Wings prospect Kotkansalo playing in Finland this season

If there's one thing that Red Wings prospect Kasper Kotkansalo learned during the COVID-19 pandemic -- even though he really already knew -- it's that mom always knows best.
This season he'll get to see her a lot more.

Kotkansalo, Detroit's third-round pick, 71st overall, in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft, recently announced on his Instagram account that he will not return to Boston University for his senior year and will instead play in his native Finland for Ässät in Liiga, the top Finnish league.
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!
"I didn't really want to even think about it when I was just being a little bit too optimistic with corona, I thought that next season would continue just normal," Kotkansalo said via a WhatsApp interview last week. "Then I started reading news, Harvard and the Ivy League schools canceling their hockey seasons and all our other sports that were supposed to play, they canceled. So it didn't start looking too good.
"Then Hockey East came out with a statement where they only said that the goal is to play but they didn't have any plan or any date or anything concrete that I could actually trust basically in that sense. It's all so up in the air right now in the States, it's just a totally different thing here and there. So it started looking a bit sketchy in that end versus how it is here and I'm more optimistic of playing in here than the States."
It will be a big change for Kotkansalo, who has been playing hockey in the United States since the 2016-17 season, when he was with the USHL's Sioux Falls Stampede.
The last three seasons Kotkansalo has been with the Boston University Terriers, a time he will never forget.
"It was unbelievable," Kotkansalo said. "It was tough for sure. It's probably three years when I grew up the most, I think, mentally. I got the lows and the highs there and I think looking back, I've matured quite a bit since my freshman year. Sure, in my game as well, but off-ice, I think I've grown up a lot and the way I handle myself. I've grown up a bit and I think I did it with an awesome group of guys there and I still would have wanted one more year there. It's kind of sad that I had to leave without any closure from there. But I know the guys get why I'm doing what I'm doing. It's sad in that case but unbelievable three years there for sure."

Kotkansalo said what turned out to be his final season in Boston came to a very abrupt end as COVID-19 took hold in the U.S. in March.
When the American government decided to close the borders, Kotkansalo's parents, Terhi and Petri, were concerned and decided to take action.
"I wasn't going to do anything but my parents, obviously you know protective parents, so they started, I guess, freaking out a bit in the sense like, am I gonna get back," Kotkansalo said. "This was Thursday morning, I got to find out that they had booked me flights for Thursday night and we were supposed to play Friday, start our playoffs on Friday. So in the morning they told me they had booked me flights and I called them very, very (peeved) and I was yelling at them even a bit because they put me in a bad spot in that situation. Then we had our, just a normal morning practice, everything normal. Coaches said, yeah, we're gonna play tomorrow, and I'm like, I can't leave. I'm not going to be able to take the flight.
"Then in a couple hours the season got canceled and I left that night. Yeah, so that was a very quick turnaround. So once again, I guess my mom was right so all credit to her."
Looking back, Kotkansalo said he really got a lot out of his final season with the Terriers, even though it was anything but smooth sailing.
"Last year, to be honest, it was really tough," Kotkansalo said. "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(elopment) 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."
Red Wings assistant general manager Ryan Martin agreed that Kotkansalo's final season at Boston University was a successful one.
"He played a certain way in the USHL and I think he definitely developed during his time in the USHL and then when he went into BU, as is the case with a lot of these young players when they go into college, there's a period of adjustment in terms of learning your role and what type of game you should play," Martin said in a phone interview. "At a program like BU where they're constantly bringing in a lot of high-end players because they're a successful program and there's a lot of competition to stay in the lineup, sometimes players who don't necessarily grab their niche as quickly as they should sometimes find themselves maybe a little stagnant in their development. I think he was a victim of that at times in his first and second year.
"To his credit, I think his third year was probably very productive for him in terms of realizing the type of game he needed to play and playing to his strengths. I think a simpler game, he's more of a stay-at-home defender, a guy working on his ability to make a first pass, I think when he kept it simple, I think that's when the BU staff felt that he was taking another step in his development and I think we would agree with that."
Martin said that Kotkansalo moving to Ässät does not change the four-year timeline to sign him that was in place when he first went to college.
Kotkansalo said he also really appreciated the school aspect of going to college, not just the hockey part.
"I thought it was great. I've always seen school more of a thing that will boost my hockey in the sense that I'm doing other stuff outside of hockey as well," Kotkansalo said. "Because I never saw it as anything bad or too tough to handle or anything like that. I think it just helped me. Also I think it for sure brings more value to life, makes it more rich that I got to meet other people outside of hockey. I think that was probably the biggest thing I learned probably my junior year. Still, I can improve it to a certain extent but the first two years I just taking classes with my teammates and not really meeting anyone new. Then I kind of got out of my comfort zone in the sense that I just felt like I need some new people, take random classes where none of my friends are so that forces me to learn new friends.
"I think that aspect is one of the beautiful things about college hockey. Being able to play hockey and go to college is for sure that. Hockey demands so much time that you tend to just hang out with your teammates and stuff. So I think that was huge for me that I got friends outside of hockey over there."
Kotkansalo, who was majoring in advertising, said he remains on track to get his degree.
"I just have five courses left. I'm gonna graduate on time," he said. "I'm taking two courses now, then two courses after Christmas, online I'll do those, and then hopefully I get to go for summer school next year or something to finish my degree. I'm so close to graduating that I should get it done normally. If it would be up to me, I would finish with it by Christmas, to be honest. If they're paying for all my five courses right now, I'd be done by Christmas. But I think I'll have to extend it a little bit to a longer period of time so they can pay for it."
The adversity that Kotkansalo went through this past year actually set him up for a very successful offseason in spite of the pandemic because it made him change his perspective.
"I work hard and I want results right now and right here and kind of sometimes it's hard to trust the process in that sense and you know, things don't happen overnight. So I think that was also a great lesson in that regard," Kotkansalo said. "What I went through over the season, I've been much more at ease with myself, my training, I got much more out of it. I think I'm a much better hockey player right now than when I finished the season with my summer skates and all that. Definitely there's a long way to go but I think I learned my lesson in that sense and i've acted upon it so I'm really happy how things have gone, even though (we have) the pandemic and everything."
Kotkansalo said he has been skating the last few months and has also been working out with a friend from his hometown.
"This summer I trained a little differently. Me and my buddy - he's Kasper, too, Kasper Bjorkqvist - he plays for the Penguins organization. He was hurt all last year but he played in the AHL to start with. We trained with him," Kotkansalo said. "We had a strength and conditioning coach there, just the two of us and him, and we trained in Kasper's basement. So we got good workouts in throughout the tough times in Finland. The gyms weren't open but we still had a place to work out so that was good.
"Shortly, the rinks opened so me and him put together our own training group on the ice. We hired a couple of our old coaches to run some skates with us. Then we had a bunch of pro and some college players as well join us on the ice and we skated three times a week for a couple months, did skills and had fun. It was unbelievable, best summer training-wise, I think I've had in probably forever. So the corona still allowed us to work out and everything because the rinks were open."
Even though Ässät has already started playing games -- with some fans in attendance -- Kotkansalo said it hasn't fully sunk in that he's not returning to Boston.
Although that is disappointing, the upside is that he'll be closer to his family and friends.

"When I told all my teammates and stuff, that's when it kind of hit me a little bit and I got pretty emotional when I told them that I'd be gone," Kotkansalo said. "But still I don't really think I get it that I'm not actually going back to BU in a month or so. As I said, I get to see my grandparents more and I've seen them very limitedly since I've been in the States and my brother and my family and my girlfriend and all the friends, so it definitely has some good sides to it.
"And the league here is super good. I think it's definitely a good thing for me to hopefully get more games than what college plays. The schedule here has 60 games plus playoffs and stuff so I think that will be exciting. It's a different kind of environment with different obstacles, too. I think it's just very, very exciting, very, very exciting."
Kotkansalo will also have a familiar face with him on Ässät as fellow Wings prospect Otto Kivenmäki is also on the team.
"So that's cool, too," Kotkansalo said. "There's actually a lot of friends from my hometown there, too, and I knew quite a few guys going in there. So it's cool, very cool."