St. Louis Blues: Jesse Puljujarvi Intriguing, Not Worth The Risk

The St. Louis Blues have not always shied away from players with a little baggage if they could make an impact. However, going down this road with Edmonton again might not be in the Blues best interest.

The St. Louis Blues have never been a team that goes looking for trouble makers just because they have some talent. They leave that to the NFL.

However, they have not shied away from guys that have a little baggage in their name either. Sometimes it has worked in their favor to take a risk and sometimes they came up snake eyes.

In the case of Jesse Puljujarvi, the disgruntled forward whose rights currently reside in Edmonton, it’s not just the personal baggage that make a potential deal untenable. The current makeup of the Blues squad stands in the way as well.

When I first heard Puljujarvi might be available, I personally thought it would be worth it for the Blues to look into. He came into the league with a lot of promise and hype from the analysts.

It is not just the failure to live up to the hype that should keep the Blues away though. The current roster situation for St. Louis as well as the scuttlebutt from the Oilers locker room is enough to turn me off any potential deal.

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On the surface, Puljujarvi seems like he would be easy to obtain. The Oilers appear tired of dealing with his demands and want the situation resolved.

Puljujarvi has made several claims that he might simply go home and play in Finland. The Blues have been through that with Vladimir Sobotka, so the Oilers might be in no hurry to give up his rights or they might take whatever they can get to end the situation.

I think the Blues could have Puljujarvi for a draft pick and maybe not even a high one. The problem there is there really is no room.

If St. Louis brings back all their restricted free agents, they already don’t have cap room for Pat Maroon and he has already done more to deserve a raise from the Blues. Puljuarvi has more upside than Maroon, but has yet to really prove he will blossom into anything but a player that got a lot of publicity coming in.

The Blues could trade Mackenzie MacEachern or Zach Sanford to clear up roster space and cap room, but they seem to fit the Blues current mold better than Puljujarvi. St. Louis does need to always keep an eye out for more talent, but so far Puljujarvi only has nine more points than Sanford in his career and has played 40 more games than Sanford.

Then, there is the question of how coachable he is and whether he will put in the work. According to Kurt Leavin‘s sources at the Edmonton Journal, Puljujarvi has not endeared himself to his teammates thus far in the NHL.

"His teammates struggled to connect with him on the ice. Often, especially on the power play. Puljujarvi would repeatedly head to the wrong spot. He would literally bump into them. And when they would try to explain it to him their words of advice seemed to fall flat. Was he not listening…not understanding…or not agreeing? Eventually, although none of these players would ever dream of saying it in public…I am made to understand that they quietly asked just not to play with him anymore. There’s no suggestion they disliked him as a guy. Just that he was just hard to play with.Did Jesse perhaps just not understand? I think we’d all have time for that issue, right? Well…there has been a lot of ink spilled on Puljujarvi’s perceived language barrier. However, one particular person who was in that dressing room last season was asked about that very factor, and he answered:“No, he knows way more that he lets on”.That same person (who shall remain anonymous) was then asked, “So what’s the problem with Jesse, really”?The answer, shrugged back, was once again: “He’s just stubborn”."

St. Louis has already had enough of this sort of thing. Up until the Blues won the Stanley Cup, we were still dealing with questions of Vladimir Tarasenko‘s work ethic, positioning on the ice and cohesiveness with certain teammates. He is, at least, scoring 30-plus goals. Do you really want to deal with the same potential issues in a player that has yet to show he can consistently score double-digit goals?

Also, St. Louis has already been down this road with Edmonton’s leftovers. St. Louis kicked the tires on another highly drafted Oiler castoff in Nail Yakupov.

Similarly, there were questions about work ethic and personality. It did not work out in a different city, despite the change of scenery. Magnus Paajarvi, another Oilers first round pick, was not a success in a Blues uniform either.

None of these things individually should keep the Blues from looking into this kid if they honestly thought they might be able to turn him around. If nothing else, some of the teams in the Blues division might be giving him a look.

However, everything all wrapped around this situation makes me think the Blues should pass. At first glance, I was for the idea of seeing if they could squeeze him into their roster. Now, I just don’t think the talent is there the way the Oilers had hoped and there is no need to disrupt the Blues current chemistry on a flyer.

If he was willing to sign a two-way deal, maybe you could advocate still thinking about it. Even then, there might just not be a fit.