Player Discussion Jesperi Kotkaniemi (Part VIII) - Pretty Mintniemi Edition

[Theodore450]

But....Jordan Weal deserves the opportunities he has been given

That article is correct tho

 

[Andrei79]

They should send him to Laval. Wtf is this.

I also love the consistency from this management.

Keep Drouin the whole year at center, even as hes the worst center in the division... But play Weal and Thompson over your 3rd OA pick.

 

[Kotkaniemi15]

SMH. WHAT THE f*** IS CJ DOING!?

 

[Fazkovsky]

Cj likes balance

 

[Kotkaniemi15]

4th line LW... A toddler could do a better job than CJ. He's the worst.

 

[Kotkaniemi15]

Bergevin with the knowledge. Kotkaniemi will be a sick LW in the future.

 

[MasterMatt25]

SMH. WHAT THE **** IS CJ DOING!?

I can understand why we benched him. He's tired and the long season has clearly affected him. But moving him to wing?? This is Galchenyuk all over again

 

[G0bias]

Nevermind the absurdity of keeping Weal and Thompson over him. If you're gonna put him at wing have him with Domi or something. I'm getting concussed just hearing these decisions.

 

[Leon Lucius Black]

He's averaged almost 14 minutes a game with 2 minutes of PP as an 18 year old while playing centre all year. I can't handle Julien, but who gives a **** if he ends up playing 2-3 games to end the year at C.

Galchenyuk wasn't ruined because he was put on the wing, he didn't progress because in 6 years here he didn't improve his skating, his shooting accuracy and tried to dangle guys with junior moves while gliding with the puck.

Kotkaniemi seems eager to learn, is solid defensively and will still only be 18 for another 3 months.. he'll be fine.

 

[1909]

I do prefer KK on a wing than DeLo or Peca in the line up.

 

[kgboomer]

I'm kind of not surprised. Drouin played a good game with Weal and Habs won the last game. I'm sure Julien didn't want to make any changes, but didn't want to have Kotka sit 2 games in a row. Whatever.

 

[Le Barron de HF]

I might be foolish in my optimism but I have a hard time picturing this turning into Galchenyuk 2.0 since a) I have more faith in CJ than I ever did in Therrien and b) Kotkaniemi has a better hockey sense than Galchenyuk and is more suited for center than the latter. I'd rather have him play than not play at all even if it means that he's playing on the wing. Sitting him for DLo was stupid. I am willing to acknowledge that Kotka has been playing worse as of late so I understand the decision of diminishing his role for players like Weal since it increases our chances of winning. It's possible that the decision of sitting Kotka has hurt his confidence and thus backfired. But it's also possible that he's legitimately tired after playing so much hockey since this summer. I am not willing to freak out just yet, he's still a teenager and a whole summer of him training will help him take the next step in his game.

 

[Fazkovsky]

I do agree that lehkonen deserves the 4th line and kk shud play with Domi

 

[The Great Weal]

At the very least play Kotkaniemi with Domi if you are playing him at wing.

 

[Bring Bak Damphousse]

4th line LW... A toddler could do a better job than CJ. He's the worst.

And here I kept telling myself atleast they aren’t playing him on the wing.

 

[NotProkofievian]

SMH. WHAT THE **** IS CJ DOING!?

 

[overlords]

Somewhere, galchenyuk is deking awkwardly with a grin on his face.

 

[Mrb1p]

With all that, we've forgotten that Kotkaniemi will probably play 18 minutes, right ? Since he's on Thompson's line ?

 

[NotProkofievian]

Somewhere, galchenyuk is deking awkwardly with a grin on his face.

 

[Andrei79]

*player is grossly mismanaged*

"So much overreaction here. This is fine, he was great this year, the team knows what its doing. He's going to be elite and we'll back and laugh at this thread".

*player disappoints*

"He never had it in him anyways. He was never that good to begin with. *

 

[Mrb1p]

*player is grossly mismanaged*

"So much overreaction here. This is fine, he was great this year, the team knows what its doing. He's going to be elite and we'll back and laugh at this thread".

*player disappoints*

"He never had it in him anyways. He was never that good to begin with. *

Don't forget the "This kid is going to be a star! Much better than *previous high pick that failed*"

 

[26Mats]

I might be foolish in my optimism but I have a hard time picturing this turning into Galchenyuk 2.0 since a) I have more faith in CJ than I ever did in Therrien and b) Kotkaniemi has a better hockey sense than Galchenyuk and is more suited for center than the latter. I'd rather have him play than not play at all even if it means that he's playing on the wing. Sitting him for DLo was stupid. I am willing to acknowledge that Kotka has been playing worse as of late so I understand the decision of diminishing his role for players like Weal since it increases our chances of winning. It's possible that the decision of sitting Kotka has hurt his confidence and thus backfired. But it's also possible that he's legitimately tired after playing so much hockey since this summer. I am not willing to freak out just yet, he's still a teenager and a whole summer of him training will help him take the next step in his game.

This won't turn into Galchenyuk 2.0. Two totally different players and attributes...

 

[Tighthead]

I'm kind of not surprised. Drouin played a good game with Weal and Habs won the last game. I'm sure Julien didn't want to make any changes, but didn't want to have Kotka sit 2 games in a row. Whatever.

There is no cathedral vision in this franchise.

 

[abo9]

WOOOOOOOOW CONGRATS

I would have preferred he went back to the AHL or Finland since day 1 but we will never know if it would have been better. It's beginning to look bad though and seriously when the team uses the same development strategy as with Galchenyuk … fans should be worried.

And did Kotkaniemi really outproduced Galchy in their respective first years, both 18 years old? Not really. And now he is "tired" and I dont like that whether its true or not.

If true, then you've got a kid who should have spent the year training his body, working out confidence and developing his skillset that instead is physically and possibly mentally drained who will need to focus on getting back into shape for next season.

If false, then management lies to fans, doesn't trust Kotkaniemi and takes dumb decisions.

Here hoping they leave Poehling, Brook and Primeau into the AHL until the management group gets fired

 

[Guess]

Holy crap all the overreaction. Look, kotkaniemi hasn't been playing as well lately (it's been over 10 games). Then again, the rest of the team has cooled down as well, we're not getting as much production from Drouin, Byron and the other support players. It's probably best to play him less minutes on wing where he doesn't have to move around as much and conserve his energy. He's way more defensively sound than our other options.

I can't believe people are comparing this to Galchenyuk. There is literally no chance that he goes down that route, he's ALREADY defensively sound and just needs to work on strength and conditioning.