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Reinhart will have to get even better with the puck and far more cranky and nasty when he doesn’t have it to become a Top 4 NHL d-man at this late date in his prospect life. Maybe he should take some battle drills from New Jersey coach Scott Stevens, just like Adam Larsson did earlier in his career. But it looks like Reinhart would get the job done in capable fashion in a bottom-pairing if an NHL team needed him there. And perhaps next year the Oilers are going to need him there, depending on what happens in expansion, trades and free agency.

As for Puljujarvi, the 18-year-old (he won’t turn 19 until May) is finally where he belongs right now in his hockey journey, able to rush the puck, take some chances, create and run the power play outside of the glare of the NHL. As he grows into his 6-foot, 4-inch frame he’s going to gain in strength and coordination, and you can see the odd wobble in his game now, but the big, smooth kid had a strong game against Stockton even as he failed to put up a point (he’s got five points in six AHL games now).

Puljujarvi showed off his soft hands setting up teammates, as seen in these three sequences, the final one featuring a dipsy doodle where he might well have lowered his shoulder after that first dipsy and drove hard to the net, an element of his game he still needs to work on, just like Leon Draisaitl had to do at the same age.

He’s getting plenty of power play time, and he’s right where he should be on the left half-wall, ready to snap off a shot or zip a pass. He’s got excellent vision to make the cross-seam pass, and in Connor McDavid he’s got just the teammate to set up repeatedly one day soon enough in Edmonton.