The Carolina Hurricanes are among the finest teams within the Eastern Conference at the moment. They entered the NHL’s Olympic break sitting tied on points with the Tampa Bay Lightning for the highest seed within the East. Carolina is prone to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the eighth consecutive season.
The Hurricanes have been a regular-season buzzsaw during that point. Nonetheless, they’ve come up short within the postseason yearly. They’ve had three appearances within the Eastern Conference Finals since 2019. But they own a putrid 1-16 record in 17 East Final contests. As a matter of fact, their win in last 12 months’s East Final was their first East Final victory since 2006.
Carolina has gone for broke before, and so they have a likelihood to achieve this again. At the identical time, shaking up their roster may mean the team has to subtract and make room for brand spanking new faces. This may definitely be difficult when the team is playing in addition to the Hurricanes have been.
This team won’t must worry an excessive amount of about that, though. The Hurricanes have one clear trade candidate on their roster. They usually must do whatever they’ll to make a deal occur before the 2026 NHL Trade Deadline.
Hurricanes must part ways with Jesperi Kotkaniemi
The Hurricanes signed Jesperi Kotkaniemi as a type of revenge play in 2021. The Montreal Canadiens had attempted to sign Sebastian Aho to a proposal sheet in 2019. In response, Carolina signed Kotkaniemi to a proposal sheet. Montreal elected to not match the offer, and off to Raleigh the young center went.
Kotkaniemi never truly lived as much as the billing of a former No. 3 overall pick, though. He did have a formidable 43-point season during his second 12 months with the Canes. Nonetheless, he has not matched that type of production within the years since.
This 12 months, the difficulty is much more evident. The Hurricanes are playing Kotkaniemi around 10 or so minutes a game. He hasn’t scored a goal since November eighth. It simply shouldn’t be understanding for Kotkaniemi in Raleigh at this point.
The Hurricanes should part ways with him on the 2026 NHL Trade Deadline. And there are some things getting into their favor because it pertains to his potential trade market. For example, Kotkaniemi continues to be only 25 years old. He doesn’t turn 26 until early July. Moreover, he’s signed for multiple seasons, and won’t be a free agent until 2030.
Kotkaniemi is making a somewhat sizeable $4.82 million, and can achieve this for the rest of his contract. Nonetheless, if the Hurricanes retained 50% of his salary, he would only account for about $2.41 million for any acquiring team. This can be a rather more manageable cap hit for his production.
Teams across the league are in search of depth at center. In the event that they can get a 25-year-old player with control on a manageable cap hit, that looks as if a dream situation. Add in his positional versatility, and there may be prone to be some type of marketplace for Kotkaniemi.
He shouldn’t be a superstar player by any means. But he can play a task within the NHL, either down the center or on the wing. And there continues to be a while for him to seek out his stride and improve his game. Things didn’t work for Jesperi Kotkaniemi in Carolina, but a change of scenery trade may gain advantage everyone on the 2026 NHL Trade Deadline.