Likely not considering that Minny has a lot of issues with their Cap, but JEE isn’t one of them.

Habs say no, they can get at least a 1st.

Pens say "No thanks". Pens could get a 2nd for Nedeljkovic without the cap dump Andersen. He is playing fantastic.

Canes don’t consider any of these. If the Wild have any plans to trade JEE, the Canes probably go for Necas and a 1st as the centerpiece of the deal instead.

Yea the Wild don't do this trade. Kotkaniemi is a worse version of JEE who the Canes inexplicably extended for eight years as soon as they got him, and Suzuki is a useless throw-in. With their cap problems through next season, a hypothetical JEE trade would involve a Necas + blue-chip prospect with an ELC instead of picks.

Minny definitely doesn't do that.

I think the deadline would have to break favourably for Carolina for either of the rentals to happen, let alone both. Montreal will be focusing on trying to get a first and they (along with Anaheim, Columbus, etc.) aren't hurt by the fact that the top center is off the market for a haul to a team that wasn't that hard up for center depth. With Frederik Anderson's health and poor play the last couple of seasons, its pretty hard to imagine a team like Pittsburgh being willing to take him on.

Carolina generally doesn't spend on rentals anyways, so I suspect they'll be pretty conservative at the deadline.

Kotkaniemi and JEE are much more comparable than you think. KK's offense isn't much worse, and he's analytically better defensively than JEE. They're closer in value than a lot of people think, I wouldn't move one for the other, especially because the wild, as you put it "inexplicably" extended JEE for a long time too!

Granted, Kotkaniemi is younger and has a few years to get to JEE's level. But, according to hockey-reference.com for 23-24:

Plus/Minus: JEE +10, Kotkaniemi -11
Blocks: JEE 38, Kotkaniemi 24
Expected +/-: JEE 3.0, Kotkaniemi: 1.4
Team On-Ice Save %: JEE .904, Kotkaniemi .889
Team On-Ice Shooting %: JEE 11.4, Kotkiemi 6.7
Relative Fenwick For %: JEE 3.4, Kotkaniemi 0.2
Relative Corsi For %: JEE 2.9, Kotkaniemi -1.3
Defensive Point Shares: JEE 1.5, Kotkaniemi 0.5

All while JEE plays on a much worse team this season. So... yea, disagree on the analytics claim.

Per NST
CA/60
KK 52.36
JEE 56.38

FA/60
JEE 39.48
KK 38.94
HDCF/60
JEE 10.96
KK 12.01

KK edges most analytics. You want to see where the difference is?

On ice save percentage
JEE .913
KK .896
On ice Shooting percentage
JEE 10.19
KK 6.34

They're very comparable as of this minute. With KK's age and cheaper cap hit, I think it's understandable to rather have the Finn, and I love JEE. Plus, when KK scores, Montreal cries, and that just makes hockey better for everyone.

Lol, love the last bit. That was a big D move on Waddell's part. Cheers to that!

Cherry picking a few advanced analytics to hold up some sort of argument that KK is similar to JEK when in reality KK’s defensive numbers are good because his quality of competition is near non existent.

It takes two seconds to see KK plays a very sheltered 14 minutes TOI against competition that isn’t close to JEK’s 20 minutes TOI. But it doesn’t surprise me Caniac is arguing that his players are better than everyone else’s.

JEK >>>>>>> KK and it’s not particularly close lmfao.

I was not going to continue arguing analytics with him, as my opinion is set. I just liked the last bit about Montreal. IMO, better to disagree and laugh than be mean-spirited.