kuokkanen041917

Hello and welcome to a weekly feature on CarolinaHurricanes.com in which I take your Twitter questions about the Carolina Hurricanes or other assorted topics and answer them in mailbag form. Hopefully the final product is insightful to some degree, and maybe we have some fun along the way.
Let's get to it.

Yes, actually. I had the chance on Wednesday morning to sit down with Assistant General Manager and Director of Hockey Operations Mike Vellucci this morning to talk Janne Kuokkanen and other Hurricanes prospects who have had solid showings in the Canadian Hockey League playoffs. Despite his two-point night, Kuokkanen and the London Knights were eliminated from the playoffs on Tuesday in a 5-4 overtime loss to Warren Foegele (who scored the game-winning goal) and the Erie Otters. Here's what Vellucci had to say about Kuokkanen:
"He was on fire and had a great playoff series. … He played really well. He's a smart guy. His hockey sense is off the charts. I don't want to put any pressure on him, but he has a little bit of Sebastian Aho tendencies. They're both from Finland, they both have very good hockey sense, are good skaters and have a great shot."
One more similarity to note between Kuokkanen and Aho is that they were both high second-round picks. The Canes will be thrilled if they found another Aho through the draft. On Wednesday afternoon, the Hurricanes assigned Kuokkanen to Charlotte, where he'll join the Checkers and give them added forward depth in time for the first round of their playoff series against Chicago.

Stay tuned to CarolinaHurricanes.com for coverage of the Checkers and the Calder Cup playoffs in Charlotte later this week.

Yep, dates are indeed set for Summerfest, which centers on Prospects Development Camp and concludes with a Saturday celebration. I won't spoil it just yet, but you'll see a summer-themed "save the dates" - with information about that, the draft party and more - hit our social media channels very, very soon.
Tweet from @PatClarke27: @MSmithCanes Have you seen previews of the new adidas uniforms for next season? Or will you first see them at the Draft? #Tweetmail
I can't say much, but this is what I can give you:
Yes, I have seen them.
The new Adidas sweaters will be unveiled this summer.
I can't wait.

Now that I'm not covering a game at least every other day, there's some time to breathe and catch up on some television that I've missed over the last couple of months.
I finished "24: Legacy" this week. It was fine, but I kept getting the feeling I was watching a cover band. I'm still catching up on this season of "The Americans," and the third season of "Better Call Saul" just began. "Bates Motel" ends soon. That's been an under-the-radar delight to watch transform over its five seasons. On my Netflix to-watch list include the second season of "Love," plus Dave Chappelle's two new comedy specials. And on Amazon, I still need to finish off the last few episodes of the first season of "Goliath." I would also like to catch up on this year's batch of Academy Awards films that I've yet to see.
So, yeah, plenty to keep me busy over the summer.

Thus concludes Tweetmail
I hope that you enjoyed it
Please come back next week
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If you have a question you'd like answered or you have a suggestion for my increasingly long summer to-watch list, you can find me on Twitter at
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