Carolina Hurricanes Match Offer Sheet on Sebastian Aho

The Carolina Hurricanes wasted no time in matching the offer sheet on Sebastian Aho from the Montreal Canadiens. Now they have their superstar signed for 5 years.

In less than 24 hours after the Montreal Canadiens attempted to have the first successful offer sheet in well over a decade, the Carolina Hurricanes crushed a very greedy Habituals fanbase matching the offer without breaking a single sweat signing Sebastian Aho to the 5 year $8,454,000 AAV contract.

Don Waddell made a promise to Carolina during the State of the Canes address last Saturday that he would match any offer sheet made. Today he made good on that promise. The fans and his teammates can rest easy knowing that the finnish phenom will remain in Raleigh. But make no mistake this historic offer sheet will have repercussions down the line.

First of all there were comments made by Aho’s agent that felt out of place. Either Aho will need to get himself a new agent who perhaps runs his mouth a little less, or he will have some work to do to get himself back in the hearts of many Caniacs who felt hurt by those comments. But the good news is that Tom Dundon has our backs.

Even with a whopping $21 Million to be paid within the first 12 months of his contract, it seems as though Tom Dundon took very little time considering this offer sheet. There goes the “cheap” Narrative. Something that was probably considered by Sebastian Aho’s Camp.  They wanted the term of the contract offered by Montreal. Had that been an eight year contract, he wouldn’t have signed.

And no, Aho signing the offer sheet does not mean he wants to play for Montreal over Carolina. That is the lie of GM who is grasping to keep his fanbase engaged. It only means that he wouldn’t mind playing for them. Meaning that if he were to get an 10 team NTC, he would have had Montreal on his list of teams he was willing to be traded to.

This does open up Montreal to retaliatory offer sheets on their RFAs for years to come. Now granted they have the money to match whatever is offered and no one will front load their player contracts, because it simply won’t make sense for a team that has as much revenue as they do, but it might make their negotiation processes a living nightmare for their GM.

In the end, Waddell gets his player for a decent AAV, and will have to prepare himself for future negotiations in five years when Aho hits his prime. He already locked in all the UFAs he was certain he wanted to keep earlier in the year, both Teuvo Teravainen and Jordan Martinook. Waddell is a man with a plan. One that shouldn’t be Questioned.

But let’s be completely honest here. There was really only way this drama was going to end. There was no way that the one player from a year ago called as “untouchable” was going to be allowed to walk. Tom Dundon was going to match whatever nonsense thrown at him. He is a billionaire for god’s sake. This deal might be front loaded, but that means that past that first 12 months, the man is paying $21 Million for another four years. Not a bad deal.

Question for CC Readers: Do you think that after the comments from his agent, The Hurricanes should have collected the compensatory draft picks?