Adam Engstrom<\/a>. Kotkaniemi only dressed for 42 games this season with Carolina and has been healthy scratch throughout playoffs.”<\/p>\nAdam Engstrom continues to progress as a promising defenseman in the Canadiens organization<\/p>\n
In 2021, the Hurricanes submitted an offer sheet to Kotkaniemi to pry the young Finnish forward away from the Canadiens.<\/p>\n
The Canadiens chose not to match the offer.<\/p>\n
And the organization received a first-round pick and a third-round pick in compensation for the 2022 NHL Draft.<\/p>\n
The Canadiens used one of those picks to select Adam Engstrom.<\/p>\n
And that is precisely the decision paying dividends for the Canadiens today.<\/p>\n
Engstrom has become a promising defenseman in the Canadiens’ system.<\/p>\n
The young Swede is currently practicing with the Canadiens’ Black Aces during these playoffs, and he is considered an integral part of the organization’s long-term plans.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Kotkaniemi finds himself in the Hurricanes’ press box during the Conference Final.<\/p>\n
The Finn played only 42 games with Carolina during the regular season.<\/p>\n
And he was scratched throughout the entire 2026 playoffs.<\/p>\n
This is exactly the kind of dramatic decline that highlights the failure of the Hurricanes’ major investment.<\/p>\n
As of today, which player would you take first on your team between Kotkaniemi and Engstrom?<\/p>\n
Previously on Montreal Hockey Fanatics<\/p>\n
POLL<\/p>\n
19 MINUTES AGO|3 ANSWERS<\/p>\n
Jesperi Kotkaniemi has unexpectedly given the Montreal Canadiens a valuable gift<\/p>\n
As of today, which player would you take first on your team between Kotkaniemi and Engstrom?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jesperi Kotkaniemi has unexpectedly given the Montreal Canadiens a valuable gift
…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5103],"tags":[6167,265,29,3203,5,1743,4955,264,21,5147,4],"class_list":["post-583698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal-canadiens","tag-adam-engstrom","tag-canadiens","tag-carolina-hurricanes","tag-draft-pick","tag-hockey","tag-jesperi-kotkaniemi","tag-marc-bergevin","tag-montreal","tag-montreal-canadiens","tag-montrealcanadiens","tag-nhl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116638034629753307","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Carolina](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/667988.webp\" "\\"Carolina")
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