A Winning Habit
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Montreal Canadiens: Four points from the Marc Bergevin press conference

By Omar L

MONTREAL, QC - JANUARY 07: General manager of the Montreal Canadiens Marc Bergevin addresses the media prior to the NHL game against the Vancouver Canucks at the Bell Centre on January 7, 2018 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
MONTREAL, QC - JANUARY 07: General manager of the Montreal Canadiens Marc Bergevin addresses the media prior to the NHL game against the Vancouver Canucks at the Bell Centre on January 7, 2018 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images) /
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Montreal Canadiens
MONTREAL, QC – OCTOBER 23: Montreal Canadiens Max Domi Jesperi Kotkaniemi Shea Weber Marc Bergevin (Photo by David Kirouac/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

The Growing Eagle

Jesperi Kotkaniemi officially burned a year off his entry-level contract over the weekend. He’s impressed in several areas of his game ever since he came down to Montreal for rookie camp. Whether the 18-year-old would’ve stood out anyway or not can’t be known for sure, but the Domi suspension helped Kotkaniemi play in the right situations to stand out amongst his teammates and perform.

His play away from the puck has always been a hallmark of his and the chemistry he’s generated with Paul Byon and Joel Armia is working. Faceoffs are most likely going to be an ongoing issue, which will be improved with age, but four points in his first ten games isn’t a bad way to start.

Bergevin did bring up something interesting though.

"The goal, the plan is to keep Kotkaniemi in Montreal. But if in 10-15 games he looks out of place they’ll make a decision then. Going day by day."

Nothing’s changed in terms of the organization’s vision of Kotkaniemi. Julien mentioned this weeks ago saying the plan was for the 2018 third-overall pick to remain in the NHL. But it seems like there is still an option to send him back.

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You may be thinking, “Why? He’s already burned a year off his deal,” and yes, that’s true. But NHL executives don’t put as much stock into that as the rest of us do. They generally care more about accrued seasons.

These are any years where a player is on the team’s active roster for at least 40 games (per the CBA). A player needs seven accrued seasons to become an unrestricted free agent (or be 27-year-old by June 30th of the upcoming seven). Even though Kotkaniemi is a year closer to becoming a restricted free agent, he is still within the default distance of getting closer to free agency.

Those evaluations mentioned in that quote will most likely pop up closer to that 40-game mark. But if Kotkaniemi continues to play as well as he has, the Montreal Canadiens shouldn’t have anything to worry about.

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