It’s a bit surprising given the Hurricanes are considered a Stanley Cup favourite, but it’s been a rough season for the 26-year-old, left-shot centre. Through 25 games this season, the Pori, Finland native has just two goals and six points, down from 12 goals and 33 points in 78 games during the 2024-25 season. Since joining the Hurricanes, Kotkaniemi has registered a faceoff percentage above 50 percent in each season but this one.

Eight seasons into his career, it’s clear he’s unlikely to produce like you’d expect a third overall pick to, which is totally fine for the Oilers. Kotkaniemi has shown flashes in the past, scoring 18 goals and 43 points, but on average, he’ll give a team 25-35 points in a season, fine production for a third-line centre.

The Finn’s underlying stats aren’t great with the Hurricanes in 2025-26, as the team has 47.8 percent of the goal share and 47.1 percent of the expected goal share during five-on-five play when he’s on the ice, according to Natural Stat Trick. An additional downside is that Kotkaniemi isn’t a penalty killer and never has been.

However, that appears to be isolated to this season, as Kotkaniemi has had goal shares above 50 percent since his 2019-20 season, as well as a strong expected goal share to boot. That included a 56.3 percent goal share and a 55.5 expected goal share in 965 minutes of five-on-five in 2024-25.

Also playing for the Hurricanes in 2024-25 was Jack Roslovic. The pair played 210 minutes together during five-on-five action, outscoring the opposition 13 to 11 for a 54.2 percent goal share. Their expected goal share wasn’t as good, as it stood at 46.9 percent, while giving up 52 high-danger chances, generating just 38 of their own. There’s some good and bad, but you have to figure they’d be playing alongside each other on the third line.

In Friedman’s article, he noted that the Hurricanes are looking for something to help them push for a Stanley Cup, or an asset that can be flipped for something to help. The Oilers have a handful of NHL-ready prospects, but trading them is less than ideal at the moment, meaning they’d have to trade picks or an NHL player.

As you likely know, the Oilers will be right up against the cap once Jake Walman and Tristian Jarry return from the Long-Term Injured Reserve. They’ll already have to clear some cap space, but one player who has been in trade rumours recently has been Andrew Mangiapane.

Although he hasn’t been a fit for the Oilers, he’s still a middle-six forward who will be able to find success elsewhere, perhaps even the Hurricanes. As for the cap, it kind of works but not really. Mangiapane has cap hit of $3.6 million and Kotkaniemi has a cap hit of $4.82 million. By sending Calvin Pickard and Isaac Howard down, trading Mangiapane’s full salary and adding Adam Henrique to the LTIR, the Oilers would have about $4.258 million free after Jarry and Walman return.

They’d still need to find a way to clear additional cap for the remaining $600,000 or so, but there’s another problem: the Oilers would be in trouble once Henrique is set to return after the Olympics, as they’ll have to clear $3 million in cap space to activate him. The easily solution would be finding a trade for Henrique, but the veteran has a full no-trade clause.

So while Kotkaniemi is a fit for the Oilers as their third-line centre, any trade possibility is hampered by the no-move/no-trade clauses that the Oilers handed out like candy on Halloween. Who would’ve guessed.

Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Oilersnation, FlamesNation, and Blue Jays Nation. Follow her on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.

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