Jesperi Kotkaniemi
Carolina Hurricanes Center #82
The third overall pick in 2018, and the only Hurricane whose numbers were below average.
| Season | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | 42 | 2 | 7 | 9 | +3 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 42 | 4.8 | 11:21 |
| Career | 518 | 78 | 125 | 203 | +10 | 242 | 6 | 1 | 9 | 771 | 10.1 | 13:29 |
Last Season
Two goals and seven assists in 42 games — nine points, plus-three, at 11:21 a night. Two hundred and three points in 518 career games.
The Finesse Game
Very little of it survived. Fifty-five unblocked attempts, two goals, and the location was actually fine — 45 per cent from inside twenty feet, median 24. He is getting to reasonable ice and doing nothing when he arrives.
Seventy-eight goals in 518 games from a player taken third overall is the flat summary of a career that has not happened.
The Physical Game
Six foot three, 212, and the physical tools are the reason clubs keep waiting. He can protect a puck and he wins faceoffs. Eight penalty minutes in 42 games says he is not using any of it aggressively.
The Intangibles
Here is the number that matters, and it is stark on this roster. Every Carolina skater in this section posted an expected-goal share between 52 and 59 per cent. Kotkaniemi posted 47.7 per cent — 33rd percentile.
On the best possession team in the league, playing eleven minutes a night in sheltered minutes, he was the only man on the ice when the ice tilted the wrong way. His shot-attempt share of 54.9 per cent is 91st percentile, which tells you the system carried him and the chances still went against.
He is 26 and the third pick in a draft, and this is the most damning page in the Carolina section precisely because everyone around him makes the comparison so easy.