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Hurricanes to trade Kotkaniemi to the Flames?

 Emma Wilson
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Hurricanes to trade Kotkaniemi to the Flames?
Credit: Getty Images
Jesperi Kotkaniemi has been rolling in Carolina for three years now. In the summer of 2021, the Hurricanes pulled him out of Montreal with an offer sheet to avenge the Sebastian Aho offer, but also in the hope of relaunching his career away from Montreal.

Clearly, they still believed in his potential, and the opportunity was there to pick up a potential top-6 center for the team.

And despite a slow start, the club gave him an eight-year contract starting in 2022-23. Since then, however, KK has stagnated, to the point where the Hurricanes must be starting to regret it a little.

Paying $4.82 million a year until 2030 for a guy who doesn’t deliver the goods on a top-6 when you’re a contending team hurts.

So you’d think the club wouldn’t hate getting out from under that nasty contract… and in a recent piece for The Athletic, Eric Duhatschek talked a bit about the Canes‘ situation, going with this statement:

Personally, I’d try to trade Jesperi Kotkaniemi to the Flames. – Eric Duhatschek

The reporter notes that he believes KK needs a change of scenery or an opportunity to play more minutes. For their part, the Flames need help at center, and no team is projected to have more cap space than the Flames.

If there’s one team that can take that gamble, right now, it’s probably the Flames… but they still have to be willing to do it.

Even if the Flames still believe in the Finn’s potential, the Hurricanes would have to pay Calgary a pretty penny to get the Alberta outfit to release them from this contract. It’s a big financial commitment (six years at nearly $5 million a year) for a guy who, at 24, hasn’t (yet?) proved he deserves it.

It would be a fairly complex trade, but considering that the Canes need to find a way to deal Seth Jarvis, Martin Necas and Jack Drury this summer, and that they have just under $12M under the table, getting rid of Kotkaniemi would be good for the club’s financial flexibility.

All that remains is to see if they can convince the Flames (or another team) to take the gamble.


In Overtime

– Victor Söderström could change his address.

– Bogdan Konyushkov, a theater lover.

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