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RALEIGH — “I thought I was gone for 13 minutes,” Jesperi Kotkaniemi said, “but I came back.”
The Hurricanes center found out about what would become the Mikko Rantanen and Taylor Hall for Martin Necas and Jack Drury trade the same way as almost everyone in the universe.
“We were leaving dinner and things started to come up on social media, like, ‘Oh, what’s going on?’” Kotkaniemi said Tuesday morning in New York. “There were a lot of names — my name and other guys’ names out there. So we were like, ‘What’s happening?’ No one really knew what’s going on.”
As the news spread on social media last Friday night — first that Hall would be coming to Carolina and then of the bigger deal including Rantanen — the group text the players share got active.
“It blew up pretty quick,” defenseman Sean Walker said.
Hurricanes GM Eric Tulsky — at the request of his counterpart in Colorado, Chris MacFarland — kept an airtight seal on negotiations with the Avalanche, which started in the offseason but heated up in recent weeks.
“I’ve only been a part of a few sudden ones midseason that are kind of more out of the blue than normal,” Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said.
Not that Kotkaniemi was completely blindsided. His name had been bandied about in rumors of Carolina’s discussions with the Canucks regarding both Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller.
Following last Thursday’s home win against Columbus, I had asked Kotkaniemi if it was difficult dealing with the persistent trade rumors.
“Na, at the beginning of the year, they think you’re great,” he said of pundits and others putting his name out there, “and in the middle of the year, they think you’re s–t.”
About 24 hours later, he was right in the middle of it, not knowing his future.
“Those are big things,” he said. “Everyone has families and houses, apartments wherever they play. So there’s a lot of things going through your mind when those things come up.”
Less than 20 minutes after Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli — who had first reported Rantanen would be headed to Carolina — had posted on X that it “sounds like both Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Martin Necas are going” to the Avalanche, ESPN’s Emily Kaplan, at 9:06 p.m., posted that it would be Drury, not Kotkaniemi, as the second piece in the deal.
At 10:08 p.m., the Hurricanes officially announced the trade following a negotiation that Tulsky called “a complicated dance.”
The players gathered in their hotel in Garden City on Long Island to say quick goodbyes to Necas and Drury — the Avalanche were set to play Sunday at 1 p.m. in Boston, and both players had to leave immediately to arrive in time to make their Colorado debut against the Bruins.
“We all just got together,” Kotkaniemi said. “It was nice that everyone showed up, and it’s nice to say a couple last words to those guys for a while (because) we don’t play (Colorado) anymore this season. So it was a little hectic there.”
Staal added, “We were trying to take a little time together and say bye to a couple family members.”
While the excitement of the additions bubbled under the surface, there were still the emotions of losing two players who were drafted and developed by the team and had become part of the culture.
“I love both those guys so much. Obviously, you’ve got to lose big pieces to get big pieces. So I just can’t wish enough well on Nechy and Jacko because those are friends you’ll have for a long time — geez, emotion,” said Jordan Martinook, pausing to compose himself. “But bringing in Hallsy and Rants, those are two unbelievable players. It’s going to make our team better, and I’m excited to see how it all plays out.”
With the NHL trade deadline just over five weeks away, everyone can’t exhale yet.
“It’s part of the business,” Kotkaniemi said. “Anything can happen at any moment, so it’s good to kind of be ready for that.”