Kotkaniemi finishes the season with 27 points in 79 games & 1 point in 11 playoff games.

[Habssince89]

Let's look at the facts:
-KK was already a bad pick by MTL, but had/has potential to be a regular NHLer. That was the league-wide narrative, and its proven to be true.
-When KK left MTL, suddenly the same league-wide story changed and now suddenly it was the habs who were fools for letting him go, and screwing up their future etc etc
-The hurricanes acted on pettiness and ego, and didn't heed the ample evidence that KK wasn't worth it. Even before KK moved, fans were split on whether KK was living up to expectations at all.
-The hurricanes took a huge L with this offer sheet. In hindsight, I wish the Habs did something different with the return, but they are better off not having bambi in the organization.

 

[Nevins]

Don't all Kotka threads belong to the Habs forums?

Nope he is your…..

 

[WaW]

Is it safe to say the Canes made a mistake? 4.8M for a 4C. Do you think they will buy him out or trade him (cap dump)?

It is. I don't think I've ever take as much abuse on this site as I have from Canes fans when I've basically been of the opinion that the Kotkaniemi move was a mistake from day one, but honestly his play should be surprising to no one.

Blame Montreal for rushing him if you want, but he showed ZERO development between seasons 1 and 4 in Montreal. Giving up a 1st to pay him 6 mil for 1 year then 8 x 5mil was beyond silly, and I maintain to this day it was largely about Dundon being overly emotional and triggered by Montreal's Aho offer sheet and making him pay a large signing bonus on the back of how much money he lost from his failed football league.

This should have been predictable for everyone, but here we are...

 

[KrisLetAngry]

Habs fans in here are hilarious. KK is literally an indictment of their team's own drafting skills.

KK, Slaf, Reinbacher, Mesar, Beck, Tuch, Mysak, Ylonen, Poehling, Juulsen, McCarron

Bad!

Slaf is the guy in his second year in the NHl scoring 20 goals and 30 assists right?

 

[frightenedinmatenum2]

Gotta think theres a high chance he gets bought out.

He qualifies for the U26 buyout for another few seasons. This isn't like the Dubois decision where assuming the season ends soon enough for him to still be 25, if the Kings don't buy him out the buyout rate becomes much worse for them next season.

I don't think they will want 12 years of dead money. Even if it only averages 740k per season, they have the luxury of waiting until next year or the year after to decide whether he is a lost cause.

 

[bleedgreen]

Friedman mused about that this morning on 32 Thoughts. The economics of a buyout are favorable for Carolina here. I don't know if they will, but they probably should. They have a ton of other much more important contracts situations to deal with right now.

The issue is all the free agents they have. They’re going to lose players and there’s a way the KK becomes useful there in the bottom six. It’s nice to have a slot there filled if they lose a lot of guys. Don’t they have a later in the summer window if they want to ride it out or is there only one? If there is two I could see them riding out free agency to see what they have at that point. Itll be interesting, Drury has won the battle between them if it comes to that for 4C. Kk could also be forced to wing.

I think they should just move him however it takes just to move on from the whole thing, but I could see KK becoming a more useful player down the road and having some sort of redemption arc after everyone has given up on him.

 

[Habano]

Ah yeah, Slaf a bad pick lmao. Didn’t watch him much, eh?

What's funny is that his beloved Sens, with all their earth shattering talent , who are supposed to be competing finished a whole 2 points ahead of the Habs. Mark me down as extremely impressed!

 

[FerrisRox]

Did he not also get like half of them in the first 15 or so games?

He never improved really since his rookie season.

He had ten points in October and five points in November.

 

[Jamaican Patty]

I wonder what his value is. Maybe a 7th round pick and Carolina takes on a high cap hit for one year?

 

[Nico Cauzuki]

This was such a failure for both franchises not only did we waste a 3rd overall pick on a bad player we kept for a few years and lost for a late first that we traded for Dvorak…. but we also missed out on Tkachuk or Hughes who would of been huge for our team

Tkachuk - Suzuki - Slafkovsky would of been a great line

Columbus pray you guys dont hire Bergevin that guy ruined a good young team with potentiel and i wont even get into his horrible contracts we’re still paying for that for a few more years

 

[Junohockeyfan]

This was such a failure for both franchises not only did we waste a 3rd overall pick on a bad player we kept for a few years and lost for a late first that we traded for Dvorak…. but we also missed out on Tkachuk or Hughes who would of been huge for our team

Tkachuk - Suzuki - Slafkovsky would of been a great line

Columbus pray you guys dont hire Bergevin that guy ruined a good young team with potentiel and i wont even get into his horrible contracts we’re still paying for that for a few more years

Lesson learned (which probably won't be learned) is you draft the BPA. Habs drafted for need and got burned.

Canes mis-judged the talent and overpaid him.

 

[HarrySPlinkett]

Sub-$5M for a guy who’s probably going to be reliably a 30-50 point centre for the next 15 years is not the disaster some are making it out to be.

 

[bud12]

Habs fans in here are hilarious. KK is literally an indictment of their team's own drafting skills.

KK, Slaf, Reinbacher, Mesar, Beck, Tuch, Mysak, Ylonen, Poehling, Juulsen, McCarron

Bad!

What is this nonsence? Slaf?Reinbacher?
Are you throwing name out of your ass or what?

 

[Empoleon8771]

Sub-$5M for a guy who’s probably going to be reliably a 30-50 point centre for the next 15 years is not the disaster some are making it out to be.

Based on what is he going to "probably" be that productive for that long?

Dude could wash out at 25 just like Galchenyuk did.

 

[Garnet76]

Looking back at it now the side that won is KK's side. Pretty simple. He got a large one year deal and than a multi year deal and has been a flop in Carolina. His agent should be getting amazing Christmas gifts every year because he played this situation perfectly!

 

[Junohockeyfan]

Sub-$5M for a guy who’s probably going to be reliably a 30-50 point centre for the next 15 years is not the disaster some are making it out to be.

LOL

 

[Ita]

Sub-$5M for a guy who’s probably going to be reliably a 30-50 point centre for the next 15 years is not the disaster some are making it out to be.

His career high is 43 points and is trending down. He has 27 points this season. I am baffled that you can call him a 30-50 points player.

Edited: Oops I missed the /s

 

[Zilo44]

Kotkaniemi is the prime example why drafting is one thing and developing is another.

He was great during his 18 year old season.

Rumor is, without being a « bad guy » or bad influence per say, he would not listen to coaches giving him advices. A bit like Galchenyuk, he would listen to his own father instead of coaches (albeit Galcheynuk had off ice issues on top of that).

Fans watch prospect highlight vids to have an opinion on players, but we don’t have a clue how these kids behave outside the ice and during practice

 

[Weztex]

Habs fans in here are hilarious. KK is literally an indictment of their team's own drafting skills.

KK, Slaf, Reinbacher, Mesar, Beck, Tuch, Mysak, Ylonen, Poehling, Juulsen, McCarron

Bad!

Ok so, the leading scorer of his draft year and three 19-20 years old players, thrown together with a melting pot of guys drafted by a whole different staff going back 11 years ago. As if the logo somehow dictates how you draft .

Meanwhile, no mention of Hutson, Maillioux, Ghule, Caufield, Sergachev, Lehkonen or Romanov, all drafted in the same time span.

If it's a trolling job, that's lame and immature. If that's a serious post, that's ignorant and disconnected.

Either way, that's a laughably s*****y take.

Bad!

 

[GigaChad]

I still believe he can be a reliable 40-50pt player, but I just don't understand how he started this season so well, being a point per game in the first 15-20 games and then scoring like 10 points in 60 games (+ awful playoffs).

Last year he scored 43 points, then continued the trend, scoring well at the beginning of the season, then becoming god awful.

 

[CTHabsfan]

I still believe he can be a reliable 40-50pt player, but I just don't understand how he started this season so well, being a point per game in the first 15-20 games and then scoring like 10 points in 60 games (+ awful playoffs).

Last year he scored 43 points, then continued the trend, scoring well at the beginning of the season, then becoming god awful.

Kotkaniemi continued his trend of being inconsistent. His 43 point season started with 5 points in the first 26 games. He only cracked the 40 point barrier due to a 5 point game, so he has a lot of work to do if he's going to be a "reliable 40-50 pt player".

 

[Garbageyuk]

@Zilo44

Yet Suzuki and Caufield developed just fine during the same time period in the same organization. Kotkaniemi just sucks, is a prima donna, and is entitled. How things went is all on him; development had nothing to do with it. He was incredibly sheltered, got favourable zone starts, undeserved power play time on occasion. They did everything they could for him. He just never seized the opportunity and never was willing to put the work in to improve.

 

[Bouboumaster]

How do you like that offer sheet, Canes fans?

 

[Junohockeyfan]

I still believe he can be a reliable 40-50pt player, but I just don't understand how he started this season so well, being a point per game in the first 15-20 games and then scoring like 10 points in 60 games (+ awful playoffs).

Last year he scored 43 points, then continued the trend, scoring well at the beginning of the season, then becoming god awful.

He's a reliable / consistent 20-30 point 3rd line / 4th line winger.

I don't see much more potential in KK. Can't skate, slow to pull trigger on his shot, bambi on ice.

 

[MoneyManny]

How do you like that offer sheet, Canes fans?

Ah man that move was so trendy in school in Laval back in the days!