Montreal GM takes one for the team; not his team, mind you…

Opinion

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This article was published 02/07/2019 (2260 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Kevin Cheveldayoff might want to put together a lovely fruit basket to send to Marc Bergevin. Kyle Dubas, Julien BriseBois and Brad Treliving should probably chip in, as well. Maybe add a bottle or two of Bergevin’s favourite scotch while they’re at it. Perhaps some protein powder, too.

And a nice card that says, "Not sure what you were thinking, but thanks for the help!"

After all, the Montreal Canadiens general manager just made life a lot easier for several of his NHL counterparts with his ill-conceived attempt at an offer sheet that quickly blew up in spectacular fashion.

By signing Carolina superstar-in-the-making Sebastian Aho to a five-year, $42.27-million offer sheet on Monday, Bergevin played right into the hands of Hurricanes, hurt his team in the process and set a new benchmark across the league that should help many of his rivals, including the Winnipeg Jets.

This is the equivalent of an own goal. In overtime. Of a playoff game.

Sure, the contract is heavily front-loaded and filled with bonuses, which means giving Aho nearly half the cash within the first year, but that’s a price Carolina’s billionaire owner, Tom Dundon, is willing to pay. The organization made that crystal clear in quickly announcing they will match, essentially mocking the Canadiens for the offer both at news conferences and even on their cheeky social media account.

(On the official team Twitter, they put up a poll asking followers if they would match Montreal’s offer. The two options were "Yes" and "Oui."

Will we match the offer sheet for Sebastian Aho?

— Carolina Hurricanes (@NHLCanes) July 1, 2019

Brilliant.)

The fact is, Carolina will now get their top young star under contract for $8.45 million per season, which is substantially less than Aho was said to be seeking and no doubt less than the Hurricanes were anticipating paying him. Yes, the deal will walk him right into unrestricted free agency in five years, which really is the only downside from Carolina’s perspective.

Otherwise, they now have Aho on a team-friendly contract which will allow them to keep building around him and try to take the next step forward after advancing to the Eastern Conference Final last season. This also saved them plenty of work, and headaches, over what could have been a long, drawn-out and messy process.

"I know my summer just got better, because I’m not going to be negotiating a contract all summer," said Hurricanes GM Don Waddell, who could barely hide his glee.

As for Montreal, they are left holding a bag of cash, with nothing to show for it except plenty of egg on their face.

Seriously, what was Bergevin thinking here? This was such a ridiculous attempt you’d almost think he was in cahoots with Carolina, rather than trying to steal their best player from them.

Under terms of the collective bargaining agreement, there are seven different levels of compensation for an offer sheet, all based on salary. Bergevin went with the third-highest, stopping just dollars short of the second-highest. Carolina would have received just a first, second and third-round draft pick for Aho had they opted to walk away. That’s hardly worth it, considering what they’d be losing.

Bergevin only had to add a few more dollars to get into the next tier, which would have given Carolina an additional first-round draft pick. And perhaps that would have been something to mull over.

Instead, he cheaped out for some inexplicable reason, making it far too easy to match. And, in the process, Aho’s contract is now going to be held up by the likes of Cheveldayoff, Dubas, BriseBois and Treliving who have their own young stars to deal with this summer as RFAs.

Good luck getting $11 million or $12 million, Mitch Marner, when a comparable young skater (Aho is a year younger and scores more) just got inked for considerably less. Same goes for you, Brayden Point in Tampa, Matthew Tkachuk in Calgary and yes, Kyle Connor and Patrik Laine in Winnipeg.

Along with Aho, those four players are the other big-name RFAs who are coming out of their entry-level deals and need new contracts this summer. None have arbitration rights, and Aho’s contract is now going to serve as a team-friendly template going forward.

Bergevin isn’t the only one to blame here. I suspect plenty of agents aren’t very happy with Aho’s representative, Gerry Johannson, for how this entire matter was handled. After all, they didn’t have to sign the offer sheet presented by Montreal. But they did, knowing it would guarantee that’s exactly how much Aho will make over the next five years, with the only question over whether it would be the Canadiens or Hurricanes paying it.

Both Waddell and Dundon went so far as to suggest Montreal was sold a "false bill of goods," and were "manipulated," into this little arrangement by Johannson, which really isn’t a good look for anyone. Except Johannson likely made his client very happy, getting him a deal with $21 million up front and remaining with a franchise he’s said to very much enjoy playing for, even though Bergevin was singing a bit of a different tune Monday.

What. A. Mess.

Of course, it’s possible Bergevin will now have another move up his sleeve, trying to stave off some of the embarrassment. After filing the NHL’s first offer sheet in six years, could he quickly launch the second? It’s certainly possible, especially with the majority of the big-name unrestricted free agents already finding new homes Monday while Bergevin and company were occupied with this little stunt.

Carolina is likely going to drag this out the full seven days they have to match the offer sheet, just to make life as difficult as possible for Montreal during that time. The Canadiens can’t go spending money — or putting the same draft picks on the line — until the formal paperwork has been filed by the Hurricanes.

But once they do, perhaps Bergevin will take a run at the likes of Marner, Point, Tkachuk, Connor or Laine, provided they haven’t signed new contracts by that time.

However, given how his lame attempt at Aho quickly fizzled, I’m not sure that strikes much fear in any of his fellow GMs. In fact, they may be at the point of hoping he actually does it, simply to help make their jobs a lot easier.

If that’s the case, they might want to have another fruit basket on standby.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg