is kk still an rfa next year?

Yep, he can be offer sheeted but they are basically waiting till after the trade deadline to sign the contract in this ACGM.

I'm not sure, but I think that his new contract must be more than this contract now.

Nope, as being reported rn they are waiting until TDL to make the deal official but he will be staying in Carolina for 8 years at around 4.5-5mil. His Qualifying Offer would be equal to the 6.1 but ofc he has the option to choose to go long term as he has.

He is an RFA next year and his contract is reported but is pretty much know at 4 825 000 give or take for 8 years.

There is no restriction on any NHL contract requiring it to include a raise.

Edit: You may be confusing extensions with qualifying offers. There are restrictions on qualifying offers, based on the salary and bonuses of the previous contract, and those restrictions prevent the QO from being less than the previous contract. This is an extension and not a QO, so these restrictions do not apply.

Theoretically, Kotka could have held out and refuse to sign anything until June 24, at which point Carolina would have to choose between offering 6.1MMx1yr, or letting him walk to UFA, then he could have strung it out for every year until he naturally hit UFA. This situation is the one that you may have constantly heard from Montréal fans trying to convince themselves that this was a horrible idea, but since Kotka and the Hurricanes agreed on a longer-term deal, this is all moot (Assuming that the rumours are true and they are just waiting for the deadline).

And then Jake Gardiner gets off LTIR...

Terrible trade for SEA, I don't think there's a chance in hell they do that.

Honest question - how do CAR fans feel about how the KK trade has turned out/ him signing this contract?