Jesperi Kotkaniemi

Jesperi Kotkaniemi
Date of birth	July 6, 2000
place of birth	Pori , Finland
size	188 cm
Weight	86 kg
position	center
Shot hand	Left
Draft
NHL Entry Draft	2018 , 1st round, 3rd position Canadiens de Montréal
Career stations
2017-2018	Porin Ässät
since 2018	Canadiens de Montréal Rocket de Laval

Jesperi Kotkaniemi (* 6. July 2000 in Pori ) is a Finnish ice hockey player who since July 2018 with the de Canadiens Montréal in the National Hockey League is under contract and in parallel for their farm team, the de Rocket Laval , in the American Hockey League for Use comes. He was selected by the Canadiens in third position in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft .

Career

Jesperi Kotkaniemi was born in Pori and played in the youth department of the local professional club Porin Ässät from the start . At the beginning of the 2015/16 season, at the age of 15, he was regularly on the ice for the club's U20s in the Jr. A SM-liiga, the highest junior league in Finland. He then signed a three-year contract in the professional department of Porin Ässät in the summer of 2017 and from then on played for the men's team in the Liiga , the country's top division. As a rookie , he scored 29 points in 57 games in his first Liiga season , making him the third best scorer on his team.

At the same time, Kotkaniemi drew the attention of North American scouts with these performances , so that he was considered one of the most promising talents in the upcoming NHL Entry Draft 2018 . The Central Scouting Services of the National Hockey League (NHL) rated him sixth among the European outfield players, while a few days before the draft he was even traded as a possible top 5 pick, as he was supposedly the best available center . These rumors were confirmed when he was selected in third position by the Canadiens de Montréal , who provided him with an entry-level contract a little later in July 2018 . In the following pre-season, Kotkaniemi promptly earned a place in the Canadiens squad and therefore made his debut in the NHL in early October 2018. He became the first athlete born in the new millennium to play in the four big North American leagues (NHL, NBA , MLB , NFL ). He finished his first NHL season with 34 points from 79 games and just missed the playoffs with the Canadiens.

In the 2019/20 season, the Finn was unable to build on his previous year's performance and was sent to the Canadiens' farm team , the Rocket de Laval from the American Hockey League (AHL) , in February 2020 after just eight points from 36 NHL games .

International

Kotkaniemi gained his first international experience at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games , in which he and the team took fourth place. He then took part with the U18 national team of Finland in the U18 World Championships in 2017 and 2018 as well as in the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament 2017 , where he won a silver and a gold medal at the World Cup with the Finnish selection.

Achievements and Awards

• 2017 silver medal at the U18 World Championship
• 2018 gold medal at the U18 World Championship

Career statistics

Status: end of the 2018/19 season

				Regular season							Playoffs
season	team	league		Sp	T	V	Pt	+/-	SM		Sp	T	V	Pt	+/-	SM
2015/16	Porin Ässät U20	Jr. A SM liiga		23	5	10	15th	+15	12		-	-	-	-	-	-
2016/17	Porin Ässät U20	Jr. A SM liiga		17th	9	6th	15th	+6	18th		7th	4th	1	5	-2	0
2017/18	Porin Ässät	Liiga		57	10	19th	29	-1	20th		7th	0	1	1	-4	6th
2018/19	Canadiens de Montréal	NHL		79	11	23	34	+1	26th		-	-	-	-	-	-
Jr. A SM-liiga overall				40	14th	16	30th	+21	30th		7th	4th	1	5	-2	0
Liiga overall				57	10	19th	29	-1	20th		7th	0	1	1	-4	6th
NHL overall				79	11	23	34	+1	26th		-	-	-	-	-	-

International

Represented Finland at:

• Youth Olympic Winter Games 2016
• U18 World Championship 2017
• Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament 2017
• U18 World Championship 2018

year	team	event	result		Sp	T	V	Pt	+/-	SM
2016	Finland	Youth Olympics	4th Place		6th	3	4th	7th	± 0	1
2017	Finland	U18 World Cup			7th	1	5	6th	+1	0
2017	Finland	Hlinka Memorial	6th place		4th	1	2	3		6th
2018	Finland	U18 World Cup			7th	3	6th	9	+9	37
Juniors overall					24	8th	17th	25th		44

( Legend for player statistics: Sp or GP = games played; T or G = goals scored; V or A = assists scored ; Pkt or Pts = scorer points scored ; SM or PIM = penalty minutes received ; +/− = plus / minus balance; PP = overpaid goals scored ; SH = underpaid goals scored ; GW = winning goals scored; ¹  play-downs / relegation )

family

His father Mikael Kotkaniemi was also an ice hockey player and also played for Porin Ässät.

Web links

• Player biography on the Canadiens de Montréal website
• Jesperi Kotkaniemi at eliteprospects.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Huippulupaava Jesperi Kotkaniemi jatkaa Ässissä. assat.com, accessed June 19, 2018 (Finnish). 
2. ↑ Joe Yerdon: Kotkaniemi could be top-five pick at the 2018 NHL Draft. nhl.com, June 15, 2018, accessed June 19, 2018 . 
3. ^ Dan Braverman: Canadiens agree to terms with Jesperi Kotkaniemi. nhl.com, July 1, 2018, accessed July 2, 2018 .