Jesperi Kotkaniemi

And you expect them to be the same team that they were last year, pretty much.

Jordan Stahl, Logan Stanghoven, Sebastian Argo, Seth Jarvis, Marc Janikowski, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, William Carrier, Nicolas Deslauriers, Nikolai Ehlers, Taylor Hall, Andrei Shvetchnikov, Jason Blake, Jordan Martinhook, all still there.

Shane Gostaspierre, Andre Miller's still there.

Jacob Slavin, all still there.

But we'll, we'll get your thoughts here.

He says, "Here's my breakdown of the proposed trades for Matt Barzal, Alexander Nyquist, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, and how that would work under the cap." Uh, trade number one, to LA, the Penguins' second round draft pick in 2027.

To Pittsburgh, Darcy Kuemper.

All right, well, uh, that would solve the Kings' goalie situation right now.

Um, and then Keith has a Ma- Matthew Barzal trade here, and, and with all due respect, Keith, I'm not gonna really get into that because there's just no indication that the Islanders are looking to trade Matthew Barzal, and he also has a 22-team no trade list, and he's shown no signs that he wants to go anywhere, and he has a big say in if he goes or not.

So I just don't think a Matthew Barzal trade is realistic right now.

Uh, trade number four, he has to LA, Alexander Nyquist and Jesperi Kotkaniemi to Carolina, Trevor Moore, a solid middle six scorer and role player, Joel Armia, a solid middle six forward, and Joel Edmundson, a solid D-man on both the second and third pairing.

All three players can help the Hurricanes now, and Vojtech Spas, the Kings' second top forward prospect.

It would be unfortunate because, yeah.

Well, I wanted to push back to Gorton on that because we've talked about it a lot, the training camp that Kotkaniemi had when he first got drafted, right? And it was so good, but he played five preseason games, and with every preseason game, this management team was more led to believe that he could handle NHL action, and then the season started and he couldn't really handle NHL action, right? And so sometimes having more preseason games – can fog it up.

It can create

a...

So he-

Kotkaniemi was bad.

That one aged poorly.

Kotkaniemi, absolutely.

Um, that was the same thing, right?

That was an offer sheet sign.

So him and Jackson Blake are the two 23-year-olds on this team at the forward position.

Let's not talk about Kotkaniemi, who I don't even think is on this team anymore.

Yeah, he still is, I think.

Is he? Oh, jeez.

But to me, it doesn't change anything.

Again, yes, you have to take on Kotkaniemi, but I think even bigger is you have to re-sign Alexander Nikitian.

He's a restricted free agent, so you've got to sign him to a contract that he wants to sign.

He reportedly wants $8 million per season, and he wants a long-term deal.

There's enough dudes on this team.

Jesperi, Coke, and Yemi.

who sat in the box behind us many a night, has an opportunity.

Delorier, I figure, is going to be in the lineup for that opening night game against Florida.

Yeah, but if Koivunen bombs, it's an easy buyout.

Which I thought the Hurricanes were going to do with Kotkaniemi this summer before he turned 26, but they didn't do it.

They're holding on, yeah.

Yeah, they're holding on.

They also have, I believe there's an $8 or $9 million proximity between where they are now and what the actual ceiling is.

on the NHL salary cap, and they're carrying around Jesperi Kotkaniemi's contract forever and ever and ever.

If somebody takes on both of those payments, they're not going to have to give up much of anything in return.

Now, you would rather, if you're the Hurricanes, make that trade with, I don't know, Vancouver than you would with Pittsburgh.