Yesterday, as a result of probably the dirtiest hit of the season, the NHL decided that it had had enough of Connor McDavid’s tough guy act and decided to sit him down for two games. And during what Oilers CEO Bob Nicholson described as a “critical” point in Edmonton’s season no less.
Look, Connor caught Leddy high. No denying that. Did he deserve a suspension? Not. One. Bit. I don’t think McDavid is happy at all and the fact that the Oilers CEO prepared a statement for this is pretty telling with regards to how the organization feels about the suspension.
That said, the timing probably couldn’t be better for 97 as an individual. Meaning, he was just coming off of a sickness and you could tell he wasn’t 100% vs the Islanders. A couple games off to recharge will probably be a good thing for him.
Now, if I were him and I was legitimately pissed off, maybe I’d take an extra game off after the suspension was up. Maybe the one where the Oilers play the Maple Leafs on national television. I mean, how many times have we seen McDavid get molested in the corners or slashed driving past a defender and nothing get called because “he’s too fast”?
If the NHL is making a statement here, that it’s not biased or there’s no favoritism here, then I hope that they instruct their refs to call every infraction against these stars too. Not just McDavid either. The league HAS to do a much better job of protecting its money-makers.
The NHL has done NOTHING to help its stars and guess what this might end up doing? It might end up gifting Jack Hughes or Kappo Kakko to the Oilers this summer…
Thank you, NHL!
NEW QUESTIONS ARISE IN THE PULJUJARVI DEBACLE
As I was listening to Jason Gregor’s show, I heard him say something very interesting,
The agent coming out last Friday to say maybe he should get traded when he knew at that time his was injured is the most ridiculous unprofessional thing he could do. All he did is throw gasoline on it. You couldn’t have traded him, he was injured. (source)
The agent knew about the injury?!! What the fack?! If that’s the case then Jesse should indeed get rid of this guy because he’s screwing everything up.
But then there was this quote from Keith Gretzky’s media avail yesterday morning,
Q: Do you think that had a bearing on how he was playing?
A: I think it was there a little bit for a while and it hasn’t improved. It’s gotten a little bit worse. They’ve tried different things and now this is the best route.
BOTH PARTIES HAVE KNOWN ABOUT THIS INJURY FOR SOME TIME NOW! Is what I’m lead to believe here…
Egg on my face… I was wrong. We move on.
But then there’s this issue of trust. I think most people were coming to the conclusion that perhaps Jesse’s knee had been hurt. After he was drafted he had surgery on his knee, therefore that is a logical conclusion to come to, right? Yesterday, John Shannon came out and told the world that the injury might not be a knee one.
Well, how in the hell would John Shannon be privy to that if someone close to Bob Nicholson (if not Nicholson himself) wasn’t leaking the information?
Now we’re on to boiling down the motivations of the agent in going public about moving on and the team in leaking out the information to Rishaug.
It’s very messy right now and for what? We’ve got the team talking through John Shannon and the agent talking through Mark Spector. To me, it doesn’t sound like anybody is looking for a peaceful resolve regardless of what I’ve been told privately.
One theory from the agent’s perspective might be that if Jesse goes on IR from season-ending surgery, he can’t go to the AHL. The AHL assignment seems to be a constant factor here.
Puljujarvi’s @Condors career is over b4 it started. Because he played 11 #oilers games at 18, his accrued seasons needed to lose waivers exemption reduced from 5 to 3. Will need to clear next yr. need injury to not harm summer training – need him to be a player next year.
— OriginalPouzar (@coopsie39) February 22, 2019
Now I’m not 100% certain on OP’s tweet here but I trust his word. He’s a man of high character.
It’s a clever play on Markus Lehto’s part if it is true. He’d have to clear waivers next season in order to be sent down. No doubt he’d probably get claimed and in a roundabout way, has more or less forced a trade.
Another theory might be that both parties had agreed on a trade and wanted to get things done as quickly as possible in order to be able to make said deal at the draft (Thanks Mari!). Which makes a ton of sense given that’s probably when he’d have been traded anyhow.
The one problem I have with that scenario is, how are the Oilers going to get even close to what they’re asking for from other teams in return for Puljujarvi? Also, when is he supposed to raise his value?
The most prominent result of all of this is the one I posted yesterday where Jesse gets moved with Milan Lucic to a team like Ottawa who needs to hit the cap floor next year.
But, another possibility that is creeping into the public forum is the KHL.
Bob Stauffer mentioned a Finnish team playing in the KHL where “Jesse could make a million dollars tax-free.” That club happens to be Jokerit and if I’m not mistaken, is managed by former Oiler great Jari Kurri. Their coach is Lauri Marjamaki, who you might remember as the guy who dressed Puljujarvi at the World Championships a couple of years ago but kept him at the end of the bench. I’m not sure about that dynamic. Marjamaki seems to be well regarded, so you never know.
Maybe a season overseas would do a world of good. Jesse is only 20-years-old right now and there’s plenty of time to right the ship here. What better way to keep him in the family than to have him playing for Kurri eh?
I think the bottom line during all of this is that the team thinks their getting screwed by the agent, how else would the likes of Ryan Rishaug, John Shannon, Bob Stauffer, and Jason Gregor be getting their info? But also, the agent doesn’t trust the team one bit due to said leakage.
Just an aside, on Oilers Now, during the segment with Elliotte Friedman, did anybody else hear Bob say on his show yesterday that he had dinner with John Shannon the other night?…
I learn some new detail every day on this and I’m willing to bet I’ll learn something new today as well. You’ll have to wait until my next post to read what that is.
Big game tonight vs. Anaheim. Gotta get these two points in regulation if that 1% chance of the playoffs is to grow much and it’s going to be hard without the services of that goon Connor McDavid.
