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Recent news is indicating that Ken Holland and the Edmonton Oilers will extend a qualifying offer to Jesse Puljujarvi, preventing the young Finn from hitting the open market.
The move would come as no surprise as the team is actively shopping the former 4th overall pick after trade demands became public last week.
The qualifying offer, if accepted by Puljujarvi, would be worth 874k for 1 year.
Corrected tweet: Oilers will be qualifying Jesse Puljujarvi by Tuesday's 5ET pm deadline. According to @CapFriendly they must offer him a 5% raise, or just over $874K. It ensures Puljujarvi remains EDM property, should he indeed go to Europe as agent predicts.
— Mark Spector (@SportsnetSpec) June 24, 2019
Initially drafted by the Oilers in 2016, Jesse Puljujarvi was expected to jump into the lineup and become an offensive force alongside the likes of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
Instead of leaving Jesse in Finland to develop, the Oilers continued their decade-long tradition of fast-tracking their first-round prospects to the NHL where he struggled to adapt to the North American game.
Coming off his third season in the organization, Puljujarvi has been the subject of multiple promotions and demotions between the NHL and AHL, only picking up 37 NHL points along the way
To add insult to injury, Puljujarvi suffered a critical lower-body injury midway through last season which ended his 2018/19 campaign.
If Ken Holland can’t maneuver a trade or convince Puljujarvi to sign it is expected that he will spend the season in Europe, most likely with Karpat in Finland’s Liiga.
Jujhar Khaira, Colin Larkin, Tyler Vesel and Robin Norell are other players that the Oilers will have to decide on before the RFA qualifying offer deadline hits tomorrow evening.
Earlier this week it was announced that Edmonton would not qualify depth forwards Tobias Rieder or Ty Rattie.