Minnesota Wild Make Solid Waiver Pickup of Pulkkinen

The Minnesota Wild just announced that they have picked up forward Teemmu Pulkkinen off wivers from the Detroit Red Wings.  The young Finnish winger has a tremendous scoring upside and will look to further bolster the goal scoring punch of the Wild.

The Minnesota Wild just made one of their shrewdest moves of the offseason/preseason this afternoon and claimed Finnish winger Teemmu Pulkkinen off waivers from the Detroit Red Wings.  Looking to add more depth to their NHL roster, the Wild’s claiming of Pulkkinen addresses a need for more of a scoring NHL seasoned skilled forward to insert into the lineup.

Pulkkinen’s best attribute is his shot.  His right handed release is considered to be heavy, accurate, and quick.  That’s pretty much everything you could ask for in a player’s shot.  He also has some playmaking ability to go with that shot.  As a matter of fact his playmaking is so good that he actually owns the single season record for assists with 36 in 2009-10 for SM-Liiga’s Jorkerit U-20 club.  That was a record previously held by another great Teemmu with the surname of Selanne.

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First and foremost Pulkkinen is a goal scorer.  In the AHL with the Grand Rapids Griffins, he had great success as the team’s leading goal scorer in 2013-14 and 2014-15, notching 31 and 34 goals respectively.  What’s more impressive about his 2014-15 campaign, he notched those 34 goals in only 46 games.  That of course earned him a call-up to the big club in Detroit for the remainder of that season.

Since his call-up half way through the 2014-15 season and last year when he started with the big club in Detroit, Pulkkinen has struggled to put up those kind of monster numbers in the NHL with only 11 goals tallied in 77 games played.  This can be largely attributed to lower playing time, some adjustment issues to NHL play, and most of all to two shoulder injuries that cut his campaign short last season.

Still injury recovery might be a concern, but it’s that talent upside and more specifically his shot that makes him desirable.  The Red Wings really didn’t want to part with Pulkkinen, but were forced to because of roster concerns and extreme cap concerns.

Red Wings Head Coach Jeff Blashill explained Pulkkinen’s being placed on waivers as a matter of him still being a very important player to the organization, but wanting him to get more playing time in the AHL.  Blashill explained to the Detroit Free Press “We’ve got a number of good players and right now, in Teemu’s case – from our standpoint, we hope he doesn’t get claimed. It will give him a chance to get down and play. He hasn’t played much over the last year, so I don’t think his game is where it will be once he gets playing again.”

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For the Wild this caused a small dilemma as to keep the 23-man roster at 23 men they would have to demote a forward.  The choice was either Zac Dalpe or Christoph Bertschy, and the Wild chose to assign Bertschy to Iowa.  This move could have simply explained as a business decision as Dalpe would need waivers to go to Iowa, but he had already passed through the waiver process and could have been assigned to Iowa without fear of losing him.  The explanation hasn’t really been given yet, but my gut tells me Boudreau wanted Dalpe’s experience and grit and felt Bertschy would benefit more from the playing time in Iowa.

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This is a solid waiver pickup by the Wild.  Although it remains to be seen if Pulkkinen can regain form, it is costs the Wild very little if anything to make this move.  If he doesn’t workout we know there’s talent in Iowa like Bertschy that can step in to fill the gap.  As GM Chuck Fletcher explained “He’s been a prolific scorer at every level.  He hasn’t shown that in the NHL yet, but that’s the risk and upside.” My thought though is that if Pulkkinen’s health is there, the goals will follow, and the change of scenery and system might be just what he needs.