EDMONTON — Jesse Puljujarvi returned to Edmonton as a healthy scratch, a punch in the pride for a young player who was never supposed to be two hip surgeries and three teams into his National Hockey League career at just 25 years old.
But somehow, it’s never gone the way it was supposed to go for Jesse Puljujarvi. For whatever reason, the guy that everyone loves never got that love back from the game of hockey.
“I trust myself,” he told us Sunday. “At some point I'm going to be a good player to this league.
“This is my journey.”
He’s in the thick of that journey now, this near-perfect physical specimen who was all but anointed as an NHL star when he was named the MVP of his World Junior tournament, then went fourth overall to Edmonton at the 2016 draft.
Since then he’d had two hip surgeries — an arthroscopic procedure in 2019, then a far more invasive double hip surgery last summer. He’s wound his way through Edmonton, Carolina and now Pittsburgh, where Penguins GM Kyle Dubas signed him to a two-year deal at $800,000 per.
He signed with the Penguins on Feb. 5. So if this season turns out to be a bit of a test run, a healthy Puljujarvi can arrive at camp in September prepared to fulfill his promise. Prepared to find that elusive role that suits him, whatever that might be.
As a teenager, did he have any idea how challenging this “journey” would be?
“Not any clue. Not ANY clue,” he said, shaking his head outside the Penguins dressing room. “But this is what has been, and I have to take it.
“When I'm playing good hockey I need to be my best. Take those baby steps to get that potential of what I have,” he said, his English that little bit better than it was when last we spoke in Edmonton. “Thank God I'm still very young (at) 25, this summer 26. So I’m going to work hard and get to be, at some point, a good player again.”
Pointless in his eight games he’s played so far for Pittsburgh, and healthy scratched in five of the last seven Pens games, it may be a blessing that Puljujarvi’s return to the city that loved him so dearly is put off for a season.
Tomorrow, he may return with confidence and maybe even some swagger. Today, Puljujarvi is that classic example of a high pick in search of what his identity truly is. He is neither confident nor cocky, more steadfast in his belief that whatever the role turns out to be, he’s going to seek it out and thrive at it.
He is Dan Cleary, or Andrew Cogliano, a still young-ish first-rounder in the throes of realizing that the road map they gave him on draft day might not be the right one. Yet, at the same time searching for whatever path leads to a regular NHL job — on any line, for any team.
What does Pittsburgh head coach Mike Sullivan, the Grinch who scratched Puljujarvi, see in the player?
“A guy that brings a lot of size, a lot of reach. A good puck pursuit guy who can get in on the forecheck,” Sullivan listed off. “Potentially a guy that could be really good at the net front with his size and strength.
“Those are the … areas where he could play to his strengths. And those are the things that we've talked about with him.”
Sully has been around the game a long time, and anyone with his chops has seen this movie before.
How many coaching staffs will it take before player and plan intersect? How many teams, before Puljujarvi can find the perfect recipe of good health, a role that suits him, and a game that can hold down the role?
If Puljujarvi can’t answer that, then there’s no way Sullivan can.
“That's a process that he's going through right now,” the coach said. “I think all young players go through that process, regardless of where they were drafted. All high picks, there's an expectation that is associated with those types of picks. Sometimes it takes a little bit longer for players to figure out what they are, and what their niche is.
“How they can carve themselves a role on a specific team, where they can bring something positive to help a team win. And I think Jesse's going through that process right now.”
It’s a journey, like Puljujarvi says.
One that, for the moment, was likely better served out of the spotlight of a Rogers Place return.
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