[News] Hurricanes officially match Aho offer sheet (5 years x $8.454 million)

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by shadowlord

And to respond, it's not so much about the signing/not-signing the offer sheet, but the fact that my agent knows my position and is using that to leverage a deal for someone else, while I still don't have one.

Maybe like a real estate agent representing both you (Textcritic) and me (shadowlord). You have a buyer willing to pay money for your house, but then the agent says to the buyer that he's more likely to close the deal if he gives the money to me instead.

Of course, this is off-season isn't over yet. Perhaps in the end Point will happy with the contract he ends up with.

I only posed the question: "how does he feel?" I'm not saying he *is* pissed off at his agent, but there is a potential for a conflict of interest, IMO.

There might be if what you imagine is something that has actually happened. Did this actually happen?

Originally Posted by shadowlord

...MTL was willing to give me (Point) an offer-sheet for an $8.4million contract, but my agent said -- give it to my other client (Aho) instead because CAR is more likely to match...

I don't think your real estate analogy works because unlike you (shadowlord) and me (Textcritic) I don't believe that either Aho or Point are especially motivated to sell their houses and move.

I think a much more likely situation is this: Aho wants to play in Carolina, but also wanted a five-year term which Carolina was reportedly unwilling to offer. The offer sheet ensured that Aho would get the deal he wanted from Carolina.

I suspect that Brayden Point is presently primarily motivated to make a deal with TB. Maybe that changes, but for the moment I don't see why he would be overly upset by how his agent chooses to represent other clients.

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

OK I will use some logic. Logic tells me that very, very few players are totally untouchable. Sebastian Aho is probably not one of them. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd weren't going to get it done and if you go back and read my post, I suggested that if Montreal were serious about acquiring him, they would look to sweeten the compensation.

This was in essence an attempt to trade for Aho and the front loaded offer sheet was an element to that.

I'm not saying it would have happened, just that it was a course of action available to Montreal.

As SN said, we simply don't know what it would have taken, if anything.

If Montreal was actually serious about acquiring him, then they wouldn't have put forth that laughable offer sheet in the first place. It's like they did the negotiations for Carolina. That was the number that the Canes were probably going come in close to, give or take a few hundred grand and / or a year or two in term. So why wouldn't the Canes match it?

If Montreal wanted to "sweeten the pot", then they should have negotiated a trade and extension with Carolina in the first place rather than go the give a joke of an offersheet. The fact that they did, Waddell probably told Bergervan "You want to sweeten the deal? Give me your 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and Kotkaniemi and maybe we'll talk. Otherwise, eff off".

[Vinny01]

Worked out great for Aho who basically got what he wanted term wise and apparently only $1M off the ask and was a swift negotiation.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Vinny01

Worked out great for Aho who basically got what he wanted term wise and apparently only $1M off the ask and was a swift negotiation.

Exactly. I suspect that Aho had no strong intention to play in Montreal. He likely signed an offer that he knew Carolina would happily match.

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

If Montreal was actually serious about acquiring him, then they wouldn't have put forth that laughable offer sheet in the first place. It's like they did the negotiations for Carolina. That was the number that the Canes were probably going come in close to, give or take a few hundred grand and / or a year or two in term. So why wouldn't the Canes match it?

If Montreal wanted to "sweeten the pot", then they should have negotiated a trade and extension with Carolina in the first place rather than go the give a joke of an offersheet. The fact that they did, Waddell probably told Bergervan "You want to sweeten the deal? Give me your 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and Kotkaniemi and maybe we'll talk. Otherwise, eff off".

It was one of Kypreos or Burke on with Jeff Blair yesterday that said Montreal had tried to make a trade with Carolina for Aho prior to the offer sheet and Kotkaniemi was the piece that Carolina wouldn’t budge on.

[FlamesAddiction]

It's obvious Montreal was gambling that the Hurricanes owners either couldn't or wouldn't give Aho such a large bulk of his salary upfront, not that they would have an issue with the AAV cap hit. Given their behaviour, I think it was a decent gamble.

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

It was one of Kypreos or Burke on with Jeff Blair yesterday that said Montreal had tried to make a trade with Carolina for Aho prior to the offer sheet and Kotkaniemi was the piece that Carolina wouldn’t budge on.

C'mon, Montreal. If all it takes is Kotkaniemi to close Sebastian Aho, make the deal. Aho is what you hope Kotkaniemi becomes anyway, except he's already a #1C.

Habs out thought themselves.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Montreal was also in tight to make the playoffs and ended up being just beat out by Carolina (and Columbus) by a measly 3 points.

This poison pill offersheet to Carolina with 23M owed to Aho in the first year likely takes them out of the running for the secondary UFA's like Dzingel.

[bettercallbettman]

Originally Posted by madmike

Well it did seem a bit low. Aho is a PPG centre who’s also very solid defensively. 8.5 is a bit of a bargain.

Button calling it laughable is the funny part lol

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

C'mon, Montreal. If all it takes is Kotkaniemi to close Sebastian Aho, make the deal. Aho is what you hope Kotkaniemi becomes anyway, except he's already a #1C.

Habs out thought themselves.

I gave it a listen again. It's yesterday's Prime Time Sports podcast if you wish to find it. Brian Burke at 52:40 says he spoke with Bergevin and they did approach Carolina about a trade, but it was Burke speculating that it would take Kotkaniemi.

Burke: "They believed they would make it a poison pill that they wouldn't match but it didn't work. It was creative, but not creative enough. It was ingenious, but not ingenious enough and it's going to be remembered as a costly failure."

[Hey Connor, It's Mess]

Wouldn't describe it as a failure, nor costly. The original team matched and business carries on.

[Heavy Jack]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

It was one of Kypreos or Burke on with Jeff Blair yesterday that said Montreal had tried to make a trade with Carolina for Aho prior to the offer sheet and Kotkaniemi was the piece that Carolina wouldn’t budge on.

[Wolfman]

Originally Posted by Heavy Jack

That woman is terrifying

[SuperMatt18]

I think the failure is there is no chance to get the player they wanted.

Say they do the same thing and go to $10.5M though and I bet that that one would be a tougher match for Carolina.

Offer sheet will take an overpay because it isn't just about what the player will actually sign for but ensuring it's rich enough the other team won't match.

Doing $8.5M and only giving up 1st, 2nd, 3rd as compensation made it a no brainer for Carolina to match.

$10.5M and 2 1sts, 2nd, 3rd...then Carolina probably at least thinks twice.

[FireGilbert]

I'm not sure if I'm more surprised at the lack of understanding of how offer sheets and RFA status works or the heat the Habs are receiving.

This is a brilliant move by Aho and the Habs to finally use an offer sheet the way they were intended. In the past offer sheets have only been to acquire a player you really want, damn the cap consequences. This resulted in screwing up the cap for RFAs and angering GMs.

This case however shows how offer sheets should be used. Aho felt the Canes were low balling him in negotiations so went and signed what he thought was a fair offer in Montreal. The Habs didn't offer him any more because they didn't need to. I am surprised more of the top RFAs aren't negotiating with multiple teams and just signing the best offer in the end. They are free agents after all.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by FireGilbert

I'm not sure if I'm more surprised at the lack of understanding of how offer sheets and RFA status works or the heat the Habs are receiving.

This is a brilliant move by Aho and the Habs to finally use an offer sheet the way they were intended. In the past offer sheets have only been to acquire a player you really want, damn the cap consequences. This resulted in screwing up the cap for RFAs and angering GMs.

This case however shows how offer sheets should be used. Aho felt the Canes were low balling him in negotiations so went and signed what he thought was a fair offer in Montreal. The Habs didn't offer him any more because they didn't need to. I am surprised more of the top RFAs aren't negotiating with multiple teams and just signing the best offer in the end. They are free agents after all.

But what is the point for Montreal? Player basically used them...they end up with nothing but one team pissed at them.

They did need to offer more if they actually wanted the player obviously

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Wolfman

That woman is terrifying

She's everyone's least favourite aunt.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

Late to the party. But reading Ricardow quote himself in anger just made my day lol.

It's the second time he's clearly meant to sign into a different account and stage an argument to get more people riled up.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by jayswin

It's the second time he's clearly meant to sign into a different account and stage an argument to get more people riled up.

That's absurd. I, ricardow, would never do such a thing.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by FireGilbert

I'm not sure if I'm more surprised at the lack of understanding of how offer sheets and RFA status works or the heat the Habs are receiving.

This is a brilliant move by Aho and the Habs to finally use an offer sheet the way they were intended. In the past offer sheets have only been to acquire a player you really want, damn the cap consequences. This resulted in screwing up the cap for RFAs and angering GMs.

So instead of screwing up the cap for RFAs and angering GMs they screwed up the actual money for this RFA angering a GM. I guess babysteps?

The entire contract was centered around Carolina not being a have-team with the ability to spend to and beyond the cap. It's a team that has recently spent around 55M-60M a year now being forced to spend 23M on one player in 366 days, and, should their be a lockout, forced to pay him through that. This was not a contract that Carolina was at all thrilled to match. Especially when they gave away Lindholm and Hanifin because they weren't willing to cave into their contract demands, this was a hard pill to swallow if ultimately an obvious decision.