Rumor: Canes already plotting revenge against the Habs.

Revenge is a dish best served ice hockey cold.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Rumor: Canes already plotting revenge against the Habs.

It had been a very long time since we had seen an offer sheet in the National Hockey League but this summer Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin made the bold move of presenting a high end restricted free agent with just that. The Habs and Bergevin submitted a heavily front loaded offer to Carolina Hurricanes star forward Sebastien Aho in the hopes that the notoriously stingy Hurricanes would have balked at paying that much money in the first year of a contract. 

In spite of Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon's reputation for perhaps being a little cheap, we now know that the Hurricanes have matched the offer presented to Aho and it never truly seemed like it was in doubt. From the very moment Aho signed the offer sheet and the news went public the Hurricanes' social media team made it crystal clear that there was no way the organization would fail to match. They lived up to their word on Sunday and it would seem now like this situation is over and done with. But is it?

There is a reason that we do not often see the offer sheet used as a tool by National Hockey League general managers and that is due to the stigma around them. Infamously former NHL general manager Brian Burke has told the story of how he once nearly got into an actual fist fight with a rival general manager over an offer sheet. NHL teams that do not want to have offer sheets against them are best to keep a policy of not using them on rival organizations, and it sounds like the Canadiens may end up learning that lesson the hard way.

Some very interesting comments from NHL insider Pierre LeBrun in a recent article he published indicate that the Carolina Hurricanes may already have revenge on the brain when it comes to any potential future restricted free agents that the Habs allow to go to the free agency period. 

From LeBrun:

Believe me when I say this: I guarantee Dundon has already told Waddell that if there’s an RFA in Montreal the ‘Canes can go after over the next few years, he’s got the green light to do something crazy.

If this does indeed spark some type of intense front office rivalry between the Canes and the Canadiens, I for one can not wait to see it play out in front of our eyes. 

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