Making his senior international debut, Pulkinen placed eleventh at the Philadelphia Summer International in early August 2017. He then returned to the junior level, winning gold at a 2017 JGP competition in September in Salzburg, Austria. A month later, he took silver at a JGP event in Gdańsk, Poland, and qualified to the JGP Final in Nagoya, Japan. In Nagoya, Japan, he won the silver medal at the JGP Final. After the final, he won gold at the 2018 U.S. national in Junior men. In March, he competed at the 2018 World Junior Championships and placed sixth.