Hurricanes’ Jesperi Kotkaniemi grows into important role: ‘We know what we have here’

Jesperi Kotkaniemi is like a lot of his Carolina Hurricanes teammates this time of the season.

There are still games to be played. There’s a division title to be won. You need to be productive, earn your salary, be a good pro, all that.

But it’s hard not thinking ahead to the Stanley Cup playoffs and the possibilities for this Hurricanes team.

“I think we can be No. 1, for sure,” Kotkaniemi said. “We’ve got all the keys for that. We’ve got really good four lines rolling, solid six D’s and great goalies. I don’t think there’s a bad part to our game.”

That was said after a Canes practice last week. It was said before forward Andrei Svechnikov was lost to a season-ending knee injury.

Can the Canes still be No. 1? That remains to be seen. Svechnikov will be missed, but Kotkaniemi said “winning for Svechy” now is a big part of the team’s motivation.

“We’re going to play for him,” Kotkaniemi said Tuesday, after sparking a 5-3 win over the Winnipeg Jets with two goals and an assist. “He’s the heart and soul of this team.”

In the weeks leading up to the NHL trade deadline, some of the social-media banter centered on whether the Canes should go out and find a second-line center. Sebastian Aho anchors the top line and Jordan Staal centers the Canes’ checking line, but what about the second line?

Kotkaniemi, the second-line center, heard all that. And when the deadline passed March 3 and the Canes made no such deals, he heard Don Waddell, the team’s president and general manager, say he was pleased with Kotkaniemi’s progress and confident he could handle it, in the regular season and the playoffs.

“It feels great I get trust from there (management),” Kotkaniemi said. “It’s a big role to fill but I think I’m ready for it.

“It’s been feeling good the last little while. I feel like all the lines are clicking pretty good for us, and we’re winning games and not giving up much to the other team. So I think it has been good.”

Two days after the deadline, Kotkanimei and the Canes returned to PNC Arena from a two-game road trip and he had one of the best games of his NHL career with a goal and four assists. The five-point game — he topped his career high in assists — easily made him the game’s first star as the Hurricanes smacked the Lightning 6-0.

Two nights later, Kotkaniemi was smiling — the 22-year-old Finn does a lot of that — just as broadly.

The Canes were in Montreal and Kotkaniemi again hearing boos at the Bell Centre. That never figures to change after the brouhaha over the $6.1 million offer sheet the Canes made to Kotkaniemi in August 2021, the Canadiens not matching it and Kotkaniemi — the No. 3 overall pick in the 2018 NHL draft — suddenly becoming a Hurricane.

So there he was at the Bell Centre, boos and all, lining up for a shootout shot that would beat the Canadiens and complete a Hurricanes comeback victory. Kotkaniemi skated in on goalie Jake Allen, slapped his stick once on the ice, then zipped a shot that beat Allen high to the blocker side to win it.

Why the stick slap?

“I felt good at the moment,” he said. “It felt like a good idea to pull that out. Happy it worked.”

Kotkaneimi lifted his right arm in celebration and wagged his index finger after the winning shot.

Was he waving goodbye to Canadiens fans as they hit the exits?

“No, no, no, that was just a reaction when you score,” he said, smiling again.

Then again, he was the sixth shooter for Carolina in the shootout. Maybe he was waving at Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour, then leaving the bench, as a reminder that, um, maybe he could be used more in shootouts.

“It could have been, it could have been,” Kotkaniemi joked.

Kotkaniemi signed an eight-year, $38.56 million contract with the Canes, so there should be plenty of time for other chances. And Brind’Amour likes what he has seen this season from the 6-foot-2, 200-pound forward, whose job has been to replace Vincent Trocheck, a 21-goal scorer last year, as the second-line center.

In 66 games this season, Kotkaniemi has a career-high 14 goals along with 19 assists. He has a plus-11 plus/minus rating, has twice scored game-winning goals and won 52.6% of his faceoffs, doing his part to keep the Hurricanes in front in the Metropolitan Division.

“He’s a young kid, and we know what we have here,” Brind’Amour said to reporters in Montreal. “It’s going to take a little time and we’ve seen a big growth this season already. I think he’s got another level to get to, but we’ve got a lot of confidence in him.

“There’s no more pressure than what he went through here (in Montreal). But he’s got good players to play with and it’s about making each other better. He’s taken a nice huge step this year.”

Kotkaniemi, who recently played his 300th NHL game, has been centering wingers Teuvo Teravainen and Martin Necas, which offers a nice contrast.

On Teravainen, Kotkanimei said, “Whatever line he goes to, he sees guys really well and he’s really productive. He’s responsible in the D-zone. He has that Finnish mindset that defense comes first.”

And Necas? Kotkaniemi could only shake his head when asked about that Necas speed and stickhandling.

“He’s flying,” Kotkaniemi said, laughing. “I get behind real easily. It’s hard to catch up with him.”

But Kotkaniemi, who now has been the game’s first star twice since the trade deadline, seems to be catching up quite nicely.