Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
If you’re playing hockey in June, you’ve had a long season.
And if you’re still working your way back from bilateral hip surgery two years ago, the road has felt even longer.
“I feel like when I started in Pittsburgh (in October), that’s like a couple years ago,” jokes Charlotte Checkers forward Jesse Puljujärvi. “But it’s still the same season.”
In June of 2023, Puljujärvi had major surgery on both hips, launching a long rehabilitation period with no guarantees.
But hockey can be funny that way. Puljujärvi began the season with the Penguins organization. With his playing time waning, he was given his release by Pittsburgh to join the Checkers on a tryout deal on Feb. 10, inking an NHL deal with the parent Florida Panthers in March. Now he is just four wins away from lifting the Calder Cup.
“I’m really, really happy where I am,” Puljujärvi said. “Happy to be part of this organization, this team. We have a really nice group here with the guys.”
The 27-year-old Puljujärvi’s 387-game NHL career has been a winding journey ever since the Edmonton Oilers selected him fourth overall in the 2016 NHL Draft. That same year he broke into the NHL with Edmonton, playing 28 games while also splitting time with the Bakersfield Condors. He eventually stuck with Edmonton full-time. Then the injuries started to develop. His 2018-19 season ended with an arthroscopic hip procedure, certainly a concerning issue for someone who was just 20 years old at the time. He went home to Finland for the 2019-20 campaign with Liiga club Kärpät Oulu before going back to the Oilers. But his production dropped off, and a trade to the Carolina Hurricanes in February 2023. That opportunity failed to go anywhere, either.
His career came to a complete halt in June 2023 when he had hip surgery. But maybe that ended up being exactly the medical reset that Puljujärvi needed. He played 57 regular-season games this season – 31 in the NHL with the Penguins and Panthers, and 26 more in the AHL with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Charlotte – and has eight points in 12 Calder Cup Playoff games for the Checkers.
His primary focus on the road back?
“My biggest thing for sure is skating,” Puljujärvi explained. “When I’m able to skate well, good things happen on the ice, and so I think everything is about my skating.”
Puljujärvi has been a key part of head coach Geordie Kinnear’s lineup in Charlotte.
“I feel honestly the most important thing as a coach, and especially a new player coming in, is to build trust,” Kinnear said. “[We] needed to develop a relationship. And as I look at [Puljujärvi], I think the word ‘fun’ was missing a little bit. And obviously when you win, it’s fun. It’s a real fun group to be around. And I’ve never seen a player, including myself, be the best version of themselves if they’ve never had fun. We kind of lose sight of that at times. Work extremely hard, but when you have that fun part, that allows you to maximize your skill set, be the best version of yourself.”
Fittingly, it was Puljujärvi who officially sent the Checkers off to the Calder Cup Finals. With the Checkers up 3-0 in the series and Game 4 tied late in regulation, Puljujärvi fought through a check, forced a Laval defensive miscue and then flipped the puck past goaltender Jacob Fowler with 2:04 to play.
And the Checkers are having plenty of fun right now as they gear up to face Abbotsford. On the ice, they have won eight games in a row and are the first Panthers affiliate ever to reach the Finals. Off it, the Charlotte area offers plenty of good weather and team-bonding opportunities.
“Everyone is really excited,” Puljujärvi said. “We’re really looking forward to the puck drop on Friday.”
On the American Hockey League beat for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.
