The Montreal Canadiens have used a unique offer sheet to attempt to acquire Sebastian Aho from the Carolina Hurricanes. It might be a sign of things to come on the free agency market.
The Carolina Hurricanes entered the 2018-2019 season with the NHL’s longest playoff drought. Sebastian Aho played a huge part in that. The restricted free agent’s negotiations with the team didn’t get resolved before July 1, so he got an offer sheet and signed it. The team that offered the gutsy proposition was the Montreal Canadiens, who announced via Twitter they extended an offer sheet to Aho, which he signed.
Montreal’s offer was for a five-year contract with an average annual value of $8.454 million. That’s a term and amount that Carolina would be sure to match. However, the details get more interesting though among reports that the deal includes the maximum number of signing bonus allowed, as per Hockey Night in Canada’s Chris Johnson.
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Even with the cap trickery that comes with signing bonuses, it’s hard to imagine Carolina lets Aho leave. Compensation from Montreal would be hefty, but his contributions to the team and their newfound success are priceless.
The 2006 Stanley Cup champions hadn’t seen the postseason since 2009. Not only did they make the playoffs this year, but they ended their season with an Eastern Conference final berth. Granted they were swept at the hands of the Boston Bruins, but for the first time in a long time, Carolina fans had something to look forward to.
Carolina entered the off-season with two main priorities. First, they had to shore up their goaltending after being carried by Petr Mrazek and Curtis McElhinney on one-year deals. Second, the Hurricanes had to re-sign Aho.
Aho, a 2015 second-round draft pick of the Hurricanes, was a major part in getting the franchise back to the postseason. The third-year center scored 83 points in the form of 30 goals and 53 assists in 82 games, as well as being the Canes leading scorer in the playoffs.
With his three-year entry-level contract up, he was sure to have a pay increase for his contributions to a reinvigorated Canes lineup. Now Aho will be getting one, though it remains up in the air who will be giving him that raise.
This year, there was also renewed interest in offer sheets during free agency, where teams can try to pry away another team’s restricted free agents by signing them to an offer sheet. The team that holds the player’s rights can either match the offer and keep the player or have the player go to the new team while receiving compensation in the form of draft picks.
Mitch Marner of the Toronto Maple Leafs has been the center of any potential offer sheet speculation, and the rumor mills began to swirl when New Jersey Devils general manager Ray Shero struck down the idea of a “gentleman’s agreement” surrounding the signing of offer sheets.
While in all likely hood Aho isn’t going to Montreal, minus a completely unexpected turn of events, it does make free agency all the more interesting. With all the talk and speculation surrounding Marner, you can only imagine the implications the Aho offer sheet will set. If one thing is for sure, Ray Shero might have been right: that “gentleman’s agreement” has been thrown out the window.