REPORT: Former 4th overall pick hints at LEAVING the NHL

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Ryan
December 7, 2022 (8:35 PM)

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When you are drafted in the top 10 of the National Hockey League entry draft, you get a lot of pressure put on you, being a top 5 pick is even worse.

When the Edmonton Oilers drafted Jesse Puljujarvi 4th overall back in 2016, they thought they were getting a superstar player that fell into their lap at 4. He had ripped up the World Juniors scoring 5 goals and 17 points in 7 games, and played very well as a kid in the SM-liiga league.

Unfortunately for Puljujarvi thought things have not gone so well for him in the NHL. Throughout his career so far he has scored 47 goals and 104 points in 285 games.

While these numbers would be great for someone who was a late round pick, but when you are selected 4th overall a lot of pressure is put on you to produce a high number of points.

Things got so bad at one point that in the 2019-20 season, he actually returned to Finland to play for Karpat, the team he was drafted from.

This season, despite getting quite a few chances to play with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, Puljujarvi is still having troubles producing. He has 1 goal and 6 points in 26 games on the season and his struggles are starting to really get to him:

«Twenty games in and I have one goal. It's sad, I've been thinking a lot how to do things differently. Right now, I just don't have the answer.

Of course I'd like to be a productive top-line player, But right now, it looks like I can't do that in NHL. Maybe some other league.»

The Oilers General Manager Ken Holland has been very active in trying to trade Puljujarvi, but nothing has come from it yet:

«It's a hard league. That's one of the reasons why I leave young players in the American League as long as possible, This is not a development league. This is a league where you're judged on what you do, and not on potential. So when I hear a player like Jesse saying that he's lost his confidence, it's not the first time I've heard that.

«And I don't really have a solution. That's my response: It's a hard league.
-Ken Holland

Credit: Urheilu