After scoring his first NHL goal in his first game, Jesse Puljujarvi had just seven assists in the next 27 games. On several occasions, he was a healthy scratch. The 2016 fourth overall pick has a bright future ahead of him, but he simply wasn’t ready to slot into the game day lineup.
Puljujarvi looked great at times on the attack with Connor McDavid but mostly found himself on the third line. He logged around 11 minutes a night, and became a regular on the bottom six. The Oilers assigned him to the Bakersfield Condors in January, a move that most Oilers fans believed was long overdue.