Canadiens: Offer Sheet Mayhem

Offer sheets are so rarely used that when one is issued, it immediately becomes the talk of the league. Yesterday morning, St. Louis Blues GM Doug Armstrong rocked the league with not one, but two offer sheets. Minutes before they were announced, the Blues concluded a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins that puzzled many people, a picks swapping that made no sense initially but became evidence when the offers were announced.

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The Edmonton Oilers now have seven days to match the offers made by Armstrong. The GM targeted 23-year-old defenseman Philip Broberg and signed him to a 2-year deal worth $4,580,917 per. The second target was 22-year-old forward Dylan Holloway who inked a two-year pact worth $2,290,457. Should the Oilers not match the offers, the Blues will have to send them a third-round pick for Holloway and a second-round pick for Broberg.

While the Oilers are deep in cap trouble right now, those deals are not unreasonable by any means and chances are, Stan Bowman will want to match them. He will however have some roster trimming to do beforehand, and he'll have to get to it quickly since the clock is ticking.

The Summer of 2019

Back in the 2019 off-season, Montreal Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin wasted no time in signing Carolina Hurricanes' center Sebastian Aho to a five-year $42.27 M offer which worked out to an $8.46 M cap hit on July 1. The Habs brass was confident the Canes wouldn't be able to match the offer as they saw a vulnerable position.

The Carolina outfit swiftly stated they would match the offer and then GM Don Waddell even said he was surprised the offer wasn't higher. As expected, On July 7, the Hurricanes officially announced they had matched the offer and Aho would remain in Carolina.

Bergevin might have believed the Hurricanes were in a vulnerable position, but for an offer sheet to be properly weaponized, it has to be worth more than what was, frankly, below Aho's market value. It was so reasonable in fact that Waddell probably should have thanked the Habs GM for simplifying what had been tricky negotiations until then.

What Goes Around Comes Around

Two years later, fresh off an unlikely run to the Stanley Cup final, Bergevin found himself in a tricky position. He was on the verge of losing two of his top three centers in Phillip Danault, who was a UFA, and one of the organization's young centers Jesperi Kotkaniemi, who was an RFA. That was as vulnerable a position as one could be in.

Yet, the Hurricanes waited a month before tendering an offer sheet to the Finnish center, but unlike Bergevin, they made theirs count. Kotkaniemi had struggled in Montreal after a very respectable 34-point first season in the NHL. His production fell to just eight points in 36 games in 2019-2020 and then to 20 points in 56 games the following season.

Still, Waddell offered him a one-year deal with a $6.1 M price tag and even added a $20 signing bonus. That was probably the best bit of trolling ever made by a NHL team. Adding a signing bonus in the amount of Aho's number was just the right way to remind both Bergevin and the entire league that the Canes hadn't forgotten about the Canadiens' failed attempt.

Bergevin just couldn't match the offer sheet. If he did, his salary structure would have been thrown in turmoil. Nick Suzuki had one year left to his entry-level contract at that stage and had the GM given $6.1 M to Kotkaniemi, it's safe to assume he never would have been able to sign Suzuki to a long-term deal worth less than $8M per season.

The Hurricanes knew $6.1 M was an overpayment, proof being that prior to the contract running out, they negotiated an extension with Kotkaniemi that was way below what the qualifying offer ($6,100,015) they would have had to make him to retain him as an RFA the following Summer.

In the end, the Canadiens had the last laugh in the story as the Hurricanes went on to sign Kotkaniemi to an eight-year extension with a $4,820,000 cap hit, even though he was wildly inconsistent. Towards the end of last season, he was even a healthy scratch and only got back in the lineup thanks to injuries. It will be interesting to see what happens this season in Carolina.

Could Yesterday's Offer Sheets Prove to Be an Opportunity for Kent Hughes?

Current Canadiens GM Kent Hughes has never made an offer sheet to another team's player but what he has done in the past however is weaponizing his cap space. He took on another team's unwanted contract to allow them some breathing room under the cap and got something for his trouble in the process. That's how the Calgary Flames shipped Sean Monahan to Montreal with a first-round pick as the sweetener.

Before the offer sheets, the Oilers were already above the cap by $354,000 prior to St. Louis' meddling. Now, if they match both offer sheets, they'll be over by $7,225,541. There have been rumors that Evander Kane may not be ready to start the season and could land on LTIR, but even if that was the case, the $5,125,000 in salary relief wouldn't be enough to bring them back under the cap. They will still be over by $2,100,541.

Related: Canadiens: Kent Hughes Doesn't Live in the Past

That's an amount the Canadiens could easily take on considering they are under the cap by $5,452,916. Who could the Oilers look to unload? Could moving Adam Henrique's $3M cap hit be a possibility? Would the Canadiens be interested in some depth at center now that they can't bring Monahan back for a third tour of duty?

I know Cody Ceci's name has been put forward, but with such a logjam on the backend, would it really make sense? At least Ceci is a right-shot defenseman and could be seen as an upgrade of sorts (offensively) over David Savard, but there are so many good blueliners waiting to make the jump to the pro that it would be a weird turn of events to say the least. Not only has Kent Hughes always said he doesn't want to hinder youth's progress, but he also needs time to evaluate the prospects he has on his hands. Which ones should stick around? Which ones should be traded? Only NHL ice-time can provide definite answers to those questions.

Related

Canadiens: Hughes Is Having a Quietly Good Offseason
Canadiens' Kent Hughes Has Winning Contract Strategy...So Far
The Canadiens’ Record in the Cap Era Isn’t Great

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