Revelation about Jesse Puljujärvi’s NHL draft – this is the player the Oilers would have wanted
Jesse Puljujärvi being drafted by the Edmonton Oilers with the fourth pick in the 2016 draft surprised practically all NHL followers at the time, as nearly everyone believed that Columbus Blue Jackets’ then-general manager Jarmo Kekäläinen would take the Finnish prospect with the third pick.
Now, interesting details from that year’s NHL draft have come to light. Longtime NHL reporter Tom Gazzola reveals on the Oilersnation podcast that Edmonton was prepared to draft a defenseman with their fourth pick.
– They wanted Mihail Sergachev. They needed defensemen at that time. Remember how poorly the team defended back then. They had already drafted Darnell Nurse a couple of years earlier. The general consensus within the Oilers was that the pick would be Sergachev, Gazzola states.
Kekäläinen’s decision to draft Pierre-Luc Dubois with the third pick changed the situation in an instant.
– When Puljujärvi fell to fourth, we were all like wow! We thought the Oilers had hit the jackpot with Puljujärvi, the reporter recalls.
Ultimately, the player that the Oilers initially sought, Sergachev, was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens with the ninth pick in the first round. However, the Russian only played four games with the Canadiens before the team traded him to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Currently, Sergachev, who has won two Stanley Cup championships with the Lightning, represents the Utah Mammoth.
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