Former Montreal Canadiens forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi had his day with the Cup in Finland earlier this week.
A second former Montreal Canadiens player has had his day with the Stanley Cup after the Carolina Hurricanes won Lord Stanley’s mug last June. About 10 days ago, Nicolas Deslauriers got to spend some quality time with the Stanley Cup. On Monday, Jesperi Kotkaniemi got his turn as he took the most highly sought trophy in hockey back home, in Finland.
According to the former third-overall pick's Instagram account, he took the Cup back to where it all started for him: the arena where he played with Assat Pori in the SM-Liiga. Pori’s also his hometown, so it was a real homecoming for the centerman.
While Kotkaniemi didn’t get to play a single game in the playoffs, he still met the requirements to have his name on the Stanley Cup since he played 41 regular-season games with the Hurricanes in the regular season. It was probably not the fashion in which he dreamt of winning the championship growing up in Finland, but at the end of the day, he still has his name on the precious trophy and can check winning a Stanley Cup off his bucket list.
Photo credit: Jesperi Kotkaniemi InstagramThe pivot is under contract for another four years with the Canes at a $4.82 M cap hit. He’s halfway through the puzzling eight-year deal he was signed to by Don Waddell back in March 2022, months after being poached from the Habs with a single-year offer sheet that had a $6.1 million cap hit.
Kotkaniemi never got more than 43 points in a season, despite being a very high draft pick. It looks like he will never live up to the lofty expectations the Habs had when they picked him third overall in the 2018 draft, or those the Canes had when they signed him to both the offer sheet and the eight-year contract extension.
Some believed the Hurricanes would be buying him out this offseason, but that didn’t come to be. However, there were reports that Carolina told teams who wanted to trade for RFA defenseman Alexander Nikishin that they would have to take Kotkaniemi in the deal. Unsurprisingly, both Nikishin and Kotkaniemi remain part of the Hurricanes right now.
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