from Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic,

Hurricanes GM Don Waddell wasted no time after his team’s playoff exit in reaching out to agent Gerry Johannson about his client Sebastian Aho to get the ball rolling on contract talks.

Aho is the top priority for the Hurricanes this summer, the team hoping to extend him a year ahead of his deal expiring in 2024. It’s amazing how time flies, but it was already four years ago that Aho made headlines after signing a five-year, $42.295 million offer sheet contract with the Canadiens — one which Carolina owner Tom Dundon matched without hesitation.

Also noteworthy is how little bitterness there ever seemed to be between the organization and Aho over that. It’s not something that the Hurricanes have made a point to hold against Johannson and Aho. They turned the page quickly. Business is business. And so that relationship has stayed healthy, and now that’s going to be important as the organization tries to get Aho signed long-term as early as July 1 when he’s allowed to get an extension done. Both sides have agreed to get talking on it in very short order.

I think Aho wants to stay, and the Hurricanes no doubt will want to do the max eight years. So what does that deal look like? Too early to know, but what we do know is that Johannson negotiated an eight-year, $76-million extension for his client Brayden Point with Tampa Bay two years ago, a deal with a $9.5 million cap hit that kicked in this past season. I would imagine the Hurricanes would like to get Aho below that threshold, and I would imagine Johansson would counter that the Point deal is two years old.

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