So let’s celebrate the anarchy of inking Kotkaniemi to a one-year, $6.1-million offer sheet in blatant retaliation to the Canadiens signing the Canes’ top center, Sebastian Aho, to a five-year, $42.27-million offer sheet in 2019 which they matched. In the team news release this past Saturday, Carolina GM Don Waddell even used almost identical language to that of Habs GM Marc Bergevin in 2019. The Canes sent a secondary tweet of the news in French. The chef’s kiss was the $20 signing bonus, a nod to Aho’s number. It’s difficult to imagine a precedent for a team taking such public glee out of putting a rival club in a pickle. Raise your hand if you can’t wait for the teams’ first game against each other in 2021-22. It goes down Oct. 21.
Back to the Habs’ pickle. With Phillip Danault gone to the Los Angeles Kings as a UFA, the Habs’ center depth got depleted over the off-season, and Kotkaniemi was likely to rise as high as second on the depth chart despite the fact he was scratched for two of five games in the Stanley Cup final. At 21, he’s hardly finished his ascension. Of the 597 forwards who played NHL regular-season games in 2020-21, 577, or 96.6 percent, were older than Kotkaniemi. But does that mean Bergevin should match on a player who has not delivered anything close to $6.1 million in value? It’s not an easy decision.
Historically, the offer sheets that have led to teams not matching occur when there’s a major discrepancy in how each team values the player. When the Edmonton Oilers swiped left winger Dustin Penner in the “barn fight” incident of 2007, they did so successfully because GM Kevin Lowe offered Penner a number Anaheim Ducks GM Brian Burke did not believe Penner was worth. It compelled the player to sign and his original team to walk way (as parties involved explained to me in this 2019 story). It appears the Canes are hoping to recreate those conditions. They know Kotkaniemi isn’t yet a $6.1-million player and are counting on the Habs to agree. Then again, a one-year deal isn’t so prohibitive that the Habs can’t match in hopes of negotiating a fairer pact for 2022-23 and beyond.
So what does Bergevin do? He has seven days from the date of the offer sheet to match, meaning he has until this Saturday, Sept. 4. Let’s explore the pros and cons of matching.
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