With the Bakersfield Condors needing a win tonight to stay alive in the AHL playoff race, it’s all hands on deck for the Edmonton Oilers’ affiliate. If they’re eliminated however, Darren Dreger of TSN reports that the Oilers will likely call up Jesse Puljujarvi as an option in the NHL playoffs. It’s not clear if they’d use him right away, or if he’d just practice with the team as a so-called “Black Ace”. 
Puljujarvi was the fourth-overall pick in last year’s draft—somewhat surprisingly, after Columbus selected Pierre-Luc Dubois at #3—but struggled early in the season to find a place among the Edmonton forward group. After several weeks of playing sparingly on the fourth line, Puljujarvi was sent to the AHL where he has put together a nice season. Still just 18-years old and playing against men sometimes twice his age, the Finnish winger has 28 points in 37 games and has improved his play throughout the season. His big frame and skating ability project as a high-end winger in the NHL, capable at both ends of the rink.
With the Oilers just one game into their first-round series with the San Jose Sharks, there is no guarantee they’ll even last longer than the Condors. If the AHL squad wins their last two games, while the Stockton Heat lose theirs (they play each other tonight), the Condors would get into the playoffs as the final seed in the Pacific division. If they lose, or the Heat gain even a single point, they would be eliminated.
The Oilers have relied on their top-six quite a bit this season, and continued to do so in game one against the Sharks. Iiro Pakarinen and David Desharnais both played fewer than ten minutes, while Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins all broke 20—the latter leading the team thanks to over six minutes of short-handed play. Should the Oilers feel the young Puljujarvi is ready to contribute, or suffer an injury to an important winger it is easy to understand why they’d want him around.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
I can’t imagine AHL playoff implications change their strategy at the NHL level, right?