Breaking: Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon responds to Aho offersheet

To match or not to match? What’s it going to be, Tommy?

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Breaking: Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon responds to Aho offersheet
Zuma Press

UPDATE:

It's official, the Hurricanes WILL match the offersheet submitted to Sebastian Aho, but decline to say when. They have six days to let Montreal sweat things out.



In case you missed it, the Montreal Canadiens signed Carolina Hurricanes star Sebastian Aho to a five year offsheet worth over $8 million per season yesterday afternoon.



Of course, because Aho is a restricted free agent (RFA) the Hurricanes can either match the Habs’ offer to Aho or they can elect to walk away from the deal. If they go this route, they’ll receive a 1st, 2nd and 3rd round pick from the Habs as compensation. The Hurricanes have a week to match the offer.

It’s worth noting as well that the deal signed by Aho is MASSIVELY front loaded with $21 million due in bonuses during the five year agreement. This seems to be an obvious strategic ploy by Bergevin to hamstring the… shall we say financially strained Hurricanes front office. 

But, all signs coming out of the Hurricanes camp seem to indicate that Aho’s deal will be matched and he’ll stay with the team on this new five year deal. 



In fact, Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon confirmed as much in a recent interview for The Raleigh News & Observer with Chip Alexander. Check out this quote from Alexander’s latest column:

“We’re surprised. We love the player and we’re happy to have this done. And surprised something would have thought this would work.”



If that’s not enough to convince you, check out some of the quotes below from Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell:

“I’m actually surprised it wasn’t more,” Waddell quipped about the average annual value of $8.454 million. “We’re just reviewing it. We haven’t had time to really bring everybody in the inner circle in to talk about it.”

It’s also worth noting that in the week the Hurricanes have to make their decision, the Canadiens are prohibited from making ANY other transactions. In effect they’re handcuffed until Waddell and the Hurricanes make their decision… just don’t hold your breath, Habs fans…

“Maybe I don’t want to help them right now,” Waddell smiled.

Furthermore, check out these quotes taken directly from the Hurricanes’ own website:

Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin would lead you to believe that Aho signing the offer sheet indicates his desire to play in a different city for a different team, though that’s not exactly the case. Rather, Aho agreed to the terms of the contract - not the team - and, in a shrewd tactic, assumed some negotiating leverage when, as a restricted free agent, he otherwise didn’t have much at all.

Now, we wait.

But there shouldn’t be much suspense in what will happen next.

Interesting spin from the Hurricanes’ front office, but Aho’s agent Gerry Johannson isn’t buying it. Check out these quotes from Johnson, taken from Canadiens’ insider Marc Antoine Godin of The Athletic:

“I don’t think it is easy for Carolina,” Johannson said. “I can tell you for sure, it’s not easy for Carolina. Anybody who says this is easy is wrong. You can armchair quarterback any decision, but I can promise you this is an aggressive move … It’s a lot of money, and it’s a lot of front-loaded money.”
“Who knows? Carolina is going to do what they’re going to do, but trust me, this is not an easy decision for them.”
“I think that Sebastian 100 percent wants to play in Montreal,” Johannson said. “He wouldn’t have signed an offer sheet if he didn’t want to play in Montreal.”

Interesting. Who to believe? We'll find out in just six days time.