IIRC, Puljujarvi didn't have many deficiencies in his scouting reports, other than some questions as to how good he would be as a scorer. His IQ was really high, and he was a very good 200ft player for his age.
I do think that he is yet another player that the Oilers have wrecked. How salvageable he is remains to be seen. I look at a guy like Niederreiter as a possible comparable. Islanders forced him into the line-up before he was really ready for the NHL, and then put him in a position to fail. Managed to regain quite a bit of his game on the Wild, and looks like a stud in Carolina again. Can Puljujarvi be a Niederreiter, or will he be more like a Yakupov?
Even Nugent-Hopkins has been completely underwhelming in the NHL. He was supposed to be an elite playmaker with incredible vision - the type of playmaker that doesn't come around too often. I don't see it. Hall unquestionably became a better player outside of Edmonton. Remember MPS? Still hanging around the NHL, but just barely as an energy player. Did he leave Edmonton too late, or was he just way over-hyped and under-scouted?
Will be interesting to see what Edmonton does with him. I hope they get nothing for him for 3 logical reasons:
1) If they didn't properly scout Puljujarvi, then they deserve to be left with nothing.
2) If they messed up yet another (way) above average prospect and ruin what may have been a really great career, then they deserve to be left with nothing (less than nothing preferably).
3) Edmonton sucks, and the entire organization from the top town is an embarrassing blight on the NHL and all things good in this world, and should be disbanded and become nothing more than a cautionary tale that you really do reap what you sow.
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