It appears that a former Vancouver Canucks target is being made available for trade.

According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Carolina Hurricanes and Jesperi Kotkaniemi are both looking for a fresh start:

“So, Kotkaniemi did not make the Finnish Olympic team, and we kind of talked about how surprising it is that he really wasn’t on the radar. I think anybody would understand that it was a really painful moment for him. Very, very disappointing.

“Just in making some calls on Thursday … I started hearing Kotkaniemi’s name a bit. I think what’s happened is in the aftermath of him not making the Finnish team, there is an understanding around the league that he needs a fresh start, and the Hurricanes are considering it. I think they have some offers coming their way.

“Kotkaniemi has been in some offers. [The Hurricanes] offered him to LA for Philip Danault; the Kings decided not to do that. They offered him to Vancouver in the Quinn Hughes package – it sounded like their package involved Kotkaniemi and [Alex] Nikishin.”

But in Vancouver, we’ve done this song and dance before with Kotkaniemi. He has been linked to the Canucks for a while, whether in a potential Elias Pettersson trade, a Quinn Hughes trade, or simply as a regular target. However, it didn’t make sense then, when the Canucks were still trying to compete, and it would make even less sense now when they’re headed toward a rebuild.

Kotkaniemi, 25, has only appeared in 25 of the Hurricanes’ 44 games this season, often serving as a healthy scratch. The Finnish centreman has just two goals and six points with a minus-two rating in just 11:08 minutes of average ice time. He’s not trusted to play in every game, and when he does get in, he’s only getting fourth-line minutes.

Not only is the 2018 third-overall pick not producing offensively, or defensively – he’s dead last in Corsi Percentage, Shot Share, Expected Goals Percentage, Scoring Chances, and High-Danger Scoring Chances For Percentage of all Hurricanes forwards at 5v5 – but he’s got an ugly contract that comes with that baggage.

After hitting restricted free agency as a member of the Montreal Canadiens, Kotkaniemi signed an expensive offer sheet with the Hurricanes as a payback move after the Sebastian Aho offer sheet a few summers earlier. The Hurricanes signed Kotkaniemi to a one-year, $6.1 million contract, a deal the Canadiens had no choice but to accept compensation for. In turn, the Hurricanes might now regret this decision, as with a high AAV as an RFA, Kotkaniemi’s qualifying offer would have been high. As a result, the Hurricanes’ hands were tied, as they had to meet the player’s higher ask, which came to an eight-year, $4.82 million AAV contract.

During his time in Carolina, Kotkaniemi reached a career high of 18 goals and 43 points in 2022-23, but has since declined. It’s officially hit rock bottom now with him not even making the lineup every night.

How would he fit in on this Canucks team?

The only reason he fits is that he technically fits the Canucks’ goal of adding players 25 or under right now – he’ll turn 26 this summer.

But as it stands, the Canucks are trying to offload forwards from their roster. Not only to build assets for the future, but to give the young players on their current roster more ice time and more opportunity to see what they have in them to determine whether they are a piece of the future, or they can be an asset to use in a trade that becomes a piece to help the future.

While not deep in talent, the Canucks have Elias Pettersson, Marco Rossi, Filip Chytil, Teddy Blueger, David Kämpf, Aatu Räty, and Max Sasson as centres on the roster. Of course, Rossi, Chytil, and Blueger are currently out with injury. But the latter two appear close to returning as they are on the current road trip. Reinforcements down the middle are coming. There’s not a real positional need for Kotkaniemi anymore.

Is this not another recclamation project? The Canucks have already tried that this season with Lukas Reichel. How did that workout? Of course, Kotkaniemi has been more productive at the NHL level than Reichel has. But the situation remains the same — an underproducing forward who needs a change of scenery.

And what would Kotkaniemi cost? Whatever his price tag, the Canucks are in the business of acquiring picks and futures, not trading those for roster players now.

Nothing about the move would make sense from a Canucks perspective. The player would not be a part of the team’s future. He doesn’t exactly fit into the Canucks’ preferred age range, and they can’t make the excuse of, “well, at least he’s producing!” because he’s often a healthy scratch.

This move didn’t make sense when they thought they were contending; it doesn’t make sense now. Learn from the mistakes of trading futures for win-now veterans (Marcus Pettersson and Drew O’Connor) and let another team give Jesperi Kotkaniemi a chance to revitalize his career.