The visit of the Carolina Hurricanes this weekend marked the return to the Bell Centre of young Jesperi Kotkaniemi. The latter took the opportunity to discuss with the journalist of the magazine The Hockey News Jacob Stoller and Many interesting topics came out of this interview, including the young man's tumultuous time with the CH.
On this subject, with more than a year and a half of hindsight, KK made some very interesting statements about his three seasons in the blue-white-red uniform. According to him, he should never have played in the big league the year after he was drafted.
But it's easy to say that kind of thing in hindsight. We remember that the young man was very excited to play in the big league at 18 years old and had a great training camp. Even if we saw that the pace of an NHL campaign was a lot for him, he had still accumulated 34 points in 79 games. The next step was promising for the young hopeful of the club.
So it seems, if you read between the lines, that his signing with the Hurricanes was more motivated by leaving town than by money.
If he had a difficult start with the Canes, the young Finn, who is only 22 years old, is currently experiencing good times. With 29 points in his last 44 games, he is one of his team's best assets. It will be interesting to see how he does in the upcoming playoffs as the Canes are currently one of the best teams in the league, second in the league behind the Boston Bruins.
