The Edmonton Oilers announced on Wednesday that the team has signed Jesse Puljujarvi to a two-year contract extension, finally ending the long, drawn-out break between the player and the hockey club.
There had been a lot of talk over the past few months that the deal was in the works and that Puljujarvi was open to a return with a change in coaching and management. But, for some reason, things still hadn’t come to a close on a deal that would see the disgruntled but talented winger return.
GM Ken Holland seemed optimistic in his interviews this week that something would get done and if it did, the Oilers would seemingly get a top draft pick back for the 2020-21 season at a bargain rate. In fact, the Oilers get Puljujarvi back for two seasons and at $1.175 million per season.
Specifically, Puljujarvi will earn $900K in 2020-21 and $1.45MM in 2021-22, giving him a cap hit of $1.175MM.
This is a really good price for the Oilers if Puljujarvi can somehow figured out how to translate his success in Finland over to success in the NHL.
Puljujarvi scored 53 points (24 goals, 29 assists) in 56 games with Karpat last season and has 37 points (17 goals, 20 assists) in 139 career NHL games with Edmonton.
Time to Get Down to Business of Helping Oilers
At this point, the player is signed, the drama is over and Edmonton and Puljujarvi can get down to the business of seeing if he’s anywhere near the player they believed they drafted.
Credit should go to Holland on this deal. He was extremely patient as many Oilers fans called for the GM to trade the player if he didn’t want to be here. But, he refused to take less than he believed Puljujarvi might be worth. It looks like that patience has paid off.
Next: Oilers First Steps to Re-Signing Ethan Bear, Qualify Bear and Lagesson
