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Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli has said the team might need one more forward. Should the team sign Patrick Maroon, Anthony Duclair, Lance Bouma, Nick Shore or someone else? And what is this talk about the team maybe moving out Jesse Puljujarvi? Huh!? David Staples and Bruce McCurdy of The Cult of Hockey dig in.

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There’s major consternation today in Oil Country, mainly because prominent Oilers insider Bob Stauffer of the Oilers radio network made a blunt assessment of the Jesse Puljujarvi’s future with the team on Oilers Now , comparing the 20-year-old Finnish winger to fellow Oilers forward prospect Kailer Yamamoto, who will be 20 in September.

Said Stauffer on Monday: “Well it’s simple for Puljujarvi, if he doesn’t gain some traction at some point, he may be finding himself having a new address. Because I think the Oilers are going to have to make a decision with him. Cause I think that Yamamoto — and you saw Yamamoto the other night in the development camp — I mean, he dominated and he has the confidence of the other players and that was evident last year when he was up in the NHL as well.”

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Stauffer went on to discuss with fellow commentator Reid Wilkins the near futures of Yamamoto, Puljujarvi and incoming winger Tobias Rieder, and where they might end up.

“I’m still not sure what Jesse Puljujarvi is,” Wilkins said. “Is he a sniper that can finish? Well, he shows flashes of that but then it goes away. Is he a playmaker who can forecheck and free up pucks and then get into the scoring area? Again he has shown flashes of that but it hasn’t been there consistently. I think Yamamoto thinks the game better than Puljujarvi and that gives him an advantage.”

It could be that Ty Rattie plays the first 20 games next season with Connor McDavid, then Yamamoto takes over, Stauffer suggested.

Stauffer added Oilers players like to play with Yamamoto and suggested the players have some say in who their linemates are: “You know the guys liked Yamamoto last year because they knew he was smart and he could put the puck and he was kind of unlucky not have been more productive.”

Rieder also has an ally in Leon Draisaitl, Stauffer said: “That’s a big guy to have as an advocate for you.”

My take

At the Cult of Hockey