By the Numbers Prospects: Kasper Kotkansalo

By the Numbers will highlight the on-ice accomplishments in the 2019-20 season for the Detroit Red Wings' prospects. Twice a week during the offseason, By the Numbers will profile a different player in the system, focusing on his statistical highs. This week we focus on defenseman Kasper Kotkansalo.

After his junior season at Boston University was abruptly canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Detroit Red Wings prospect Kasper Kotkansalo returned to Finland to be with his family.
As the months wore on, Kotkansalo found that he had a difficult decision to make.
Instagram from @kotkis: A bitter sweet feeling of saying goodbye to BU. Due to the Covid situation I've decided to stay in Finland for the upcoming season. I'd like to take this chance to thank Boston University and all the people involved through my three years there. Over the years I made so many great friends and unforgettable memories that I'll be forever grateful of. Thank you to my coaches, trainers, managers and the whole atheltic department for helping me out. Also a huge shoutout to all the fellow athletes and friends I got to meet outside of hockey. Finally, thanks to all the boys for making my time special both on and off the ice!
On Aug. 2, Kotkansalo announced on his Instagram that he would not return to the Terriers for his senior season and would instead
remain in Finland due to the pandemic
.
Shortly thereafter, Kotkansalo signed a deal to play for Ässät in Liiga, Finland's top league, this season.

Kotkansalo, the Wings' third-round pick, 71st overall, in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft, is now teammates with another Wings prospect, forward Otto Kivenmäki (seventh round, 191st, 2018).
Preseason games are already underway in Liiga but Kotkansalo has missed some time with an injury.
But the Ässät Twitter account recently indicated that Kotkansalo is close to making his return.

The 6-foot-3, 205-pound Kotkansalo is in the mold of a traditional defensive defenseman so fans should not expect to see huge numbers from him.
Instead, Kotkansalo is expected to go out and shut down other teams' top offensive players and kill penalties.
But if you were at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Mich. this past Jan. 3, you might have seen a different side of Kotkansalo as he and the Terriers played an exhibition game against the U.S. National Under-18 team.
Kotkansalo scored in the shootout to help the Terriers prevail, 4-3.
This season will be Kotkansalo's first playing in his native country since he played for Blues U20 in Jr. A SM-liiga during the 2015-16 season.
112 - In his three seasons at Boston University, Kotkansalo played 112 games.
2 - In those 112 games, Kotkansalo scored two goals, both in his freshman year in 2017-18.
23- Kotkansalo also had 23 assists in his three seasons as a Terrier.
136- Kotkansalo had 136 shots in three seasons, with the most coming in his first year, when he had 63.
34 - In his third and final season with the Terriers, Kotkansalo played 34 games. He was one of seven to play in all 34.
8 - The defensive defenseman finished with eight assists in those 34 games. Six of those eight came during Hockey East contests. Kotkansalo also had a career-high eight blocked shots in a 3-2 victory at Merrimack on Jan. 17.
50 - Kotkansalo led the Terriers with 50 blocked shots. The next closest player, Case McCarthy, had 38.
3 - Kotkansalo was third among Hockey East players in blocked shots. Merrimack's Declan Carlile led with 67 and Connecticut's Adam Karashik was second with 51. He also had an assist in all three wins against New Hampshire, Oct. 26, Feb. 14 and Feb. 15. In a 5-2 victory over Harvard on Dec. 3, Kotkansalo had an assist and was plus-3. He had a season high three shots in a 5-4 overtime loss to Northeastern on Feb. 10.
1.47 - With 1.47 blocks per game, Kotkansalo ranked fourth in Hockey East. Carlile was first with 1.97, Karashik was second with 1.55 and Providence's Spenser Young was third with 1.53.
Quotable: "He's over in Europe. He got a little banged up there playing preseason in Ässät back in Liiga. That was kind of his decision. He really just wanted to play more games. One thing with college, and obviously we've got uncertainty with them starting, he's far enough along in his schooling that he really can still graduate, he's not far away from graduating with turning pro and going back there and playing more games. Really it came down to just wanting to play hockey and the uncertainty of when college was going to start, just the ability to play more games.
"I thought it got better as the year went on. The thing with Kasper, he's a defensive D-man so it's hard to look at numbers for those type of guys and really put any sort of gauge on how his year went in terms of numbers because that's not his game. He's hard to play against, he's a defensive D, good on the penalty kill. Once this season gets going, we'll be monitoring closely because it'll be good test for him over in the pro league in Finland. The Liiga is a good hockey league and now he's playing against men, it's going to be a step up for him and a bigger challenge. It'll be interesting to see how he plays." - Shawn Horcoff, director of player development and assistant director of player personnel
Quotable II: "Last year, to be honest, it was really tough. I grew the most though during that last year. I think I went in with a lot of expectations, way too high expectations. I had an unbelievable dev camp, I think. That's how I remember it, I was unbelievable there, all the rest results, everything, I was improving so much. The first couple weeks at BU, I was lights out and then, I'm pretty much thinking, sure, I'll play in the NHL at the end of this season. I got way, way above myself in that sense. What ended up happening, I set my expectations too high and then I was very hard on myself when I didn't get to those expectations. I think that led to me performing a little worse than how I was normally playing and I got pretty upset with my game and everything over there. Then once I got over the self-pity and all that stuff, I turned things around greatly and I think I played, the last month or so, I played really, really good hockey, probably the best hockey I played at BU. So I think it was a very tough season, especially mentally, but once again, some lessons that I'm so glad I learned, to handle that kind of situation and I learned so much about myself mostly during last year, too, in that regard. So I'm very happy with the season even though it ended short so I didn't perform as well as I wanted." - Kotkansalo