Jesse Puljujarvi

This Season So Far

The 2022-23 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.

Last Season

14 goals and 22 assists in 65 games — 36 points, a career high, with a plus-22 and 20 penalty minutes at 16:14 a night, the 56th percentile among forwards.

58.6 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 952 minutes — the 15th-highest of the 393 qualified forwards — and 58.6 per cent of the attempts, the 10th-highest. His ice went 52-28 against an expectation of 53.64-37.96.

Sixteen playoff games for two goals and an assist.

The Finesse Game

9.10 shots per 60 is the 79th percentile among forwards and fourteen goals on 160 shots is 8.8 per cent, the 26th. The volume is good and the finishing is not, and that gap is the whole of the case against him.

55 per cent came from the slot at a median of 22 feet — the locations are right. Nine per cent of a season’s shots going in from those places is a bad year rather than a bad shooter, and 46 goals in 259 career games says the same.

1.81 even-strength points per 60 is the 51st percentile with 19 per cent of his points on the power play. He is not a power-play creation and he barely gets on it.

1.02 giveaways per 60 is the 19th percentile against 1.54 takeaways at the 44th — a genuinely good ledger for a man who plays as much attacking-zone hockey as he does.

The Physical Game

6-4 and 216. 4.61 hits per 60 is the 58th percentile and 0.85 blocks the 8th. He forechecks and does not defend, which at his deployment is the job.

22.7 mph is the 64th percentile, 7.4 bursts over 20 mph per 60 the 72nd, and 9.76 miles per 60 the 60th. An ordinary skating file, at 6-4.

45.4 per cent of his even-strength time was spent in the attacking zone, the 97th percentile among forwards — the highest of any Oiler.

The Intangibles

Fourth overall in 2016, and 259 NHL games at 24 with 98 points.

Here is the number that ought to change how he is discussed. He takes 58.6 per cent of the chances, and away from Connor McDavid he takes 56.0 over 606 attempts. Away from Darnell Nurse 57.2, away from Zach Hyman 57.1, away from Leon Draisaitl 58.8, away from Cody Ceci 57.1, away from Evan Bouchard 59.5.

Six team-mates, six separations, and the number never drops below 56. He is the only Oiler forward of whom that is true — Evander Kane falls to 41.5 without McDavid and Kailer Yamamoto to 44.4.

A fourth overall pick with 46 goals in 259 games is a disappointment by the draft slot and the best play-driver on the club by the pair data. Both things are in the file and only one of them gets said.