Quote:
Originally Posted by transplant99
A GM's job is to make his team better.
What did Bergevin do here to make his team better?
|
Again, the Canadiens were in direct competition with Carolina for one of the wildcard spots and just missed out on the playoffs.
By tying up 23.3M on Aho in the next calendar year (+ a day), the Hurricanes, a team historically not spending to the cap and more recently spending around 60M or so a year, do not have the monetary capital now to explore other short-term options to improve their team. The poison pill contract the Habs offered Aho has taken Carolina out of the running for these secondary available UFAs that they would otherwise had the opportunity to sign. With the teams presumably expected to be close in the standings again this year, Carolina's hit on a depth signing or two could be the difference between Montreal making the playoffs or not.
Yes, it will be advantageous to Carolina in years 4 and 5 of the deal when they'll be spending 6M on their number 1 center, but year 6 could be extremely detrimental if they lose him for nothing.