‘It’s time he start emerging.’ Canes expecting bigger things from Jesperi Kotkaniemi
To those on the outside, Jesperi Kotkaniemi comes across as a soft-spoken, introverted type who smiles a lot and quietly goes about his hockey business.
But not to his Carolina Hurricanes teammates.
“He’s one of the loudest guys,” forward Seth Jarvis said Saturday, laughing. “He doesn’t shut up.”
The Hurricanes want Kotkaniemi being loud this season — on the ice. Off the ice, he can chill and “make tacos all day,” as Jarvis put it, and do this own thing, but the Hurricanes need him being loud and forceful on the ice.
Vincent Trocheck, another nonstop talker, is gone to New York and the Rangers. One of the Canes’ biggest questions heading into the new season is who will step in to replace Trocheck as the second-line center, and Kotkaniemi appears to be the choice.
“That’s why he got brought in,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said Friday after a training camp practice. “I think management had the idea that this is exactly what might happen, that ‘Troch’ was going to move on. So they had a good backup plan.”
A year ago, the Hurricanes made an offer sheet to Kotkaniemi, the No. 3 pick in the 2018 NHL draft by the Montreal Canadiens. When the Canadiens failed to match the one-year, $6.1 million offer, Kotkaniemi soon had a new NHL address.
It was all quite a whirlwind — the offer sheet, the social-media frenzy, the Habs letting him go, Kotkaniemi soon in a new locker room with new teammates, trying to make sense of it all. Add in an early road game at Montreal and things were a little crazy for the Finn.
A year later, Kotkaniemi has settled in and will stay for a while. He signed an eight-year extension with Carolina in March that will pay $4.82 million a season through 2029-30.
“I think now I know how everything works,” Kotkaniemi said Friday. “Same systems, same guys, same coaches. I think this year will be better. We’ve got high expectations for the whole team and hopefully we’re going to reach those.”
Early in training camp, Brind’Amour has had Kotkaniemi centering Andrei Svechnikov and Martin Necas. Average age: 22.3. While a lot can change before opening night, it would make for a youthful line combining speed, power and playmaking ability, not to mention three former first-round picks.
“I want to step up my game and show the coaches I’m worth that,” Kotkaniemi said.
That’s what Brind’Amour is hoping to see — Kotkaniemi showing he can be a bigger factor on the ice.
“He’s a young kid with a lot of talent,” Brind’Amour said. “We’ve talked about this a lot, and I think now it’s time that he start emerging. I think I’ve got to give him the opportunity, but he’s got to go earn it. There’s a good understanding there, and we’ll see where it goes.”
Kotkaniemi, 22, spent much of last season as the fourth-line center, averaging 12 minutes a game for the Metropolitan Division winners. His season totals were modest: 12 goals and 29 points in 66 games.
Some social-media trolls had fun with it, tweaking the Canes for paying $6 million for that kind of play and production.
Jarvis, for one, takes issue with that.
“He takes a lot of unnecessary slander, I think,” Jarvis said. “He’s an incredible player and someone that, given the right role and once he gains confidence in that role, I think will flourish.
“He’s got all the tools. He’s got a wicked shot, sees the ice well, his skating has improved. He’s big, he’s strong. What more could you ask for? So, yes, this year in an expanded role I think he’ll do really well.”
Kotkaniemi, who has prototype centerman size at 6-2 and 200 pounds, said his game has changed since coming into the league in the fall of 2018.
“I used to be mostly a skill guy, trying to dangle everyone,” he said. “I realized that didn’t really work too well. I try to be overall more of a two-way guy and try to get a couple of points with that and be the guy who helps the team win the game.”
Jarvis and Kotkaniemi have become good buds, two single guys who hang out quite a bit away from the rink. Kotkaniemi said he has few off-ice activities — few video games, no Netflix, no TikTok, etc.
“I don’t do much,” he said. “Just chilling.”
And about him being the chatterbox …
“He doesn’t shut up,” Jarvis said, smiling again. “It’s just nonstop talk. When he’s comfortable, it’s just talk, talk, talk. Have to interrupt him to tell him to shut up. But I love it. I let it go on because I love what he has to say.”
Scheduling change
The Lightning postponed Wednesday’s home game against the Canes because of the threat of Hurricane Ian. The Canes were to play in Tampa, then have a road game Thursday against the Florida Panthers.
This story was originally published September 27, 2022 at 5:40 AM.
