What is Jesperi Kotkaniemi’s role for the Carolina Hurricanes this season?

What is Jesperi Kotkaniemi’s role for the Carolina Hurricanes this season?

I started off talking about the uh the depth of the Carolina Hurricanes and going into their game against Anaheim tonight. I think that’s one of the stories of the early part of the season and it’s it’s fantastic, right? Let’s let’s not let’s not over complicate it. your team playing well top to bottom, having uh you know scoring chances from all four lines, having blue liners that are taking care of their business uh you know on their main job on the defensive side and then also contributing uh to to goal production. Like there’s there’s a lot of good there. There is one conversation though that I think could be a little awkward. All right, so let’s just acknowledge that that you know we’re all friends here. I think you’re you’re you know when you’re with your closest friends is when you can have the awkward conversations and they’re not awkward. So So we’re close of all the roles and and we you know Dennis and I were just talking off air about Eric Robinson’s role, right? Maybe his role is growing. Showed up looking to be a glue guy. He’s good size, good skater. Maybe there’s more goal scoring there. Who knows? Started hot. Somebody like Logan Stanovven. We talked with Eric Tolski, the the general manager. Uh we talked to him before opening opening day out there on the plaza and I asked him I said was it always the plan to give Logan Stanovven a chance at center and he was like well we thought he could it wasn’t necess we weren’t thinking like hey this time next year he’s going to be playing a different position. Uh but it was you know his role could be changing a little bit right from what it was last year to this year. Obviously it is changing from what it was last year to this year. So what’s yes coin’s role on this team? What is Yes. Barry Kokin’s role on this team? It’s a complicated question, right? First of all, uh his his role is is in the most basic form, uh forward making $4.8 million a year. Center making $4.8 million a year. Uh young player who’s been a part of the the the group growing together over the last however many handful of seasons. And and and that’s what he is. I’ve said this from the very beginning despite the fact that I I’ve been painted at times as like a big coin and Emmy hater. I I like him as their fourth line center like very much so. And I think he can grow and and if he sticks around and there’s there’s not any kind of movement. I think he’s a potential replacement for Jordan Stall as a uh checking line. I think his size is underrated and I think in that role you won’t expect or be as disappointed if he doesn’t score a ton and he can play a physical style. Absolutely. We’ve seen it. Tough dude. I actually give him I mean the best or the most recent example he took like the business end of a stick to the face right before the the season and he’s like give me a tint adviser. I’ll play like that that he’s he’s a tough dude. But here’s here’s my question, right? What is his role? because right now uh he was active for the first two games. I think he played more noticeably good more noticeably uh you know in a positive way in the first game. Second game I wouldn’t say he played bad but I didn’t I just didn’t notice him as much which you know is what it is. Uh and then the third game he was a healthy and active as Mark Jenowski got his his first run of the season. Uh, so he was, you know, watching from the booth. I think, and and I’m not calling for a trade, but I’m I’m just illustrating a situation where a trade might be plausible. If you see him as a fourthline center most nights and an occasional healthy scratch to give someone else a chance to to stay stay in rhythm, I’m fine with that. If the league sees him as something more than that, could it be seen as as, you know, ignoring an opportunity to not let them pay the price for what they think he is when you maybe don’t? Isn’t that part of what roster management is? Finding a player who you think is worth six out of 10 that the league thinks is worth eight out of 10 and making that two out of 10 profit in the return. Isn’t that part of roster management? Did anyone notice? And and if you did, I’m I’m I’m fine to it. I’m open to it. But did anyone really notice his absence with Mark Janowski in there in the third game? Because, you know, other than just being aware like, oh, you know, the lines came out this morning and no, he’s a healthy healthy scratch. Which, by the way, we don’t know who’s skating today. They haven’t skated at they’re not having a morning skate, so uh you know, we won’t get those lines till later. Um but but game three other than oh look Koken is not going to be out there being like a reaction so you’re generally aware of it I I I don’t think I would have noticed. So what do you do? And the other side is if you’re going to trade for something truly valuable trade for a player who’s making a good amount of money $4.8 million is it becomes uh per perhaps a crucial part of it. clearing up cap space and also giving them a forward that they can skate. It has like I want to be clear, right? Because like I said, I think there’s a role for coin that he can play very well for the Carolina Hurricanes and I think him as a fourthline center. He becomes one of the best fourthline centers in the league. Like I I think there’s there’s talent there. But I also want to point this out. You you don’t get anything in return for a trade when you’re trading something with no value, right? Like last year there were a few times where I thought they should explore an Andre Fetchnikov trade. That’s because I thought they wanted to get something really good back and other teams aren’t in the interest of giving you something really good back in exchange for your spare parts and broken players. You have to give something that they will see as valuable or else you’re not going to get anything that they see as valuable in return. So Coke and Emmy Yes. Barry KK coin there there’s value there. Now, it might be him plus++ to get something of tremendous value, but you know, if you if like I we were doing some I forget what we were looking for. We were on Facebook Marketplace as a family. We were looking for something recently. There’s a lot of stuff on there that I’m just like if I wanted a broken lawn mower that that I’d have to spend $100 to fix. I wouldn’t buy it for $250 from you on Facebook Marketplace. Meanwhile, if there’s a lawn mower that works and you’re selling it for 50, all right, now we can talk, right? Like that’s kind of what I’m talking about. Yes, Barry Cook and he’s not a broken lawn mower. He he can cut grass, right? He he can do something of value for you. And then this all returns back talking about roles changing to Logan Stanovven. How’s he doing at second line center? I think he’s doing pretty well through three games. If you’re comfortable with that there, that clears up other things that you can do, right? If you’re not comfortable with him at center, if you still want the 100% option of moving him back to wing, then you got to keep a couple extra centers on on the the roster because you’re going to need somebody to to move up or somebody to step in and and and all those things. So, I’m not saying anything now, but I I’ve I’ve talked about it. I’m going to continue to talk about it. Uh this first month for the Canes is kind of just information gathering, right? Just what can we learn? Well, what can we learn about Yes. Barry Cookami’s role that you know almost immediately without any significant injuries to the forwards he’s already a healthy scratch in game three that probably tells you something about what the Canes see as his role that’s not what I just smacked the microphone that’s not what I think of his role that’s what they think that’s an action that’s them showing us if the rest of the league thinks there’s more there if actually I don’t even want to say the rest of the league there’s a team or two that think there’s more air down the line. I think you make that decision. Not now or that that uh inquiry, which by the way, we also talked with Eric Tolski about this uh before opening night. He’s talking to every GM in the league every couple of days. Oh, yeah. He’s he’s calling them every couple of days and and uh the what do they call it? Behind the storm, their their YouTube uh behind the scenes show that just came out, first episode. Uh, only complaint I have is it was like 11 minutes and I think I think you get a half hour at each of those episodes. There’s more I want to see. But they they had some of the behind the scenes of the Keandre Miller trade and you kind of got the vibe. He was just on the phone calling. Hey, so what what’s going on with Keandre? Right. Like just that’s how he operates. He’s trying to get information. Maybe on those calls you go, so what do you think about Coke and Emmy? I don’t know. I’m just spitballing here. Find out what the value is. One thing as well we’ve seen, we know Mark Jenowsky, by the way, can kill penalties. That’s something that he’s he has done and can do. We actually started seeing a little bit of Kokan killing penalties this preeason and being a penalty killer, at least in the first couple of games. So, we’ve seen that a little bit, something that he hasn’t really done yet in his career, which is, hey, the more you can do, the better. That’s it’s a good thing because I still think that the the Canes need to have that depth throughout the lineup to to fill that role as well. can’t just ask Stall, Martin, Nook, Aaho, and Jarvis to be all the, you know, then all right, Eric Robinson, you kind of filter in there every once in a while, too. You need to have at least six guys that you can trust that can go out there and kill penalties. So, that’s something that also needs to be taken into consideration as well, is that, well, if if Robinson, knock on wood, goes down during a game or something like that, you need to have someone that can step in and help in that regard, too. I want to be clear here. If they don’t want to trade Coke in Miami, I’m fine. I’m good. Yeah, I am good keeping him. You don’t have to, but if you see value there, I would explore it. If you see value because if if he’s already a healthy scratch, obviously you feel like you can play and and win games uh you know, perhaps without his contributions. That’s all I’m saying cuz I I was I was surprised he was a healthy scratch that early. And maybe it does, you know, after I gave him his all all his flowers for being tough. Uh he is still wearing the tinted visor and maybe they just thought like, hey, you know, he’s been through some physical stuff here. Let’s give him a break. Let me ask you this though, Dennis, just on since you you added in that he’s been killing penalties and stuff. Um, for like obviously I played college football, football is my my first love, whatever you want to call it. Uh, when I when I randomly see uh a backup quarterback, particularly a third string quarterback, somebody that’s like not in your obvious plans, uh, running the ball a lot in the preseason, I go, I wonder if they’re trying to trade this guy. They’re trying to show everything he can do and then they’re calling someone else up and going like, “So, I got a running quarterback that would be perfect for your backup.” Like, if Koke Emmy all of a sudden he’s killing penalties and he’s he’s out there doing a whole bunch of stuff he’s not normally doing. There could be a little bit of that. But that’s that’s me reading tea leaves and you know, I’m always connecting dots. Maybe sometimes too far away. So, don’t don’t maybe maybe but but it’s not a zero% chance. So much.

Tim Donnelly & Dennis Cox discuss how the Carolina Hurricanes could potentially look to trade Jesperi Kotkaniemi, and if he could have a role for head coach Rod Brind’Amour.

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