Quote:
Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen
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. 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.
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That is an assumption without merit. That Dundon may prefer not to spend that money now - which is also an assumption - does not equate to being unable to. This is a guy who just lit millions of dollars on fire trying to save the Alliance of American Football. He's not exactly short of capital.
Additionally, pointing to a nebulous and unprovable claim that Carolina will be unable to sign an unknown free agent as a tangible benefit to Montreal is... convenient. I could easily flip the script and argue that Montreal may have actively hurt themselves by by tying up this money and picks with a hopeless offer sheet. The theoretical player that they may not have been able to sign as a consequence becomes an equally nebulous and unprovable benefit to Carolina.