Eighteen-year-old Jesperi Kotkaniemi’s roster spot with the Montreal Canadiens is safe, at least for now.

Canadiens head coach Claude Julien said Wednesday that he and team management haven’t talked about sending the rookie to either the AHL's Laval Rocket or back to Finland. Julien said the team's goal is keep him in Montreal, though he said they haven't ruled out deciding otherwise in the future.

"He's learning a lot from these first few games and they're certainly not what they were in preseason, but that's not even to say that we're not happy with him," Julien said. "We're getting a lot of questions about him, we've never even talked about sending him back. So we can put that one aside and understand that we want him here and we're going to make sure that we give him the best chance possible to be here.

"We're also allowed to make decisions when the time comes, but right now, our goal is not thinking about sending him back. It's about having him here."

Kotkaniemi, the third-overall pick in June's draft, has two assists and a plus-2 rating in five games with the Canadiens this season. He's averaging 14:02 of ice time per game.

#Habs Julien says he and management haven’t even talked about sending Kotkaniemi to Laval or Finland; their goal is too keep him here. However, that doesn’t rule out the possibility they decide otherwise down the road. — John Lu (@JohnLuTSNMtl) October 17, 2018

If Kotkaniemi plays in five more games with the Canadiens, he will activate the first year of his entry-level contract, moving him one year closer to restricted free agency. If he appears in 40 games this season, the year will count towards unrestricted free agency as well.

The Canadiens elected to keep 2016 fourth-round pick Victor Mete on their roster past the nine-game mark last season, and while the team did loan him to Team Canada for the World Juniors, he wound up appearing in 49 games.

Kotkaniemi had 10 goals and 29 points in 57 games last season playing with Assat in Finland's Liiga. He added three goals and nine points in seven games at the Under-18 championships.