Will Kotkaniemi be on opening night roster?
Teen seems to have coach Julien fighting to keep him in Montreal
It’s the question every hockey fan in Montreal is asking: Will Jesperi Kotkaniemi start the NHL season with the Canadiens?
It would be kinda cool to be a fly on the wall Sunday when GM Marc Bergevin and coach Claude Julien get together to decide whether the 18-year-old centre is in a Canadiens uniform next Wednesday night in Toronto when the puck drops, or whether he is headed back to Finland to play for Assat Pori. It has become pretty obvious Julien wants to keep the team’s first-round pick (third overall) from this year’s NHL Draft.
“Right now, it’s pretty hard not to see him on our roster, the way he’s played, the way he’s handled himself and all that stuff,” Julien said Wednesday night after Kotkaniemi put in a solid performance in a 5-3 pre-season loss to the Maple Leafs at the Bell Centre. “But again, I’m the coach and we have management and we’ll sit together and we’ll make that final decision, obviously, after Saturday’s game (in Ottawa). But he’s shown us a lot of good things and it’s pretty hard not to see him with our group.”
After practice Friday in Brossard, Julien said the conversations with Bergevin about Kotkaniemi have already started.
“Oh, I’ve talked to him about that. No doubt,” Julien said. “He’s also talked to me about him as well. So there’s a chat there that’s going on. A pretty good chat, too.”
Kotkaniemi has been a pleasant surprise at training camp, showing why the Canadiens selected him so high in the draft. It makes sense now to at least let the kid start the season in the NHL with the possibility of sending him back to Finland before he plays his 10th game and the first year of his contract kicks in.
“When I say he’s surprised, I think our scouting staff knew how good he is and they did a great job in selecting this guy,” Julien said. “But nobody knew how he would fit in with this group at this level. He just turned 18. So did he surprise us? He’s been a pleasant surprise that he’s handling himself extremely well. So that changes a lot of the thoughts we might have had before camp.”
The Canadiens play their final pre-season game Saturday in Ottawa (7 p.m., TSN5, RDS, TSN 690 Radio), after which Bergevin and Julien have to start cutting the roster down to the 23-player NHL limit.
They know David Schlemko won’t be on it, since the defenceman will be sidelined for about six weeks with a knee injury suffered in Wednesday’s game.
After practice Friday, Kotkaniemi said he’s not nervous about making the cut.
“I just like to come every day back to the rink here,” he said. “It’s nice to be with the guys. I just say that I hope I’m here when the season starts.”
If he is, Kotkaniemi will become the first athlete born in 2000 to play in one of North America’s four major sports leagues: the NHL, NFL, NBA and MLB. Other firstround picks at this year’s NHL Draft might be on opening-game rosters, but the Canadiens-Leafs game is first on the opening-night schedule.
Off the ice, Kotkaniemi has been living at a hotel near the Canadiens’ practice rink along with fellow Finn Joel Armia and they have been hanging out at the nearby Quartier DIX30, checking out the shopping, restaurants and coffee shops.
“Actually, I’ve only been downtown once,” Kotkaniemi said. “I’ve been more here in Brossard. It’s a nice area. We are living in the same hotel, so we are doing almost everything together.”
At practice Friday, Kotkaniemi was at centre on a line with Jonathan Drouin on the left wing and Armia on the right and we can expect to see that trio in Ottawa.
“Of course, I hope that maybe I get some results ... like points,” Kotkaniemi said about the final pre-season game. “I think that’s my job.”
Julien was asked Friday if he’s on the same page as Bergevin in the talks they have had about Kotkaniemi’s future.
“If I give you too much today, then tomorrow’s going to be boring,” the coach said with a big smile as his post-practice news conference wrapped up.
He just turned 18. So did he surprise us? He’s been a pleasant surprise that he’s handling himself extremely well.