Montreal Canadiens: Jesperi Kotkaniemi playing in four nations tournament
By Omar L
August gets another event for Montreal Canadiens third-overall pick Jesperi Kotkaniemi as he will be at the Four Nations tournament in Sweden.
With five points in four games, Jesperi Kotkaniemi is having a solid start to his preseason with Ässät. His performance in Thursday’s game was the most recent but still impressive as his third-period goal tied things up while he would get the primary assists on the game-winner in the final minutes of regulation. If the Montreal Canadiens plan to send him back to Liiga for the 2018-19 season, there’s no doubt that he will be a top player in the league.
But that’s still up for debate. For now, the month of August continues, and Kotkaniemi has had another event added to his calendar. The 18-year-old was named to Team Finland for the U20 Four Nations Tournament in Sweden. Joining him will be teammate Otto Kivenmäki who Kotkaniemi has been playing with so far during the preseason.
The tournament runs from August 24-26 and will also include teams from Russia, Sweden, and the Czech Republic.
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2018 second-round pick Jesse Ylonen was not named to the team as he is just returning from an injury. The same ailment kept him out of the World Junior Summer Showcase in British Columbia back in July.
The Pelicans site put out an article stating that Ylonen took part in a full practice on Thursday slotting in on the third line with Hannes Björninen and Manuel Ganahl. Additionally, it’s confirmed that he will make his preseason debut on August 22nd in their game against JYP.
The article also quoted Ylonen with his intentions for the upcoming season. Although he displayed a fair bit of speed and skill at development camp that has fans talking about what he can do at higher levels, he expects to play in Liiga for the entire year saying:
"I think I want to play here for the best season and focus on this. It is unnecessary to go ahead even though the goals are at NHL (Translated)."
Kotkaniemi has already played some U20 games for Finland already, and it’ll be interesting to see him continue on this path. It seems like he’s getting better in every game he plays in, and although fans are trying to temper their expectations, the third-overall pick looks like the real deal so far.
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That tournament may also be Kotkaniemi’s final stop before travelling to North America to participate in the Rookie Tournament in Brossard for the Montreal Canadiens. And that will be another checkpoint to see whether he can handle the grind of the NHL or not.