After very little action on the trade front thus far in the off-season, Georgetown hooked up with regular partner Chippewa to make 2 deals this past week.
Georgetown trades C Jesperi Kotkaniemi to Chippewa for C Sean Kuraly.
Kotkaniemi was re-acquired from the Crackerjacks last off-season with the hope that he might finally find his footing as a middle 6 NHL forward. Unfortunately in the eyes of Millers management that step was not taken, and the emergence of Marco Kaspar pushed “KK” further down the projected depth chart for the 25-26 season. The organization loves Kotkaniemi’s work ethic and attitude and wish their former 1st round pick success as he heads back across the border.
Kuraly will likely take over as the 4th line C and see time on the penalty kill. Although he offers next to no offense, (15 pts in 82 CCHL games in 24-25) Kuraly can skate, hit and stay out the penalty box, major attributes that coach Brind’Amour wants from his depth forwards and non-scorers.
Georgetown trades D Mario Ferraro, RW Maxim Tsyplakov, RW Logan O’Connor and Senneterre 5th-2026 to Chippewa for LW Jared McCann and D Alex Pietrangelo.
McCann returns to the Bluegrass after being dealt early the previous season to Amos when the Millers got off to the terrible start and decided to shake up the roster. A move to CHP followed and for the season he put up 30-37-67 in 79 games. McCann had 8 points in 9 games with GEO before being dealt. McCann will play somewhere in Georgetown’s top 6 on the LW and will see plenty of PP time. The club likes his solid all-around game as his defense is underrated for a player seen as a scorer.
Pietrangelo put up 74 points as Wisborg’s top Defenseman in 24-25. The 35 year-old will not be counted on as much for his offense as he enters the final year of his contract. With Theodore, Walman and the emerging Jackson LaCombe expected to lead the offense from the blue line, the club is wanting Pietrangelo to pair with LaCombe as a veteran stabilizer , ikely on the 2nd pairing. AP will see time on the 2nd PP unit and on the PK, but the club hopes to keep him around 20 minutes a night to keep him fresh.
Below is an early, best guess as to how the lines will look when training camp opens. This does not account for any potential forward position additions once that process opens up. New acquisitions and rookies are in italics.
Larkin-McCann-Necas
Malkin-Mikheyev-Guenther
Kaspar-Moore-Henrique
Kuraly-Martinook-Copp
Rasmussen-Robinson-Joseph
Roy-Theodore
Pietrangelo-LaCombe
Chatfield-Walman
Gostisbehere-Marino
Dostal
Allen
Ingram
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