Daily Faceoff Live: Oilers’ Jesse Puljujarvi generating interest in trade discussions

Daily Faceoff hockey analysts Frank Seravalli and Mike McKenna took a closer look at the Edmonton Oilers’ salary cap situation on Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live.

With forward Kailer Yamamoto currently on the long-term injured reserve list, the Oilers have a bit of time to make a move to ensure cap compliance when he gets back. Yamamoto is eligible to be activated on Feb. 12.

Seravalli indicated the Oilers have made a trio of forwards available in trade discussions, with one, in particular, generating notable interest: Jesse Puljujarvi, who has 10 points in 45 games this year.

Here’s an excerpt from the Oilers segment on Tuesday’s Daily Faceoff Live show.

Mike McKenna: Another topic to keep an eye on out in the Pacific is Kailer Yamamoto of the Edmonton Oilers. He’s been moved to LTIR, which doesn’t fully solve the Oilers’ cap issue. It kind of feels like it’s a bandaid covering up a deep cut. So, what’s next out there in Oil Country?

Frank Seravalli: Well, I don’t know if a deep cut is necessarily needed, but essentially what the Oilers have done is kick their cap problem down the road. Yamamoto has been dealing with a multitude of injuries this season, you can tell with his play and his point production he has not quite been right. This will give him a chance to not just heal up but also to mentally reset. He’s eligible to come off of LTIR on Feb. 12 and so that is the target date to circle, because if the Edmonton Oilers remain healthy otherwise to that point, then they’re going to have to make a corresponding salary cap move then to be cap compliant and continue to ice the same roster.

What happens then? The Oilers were preparing for this type of circumstance before Yamamoto was injured on Jan. 11. Ken Holland, their GM, put some feelers out to the rest of the NHL, not really a secret that the Oilers would’ve had to waive one of Derek Ryan, Jesse Puljujarvi, or Warren Foegele in order to make the cap situation work. They did make those players available to other teams and I’m told the Oilers actually engaged in conversation with a couple teams about someone like Jesse Puljujarvi and I think the conversations were actually pretty promising on that front. Puljujarvi did generate some interest from a handful of teams in the NHL, which is good news for the Oilers as it gets closer to the trade deadline because a lot of people were wondering if the Oilers might have to actually trade an asset in order to move on from Puljujarvi and his $3 million cap hit.

Watch the full episode here …