"The real answer is Puustinen is a 5'9" winger with average skating. Not necessarily from a pure speed perspective, from his stride fluidity and just overall athleticism, it's the small area stuff that he's not good at and it greatly reduces his ability. It's really noticeable in his skill chaining, it has to hit on the rhythm of his dominant foot in order for it to have any chance of success...otherwise, he's losing the puck or he's getting knocked off of it...
In WBS, where there are exactly 0 skill players that are worth a damn...he has to really pick his spots, while still being a play driver...that's too much for him to manage consistently. So, sometimes he slinks back into being a - I don't know - like a Teemu Pulkkinen type...which is fine, because he can shoot (not as well as Pulkkinen, but it's a good shot...) but he's way better if he can just focus on his "A" game because he really doesn't have a "B" game, that's why he was so effective with a playmaker like Petri Kontiola because Kontiola has pace control and Puustinen doesn't. So the game gets too fast for Puustinen and then he fails.
I found a note from July 2021 that I had made about him, it still holds for me...
"
It's weird, he's just not that impactful compared to his numbers. I like that he doesn't score a lot of "junior" goals. The goals that he scores have some pop to them, he scores from in-close or he scores PP one-timers or catch and release goals. But none of this really looks NHL quality. It's good, but it's not quite good enough for me.
We signed him, which you'd expect when you draft a 20 year old. You usually have a sense that you're gonna be able to bring him over. I think he'll do well in the AHL, but I have doubts about his NHL ability right now."
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He was a 60/40 "sure, I'll qualify him because there's nothing else going on in WBS and he's not in anyone's way..." but when he goes back to Finland next year, I don't think I'm gonna burn a candle for him..."
Cc
@Michael Farkas