It appears the end of Jesse Puljujarvi’s contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins won’t yet mark the end of his stay in North America, as the former fourth-overall draft pick has signed a professional try-out contract with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers per the AHL Transactions Log. Puljujarvi has been added to the Charlotte lineup, with winger Josh Davies headed to the ECHL to open space in the lineup.
Puljujarvi agreed with the Penguins to a mutually terminate his contract on February 9th, after he passed through league-wide waivers. The decision came on the heels of Puljujarvi’s second assignment to the minor leagues on February 7th. He played his first AHL games of the season in January, recording three points across three games. But Puljujarvi couldn’t match that scoring at the NHL level – with just nine points in 26 NHL games this season. The performance was a continuation of Puljuarjvi’s struggles to score at the top flight. He has totaled a measly 29 points over his last 123 NHL games, spanning the last three seasons and four different clubs. Over that time, Puljujarvi has shot at just 5.7 percent and struggled to maintain roles in his team’s top-six.
Many expected Puljujarvi to follow his contract termination with a return to his home country of Finland, where he performed far better as a member of the Liiga’s Karpat. Puljujarvi made his Liiga debut in the 2014-15, at the age of just 16 years old. He caught fire right away, netting 11 points in his first 21 Liiga games and backing it with 13 points in 15 Mestis games, Finland’s second-tier pro league. Puljujarvi followed that performance with a stout 28 points in 50 games the following year, which proved enough to earn him a top-five selection in a loaded 2016 NHL Draft class.
Puljujarvi moved to North American pros immediately after his draft selection, and quickly fell into the rut of high-end AHL scoring – marked by 28 points in 39 games as a league rookie – but snakebitten NHL play – stamped by his 20 points in 65 games in his second NHL season. Puljujarvi fought to buck the trend in the Edmonton Oilers lineup and, when he couldn’t, opted to return to the Liiga for the 2019-20 and part of the 2020-21 seasons. He instantly returned to productivity, with 65 points in 72 games across the season-and-a-half stay. That proved a small spark, and Puljujarvi took advantage with 51 points in 120 NHL games in the two seasons after he returned. But those numbers couldn’t stick, and now it seems the former top Finn will opt to try and reinvigorate them by earning a chance in the minors, rather than immediately returning to Finland. That could be the landing spot should he not find a match in Charlotte, though – a storyline that both the Florida Panthers organization, and the hockey world, will surely monitor closely.