The Carolina Hurricanes had a great season, especially given what they lost last summer. Now, with all the assets and cap space they have accrued, the excitement for the summer is palpable. With the Hurricanes beginning to look toward the future, one question mark remains looming on the roster: Jesperi Kotkaniemi. There has been a lot of noise throughout his tenure in Carolina, mostly from fanbases outside of Raleigh, about this player, but the way the Hurricanes’ season ended has left a bad taste in the mouths of fans.
Kotkaniemi’s arrival in Carolina from Montreal through an offer sheet left many Canadiens fans bitter. When the Hurricanes extended Kotkaniemi for $4.82 million per season for the eight seasons following his arrival, many immediately threw this in the category of bad contracts, but that has not been the case for the most part. In 305 games with the Hurricanes, Kotkaniemi has 54 goals and 78 assists for 132 points. He’s averaging 35 points a season in Carolina.
Immediately, you might be looking at this like it’s ridiculous, but that’s fine for what Kotkaniemi is. Scoring has never been his job. What Kotkaniemi has become is a strong defensive centerman and the heir to Carolina’s aging captain, Jordan Staal, in that shutdown role. He’s still only 24 years old, so why do people want him gone? What has made the fanbase sour so much on the Pori, Finland native?
Misplaced Frustration in Montreal
The most obvious place to start is the misplaced anger at Kotkaniemi. Many expected him to come in and be the new second-line center with the departure of Vincent Trocheck. He was never going to be that. Kotkaniemi’s development was badly mismanaged in Montreal. While he was drafted third overall, he was a late riser in stock. It’s not his fault, but Montreal drafted him by positional need rather than the best player available, which put unnecessary pressure on him. When they then rushed him into the NHL, he was fighting to keep his head above water.
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It meant he was forced to play more defensively to adjust to the NHL game. Kotkaniemi, even from a young age, has always been strong in his end during his NHL career. Montreal kept pushing him down the lineup, and some questionable coaching decisions, including being a healthy scratch during the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs, left more questions than answers about Kotkaniemi’s time in Quebec. He was mismanaged, and with some understandable feelings of anger towards the Canadiens, when the Hurricanes came with an offer sheet, Kotkaniemi took it, and Montreal declined to match it.
Transitioning to Raleigh
To say the offer sheet that brought Kotkaniemi to Carolina was controversial does not scratch the surface. Fans from all around the league called it childish on behalf of the organization; many suspected it was retaliation for the Sebastian Aho offer sheet three seasons earlier, and it painted a target on Kotkaniemi’s back the second he arrived in Raleigh. That pressure from outside meant that Hurricanes fans had to constantly fight to defend the player, who had not done anything wrong during his time in Raleigh.
Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Carolina Hurricanes (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)
However, this season was different because of how it ended. Kotkaniemi took a bone-headed penalty that ended up completely shifting the momentum of Game 5 and let the Florida Panthers come back into the game that ended up terminating the Canes’ season. That frustration has been compounded by the anger over Kotkaniemi’s inability to replace Trocheck, leaving fans wishing for change. It’s fair to have a fresh desire in the center of that second line, but that doesn’t mean Kotkaniemi should be moved. The argument that Kotkaniemi’s deployment in a diminished role makes the Hurricanes stronger carries even more weight.
Why the Hurricanes Should Keep Kotkaniemi
Kotkaniemi isn’t a second-line center. He’s got an extraordinary ability to see passing lanes, a great defensive instinct, and good size. That combination makes him a perfect third-line center. With Staal now in his twilight years and the cap rising, Kotkaniemi’s an ideal fit for that shutdown role in the bottom six. He’s the heir to the throne in Carolina’s bottom six.
In a lineup that loves undersized forwards, Kotkaniemi stands at 6-foot-3, 200 pounds. He offers an element of size that Carolina doesn’t have elsewhere. In the playoffs, Kotkaniemi flexed the physical aspect of his game that the fans have been so eager to see. While complaints of his inconsistency both physically and with production are valid, that doesn’t matter in the bottom six.
Kotkaniemi very rarely has bad games. Even if we look at Game 5, where the Finnish center took a dumb penalty and put the Hurricanes behind the eight-ball, he was still good in that game. He was solid defensively and created a few good chances with his line. Kotkaniemi rarely costs his team the game, and that’s an outstanding trait for a bottom-six player. Being a low-event guy is a good thing in that capacity, but plugging him into the top six, he’s trying, but that isn’t what he is.
With Carolina possessing $26.7 million in cap space, there is no need to move on from Kotkaniemi. Especially because they’d need to replace him, and the current free-agent crop at center isn’t great. The number of centers that are undeniably better than Kotkaniemi in free agency is very low, and most of them are going to be older or come with a higher cap hit. It’s the principal reason this contract is already good value for Carolina. He’s already starting to prove why he was wanted out of Montreal.
Expectations of being a top-six center may have been stretched when he was young. However, he’s still just 24 years old, and his cap hit is only going to improve as the cap skyrockets. Many have tried to portray this as a negative value contract, but that is untrue. According to Frank Seravalli, there have been teams inquiring about him, which shows he is an asset that teams desire. Where this goes in the coming weeks and months is yet to be seen, but the Hurricanes are in a better position with Kotkaniemi than without him.
