'This is My Journey": Jesse Puljujarvi Speaks About His Hips and His Mentality in Trying to Become an NHL Regular Again
Jesse Puljujarvi spoke to a few members of the media in Edmonton - including The Hockey News.
EDMONTON -- Jesse Puljujarvi may be playing for the "other side" now, but he still has a smile on his face.
It's been just over a year since Puljujarvi was traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Carolina Hurricanes. Now, he's back in town with Sid the Kid (Sidney Crosby), Evgeni Malkin and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Both teams are on the second half of a back-to-back.
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This past summer Puljujarvi had a major surgery on both of his hips. A metal ball and cup were placed in both hip joints. An operation of this magnitude should only happen if his injury was substantial enough to warrant it.
So just how bad was it for Puljujarvi?
"[It] was pretty bad in the end," Puljujarvi began. Despite playing with pain he did his best to contribute, "was really hard. Even then I tried to do everything right and play what I could give every night."
This wasn't the first time that Puljujarvi has had surgery on his hips. "I did that scope (arthroscope) in 2019 and a couple years felt pretty good. But then everything starting again and now I did the new operation."
"The big one."
It's been a long road back to playing NHL games for Puljujarvi. He didn't have a contract at the beginning of the year - but eventually worked his way back to an AHL deal, and then NHL deal with the Penguins.
Puljujarvi acknowledged how things haven't been rosy for him since the summer, "It's been a long process to get back to big league [NHL] and get some games."
He's 25-years-old and still finding his way. Things didn't pan out for him with the Oilers, but he's taking things one day - one game at a time, "It's gonna be a big process and it's gonna be hard. It's not gonna be easy, there's so many good players here. I need to be my best."
"I trust myself that [at] some point I'm gonna be a good player in this league. This is my journey."
When asked about what it will be like for him to play in Edmonton, but for the other team he had a simple answer, "weird to come here to play [on a] different team. This is the business."
"Fans were always good here (to) me."
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