas, the more likely the pressure to make a panic trade begins to cease.

Keep an eye on Nick Leddy tonight. He’s been kryptonite for Connor for many years with his ability to keep up with 97. How the Oilers get matched up vs. the pairing of Krug/Faulk will be very interesting.

Equally intriguing will be how Craig Berube deploys his third line of Ivan Barbashev, Robert Thomas, and Jordan Kyrou. That’s a VERY dangerous trio of forwards.

Do you think we’ll get any shenanigans from Jordan Binnington tonight?