Puljujarvi’s Long Journey Seems Nearly Complete With Strong Camp

The Pittsburgh Penguins took a chance — some might say a flyer — on Jesse Puljujarvi last season. Their reward, and his, seem to have arrived, as the winger clearly sits on the cusp of making the opening night roster out of training camp.

It’s quite a tale of perseverance for the large Finn, who had an assist and skated well in Thursday’s preseason win at Columbus, playing on the right side with Rutger McGroarty and Kevin Hayes on what constituted a top line without most of the returning regulars.

Although that might have been a solid bookend to his preseason after the hat trick he notched in the team’s preseason opener Sept. 21 against Buffalo, he is again listed as part of the roster for Friday’s preseason finale, a rematch at home against Columbus in what could be essentially a dress rehearsal for the regular-season opener next week.

Puljujarvi, 26, is 6 feet 4 and 201 pounds and was a first-round pick, fourth overall, by the Edmonton Oilers in 2016. He topped out at 16 goals with Edmonton and spent his first several seasons splitting time between the NHL and AHL, and even in Finland with Karpat. Things just didn’t quite click.

He got traded to Carolina at the 2022-23 trade deadline, but by then it was clear he was dealing with physical issues. After that season, he had double hip resurfacing surgery. He joined the Penguins last fall on a PTO but spent most of his time off ice still going through rehab. He later signed a PTO with the Penguins’ AHL affiliate, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, where he four goals, nine points in 13 games.

Finally, in February, the Penguins signed him to a two-year contract with an $800,000 cap hit. He had three goals, four points in 22 games but didn’t quite jibe with his size and pedigree.

Then he had a long summer to continue to rehab and get his groove back.

“Night and day. I think it’s night and day,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said after Thursday’s game of Puljujarvi’s transformative offseason. “I think he’s so much stronger. I think his skating is much better. That was a very difficult rehab process that he went though last year. He worked extremely hard to get to the point where he could even play last year. So to have the full summer to continue to get stronger, I think his skating is night and day, and I think his confidence is growing.

“For me, he’s been one of the guys in this training camp if you would ask me to single out a few guys, he would be one that I think has had an extremely good training camp. So he put himself in the conversation for this Pittsburgh Penguins roster.”

When asked to name some players who stood out against the Blue Jackets, Sullivan named Puljujarvi first, saying he “again had a strong game.”

Puljujarvi feels good about his camp.

“It’s been a good couple weeks at this training camp, pretty tough. Skating a lot. There’s good competition every practice,” he said. “I had a good summer, really big for me after last year. I’m more ready, for sure. The biggest thing is to give everything you have, skate well, be strong with the puck, make good plays.”

It’s been a long journey.

“It was a rough couple years after everything that happened,” he said. “My body started feeling good again, and I started finding my own game and prove I’m an NHL player.”

The Penguins have certainly noticed.