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Game Day 74 Oilers vs Senators

This in from former Edmonton Oilers ace scorer, asst. coach and Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster Craig Simpson some critical words about young Oilers forward Jesse Puljujarvi.

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Speaking on the Oil’s handling of Puljujarvi onOilers Now — which sees Puljujarvi getting third line minutes and no first team power play time — Simpson supported the current approach: “I’m not worried about the way he’s being handled… Not to be negative on a young kid, I just think he’s got the growing up he needs to do to learn how to be a real pro every day. I don’t think he’s at that level yet. I’m not saying that he’s a lazy player but I would say that part of the teaching and development for him is to keep the chain pretty tight around the neck and the leash pretty short. Because he hasn’t shown that, ‘OK, I get it and I got to work harder on this. I got to be in the gym more. I got to do extra after to get my level of play, to keep improving every day, to get my foot speed a little faster, to be a little harder on the puck every time.’ I think that’s where you’re seeing not letting the leash go and giving him gratuitous minutes. Just because he is a prospect and a young guy, I think they’re really trying to instil the fire in there and the understanding of how much harder you have to learn to play. I think this is a good development year for him. He hasn’t been let free to run but he’s been give more of a leash than obviously the year before. The fact that he’s had some success so he gets a feel of what it’s like to score and how you got to play to be successful, but I would expect a lot of growth and a lot of growing up over the summer.”