Promising developments in Jesse Puljujarvi trade!

If trade chatter wasn’t already focused on Edmonton Oilers’ Jesse Puljujarvi, it got even more when the forward was made a healthy scratch for Evander Kane’s return to the roster on Tuesday. He was inserted back in the lineup on Thursday against the Tampa Bay Lightning as Mattias Janmark was sick and unable to play.

It has been reported that general manager Ken Holland has been working the phones to make a deal happen, and now insider Frank Seravalli of Daily Face-Off reports that the Oilers have had some promising conversations with a couple of teams regarding Puljujarvi.

“They did make those players available to other teams and I’m told the Oilers actually engaged in conversation with a couple teams about someone like Jesse Puljujarvi and I think the conversations were actually pretty promising on that front. Puljujarvi did generate some interest from a handful of teams in the NHL, which is good news for the Oilers as it gets closer to the trade deadline because a lot of people were wondering if the Oilers might have to actually trade an asset in order to move on from Puljujarvi and his $3 million cap hit.”

This does sound promising, especially to fans who have feared that Puljujarvi could be packaged with an asset in order to move him before the March 3 trade deadline. However, his agent Markus Lehto is not expecting an imminent trade for his client.

“I don’t think it will happen on this particular date,” Lehto said Timo Kunnari of Finnish outlet Iltalehti, per Google Translate. “Later in the spring, when the deadline for player trades approaches, these things will start to happen again on a larger scale.”

The sad truth however is that Puljujarvi’ stock has really tumbled since last summer when it wasn’t that high to begin with… That fear of losing a draft pick or prospect is legitimate.

The press box could have motivated Puljujarvi to prove his worth or up his value on Thursday night, however, he failed to record a point and ended with a -1 rating.

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