{"id":366852,"date":"2025-12-24T22:51:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T22:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/366852\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T22:51:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T22:51:08","slug":"hurricanes-reportedly-tried-to-swap-kotkaniemi-for-danault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/366852\/","title":{"rendered":"Hurricanes Reportedly Tried To Swap Kotkaniemi For Danault"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a recent episode of Oilersnation Everyday<\/a>, The Fourth Period\u2019s David Pagnotta reported on a recent trade that didn\u2019t go through. Pagnotta suggested that before ultimately dealing<\/a> him to the Montreal Canadiens, the Los Angeles Kings had conversations regarding Phillip Danault<\/a> with the Carolina Hurricanes.<\/p>\n

Even more fascinating about Pagnotta\u2019s report is that the Hurricanes wanted to include former third-overall pick Jesperi Kotkaniemi<\/a> in the package for Danault. The Kings were reportedly less turned off by Kotkaniemi\u2019s $4.82MM salary than they were by the five years remaining on his contract.<\/p>\n

Presently, the savings would have been negligible at best. Kotkaniemi is earning roughly $680K less than Danault for this year and next, which wouldn\u2019t even have been enough for Los Angeles to recall another player making the league minimum salary if they needed. Additionally, since Kotkaniemi\u2019s contract runs three years longer than Danault\u2019s, the Kings would have added around $14.5MM in future costs.<\/p>\n

There isn\u2019t much separation in their offensive contributions either, despite Danault\u2019s disappointing start to the year. Kotkaniemi has two goals and six points in 20 games for the Hurricanes this season, whereas Danault registered five assists in 30 games before the trade. Furthermore, Danault has the edge in faceoff percentage and on-ice save percentage at even strength, which are critical metrics for supposed middle-six centers.<\/p>\n

All that suggests that the Hurricanes were merely looking to include Kotkaniemi in what would have been a larger package. Carolina doesn\u2019t own their second-round pick this season, but could have attached next year\u2019s second-rounder, or even one of their additional thirds, in a package with Kotkaniemi.<\/p>\n

Still, the scrapped trade for Danault is at the very least indicative of how the Hurricanes view Kotkaniemi. As the upper limit of the salary cap continues to rise and Carolina keeps most of their core on relatively team-friendly contracts, Kotkaniemi\u2019s deal isn\u2019t as much of a drain as it has been in years past. However, given the value he provides, or lack thereof, it\u2019s unsurprising to see a competitive team like the Hurricanes looking to move him for an upgrade.<\/p>\n

Any deal involving Kotkaniemi will likely be for another underperforming player, similar to Danault\u2019s situation in Los Angeles. Despite not living up to his draft selection, he\u2019s only 25 years old, and some teams may believe they\u2019ll have a chance to squeeze the last bit of development out of him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a recent episode of Oilersnation Everyday, The Fourth Period\u2019s David Pagnotta reported on a recent trade that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,748,32415,763,448,10632,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-366852","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-carolina-hurricanes","11":"tag-jesperi-kotkaniemi","12":"tag-los-angeles-kings","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-phillip-danault","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}