Quote:
Originally Posted by nobles_point
Puljujarvi is overrated. At a Puck Talks event in Toronto in September a few Finnish and Swedish journalists were on a panel as they were in town for the World Cup. They mentioned that Toronto may regret passing on Laine, but definetly not Puljujarvi, as from their viewpoint he doesn't have elite hockey sense. They mentioned he will be a good player, just not elite. That was the take of the Finnish journalist especially, who would have a vested interest.
The Hockey News take isn't surprising as the magazine's editor is Ken Campbell. Ken is a dinosaur that orginizes and cultivates less insight than viewing this board using critical reflection.
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I was at the Vancouver - Edmonton game on Friday. It was a fun game (as a fan of hockey in general). One thing about Puljujarvi that stood out to me is how tired he looks. He had a partial breakaway with one tired D man back and another Oilers forward with him. He basically gave up on the play, passed it away, then shot over the net when it came back to him. He does backcheck fairly well, and in that sense is likely to be a more 2-way player than Matthews and Laine, but I would wholeheartedly agree he is a significant step below Matthews and Laine in terms of offensive threat. And as a young man in the league, usually those guys have endless energy. He looked like he ran out of gas on several occasions.