UPDATED: Puljujarvi Requests Termination; Penguins Clarify Situation

PHILADELPHIA — The debate over Jesse Puljujarvi’s place in the Pittsburgh Penguins organization will come to a close Sunday.

The team placed Puljujarvi, 26, on unconditional waivers for the purpose of terminating his contract Saturday.

Elliotte Friedman, who works for the Canadian broadcast rights holder Sportsnet, broke the news.

UPDATE: The Penguins released a statement via email from general manager Kyle Dubas which clears up the situation.

“A year ago, we committed to working with Jesse as he returned after substantial hip surgeries in the summer of 2023. Jesse put in tremendous work over the off-season and returned to Pittsburgh this fall in terrific shape and had a great training camp, earning his way to regular ice time out of camp.

“As the season has gone on, we have worked with Jesse and his representative Markus Lehto to try and ensure that his hard work returning from serious injury was not lost and to try and find him greater opportunity.

“Over the last week, those discussions have led to us granting Jesse his request for contract termination so he may explore opportunities with other organizations around the world. In the end, we felt that was the fair thing to do given the work Jesse has put in to getting himself back to this level.”

Assuming he clears at 2 p.m., Puljujarvi will be an unrestricted free agent. The Finnish winger was re-assigned to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins this week. He did not need to clear waivers for the assignment because he had already cleared waivers on Dec. 31.

The Penguins signed Puljujarvi to a free agent tryout last season after he recovered from hip surgery. His initial 10-day tryout did not result in a contract offer, and he signed a professional tryout agreement with the WBS Penguins before ultimately earning an NHL contract.

This season, Puljujarvi had nine points, including three goals in 26 NHL games.