Meh deal for DAL. No real need of neither of Benning or Puljujärvi. No point moving a great defensive C for them.

Your about right but Man is Radek Faksa not the ideal guy for this Oilers team

Faksa is ideal to almost every team. Hence I rate him so highly in value, despite his offensive stats being a tad low.

From the looks of it DAL has fairly poor RW prospects, no #3RD so I can't see how you say DAL has no need for either. Also DAL could have Dickinson/L'Esperance fill bottom 6 C roles for less money then Faksa

While it may be true that these players would fill some needs, they aren't valuable enough for us to trade Faksa for them. You can get equivalents of those assets in level from free agency, but it's very hard to find another Faksa for that matter.

Our wingers are pretty versatile and able to play both wings with no problems.

I also don't think Puljujärvi is returning to NHL any time soon. He feels home in Finland and doesn't seem that eager to return to NA. He seems happy with being able to be one of the best in the Finnish league.

Gotta disagree. At 21-years old Puljujarvi absolutely torched the top men’s league in Finland this year, and if any of the reports that came out do Edmonton are true the main reason he left the NHL was because of the poor management from Edmonton. It’s the same issue that’s happened with Honka. Given the opportunity to get a fresh start on a new team, he’d be foolish not to jump at the chance to come back to the NHL, and I have to believe that he and his agent know that. He’s really gone as far as he can go with the game outside of North America.

If Dallas were able to land him, he instantly becomes their highest ceiling “prospect”, and he’s already NHL ready.

In regards to Faksa, Dallas already has his replacement in-house. In the short term, Dickinson takes over Faksa’s role and Dallas sees similar (potentially better) overall production from him. With Dellandrea also being a near lock for the NHL within the next year, they have 3 centers that all play a solid defensive game. I 100% look to move Faksa’s rights this offseason. Love the player, but he’s replaceable with what they currently have, and fetches a good return.

Benning may not be a NEED, but he gives Dallas a good depth option at RD (and a MASSIVE improvement over Polak) should Dallas elect to give Harley a bit more time to develop. Personally, Harley should make the roster out of camp, but given Nill’s desire to let his players develop for long periods of time, Benning would be a cheap depth option to bridge the gap until Harley is ready.

Overall, if Edmonton were to offer this deal, Dallas should take it and run with it.

Yeah in my mind this is a huge win for Edmonton, I’m also a big fan of Pujujarvi and believe Benning is pretty underrated Defense man

I don’t know if I’d call it a “win” for either side over the other. It fills needs for both teams. Edmonton gets a proven, solid, 2-way forward that will eat your a ton of PK minutes. Dallas gets a true goal scorer to add to their arsenal, something they desperately need and they get a solid depth defenseman that’s not going to break the bank when it comes to future contracts for guys like Heiskanen , Hintz, and Gurianov.

Overall, both teams get better.

This is completely untrue.

Interesting points. While it's true that DAL has the assets to replace Faksa if necessary, it doesn't change the fact that Faksa's value for us will exceed that of Puljujärvi and Benning. It's true that Benning is a clear upgrade over Polak and Fedun, I still think we're going to get a similar level RHD from free agency. I don't think we're content with what we have now.

Biggest issue with Puljujärvi is that he's pretty much useless outside TOP6 role in NHL, and it's not like he'd be surpassing Radulov and Pavelski. We could have a need for RW prospect, but it should be someone who is waiver exempt, because we already have a good amount of forwards in here.



As for my opinion about Puljujärvi's situation in Finland, this opinion comes from a Finnish man who lives in Finland and has followed his movements. There's nothing that points out to him being close to returning NA, and even the Finnish national team coach has said that he doesn't think Puljujärvi is the most NHL ready player in the Liiga, despite being 4th in points overall. If he wants a more challenging experience, I think his next step is going to be KHL.

This has nothing to do with what Jesse wants, which was the substance of the post I replied to. Jesse wants to play in the NHL. Full stop.

Who doesn't lmao.

So why did you just write that Puljujarvi "doesn't seem that eager to return to NA"? That's what I was responding to.

He doesn't want to return to Edmonton, that doesn't mean that he isn't eager to return to the NHL.

I don't see him demanding a transfer to any other team nor do I see him trying to accustom himself for a life in NA, such as learning the language or that sort of stuff. It doesn't seem as important to him as to many, many other players.

Everyone wants to play in NHL but I don't think he takes the professionalism seriously enough to be a true NHL player.

He seems perfectly content with his current situation, playing in his hometown and hanging with his local friends.

Puljujarvi's Liiga coaches speak exclusively in English on the bench. Pretty sure it isn't the issue you're making it out to be.

Not exactly true. I dunno where you get that, but as far as I've seen they speak Finnish here if they know the language.

I've heard them, they were speaking English to the players.

Probably to the ones that don't speak Finnish. Pretty tough language.

Sure, not everyone on the team speaks Finnish so the coaches speak English to the players. How is that different from the NHL? Go to a Kärpät practice sometime and you'll see what I mean. I really think the whole language thing is overblown.

Sure if they were allowed to practice. Atm they're not.