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In a surprising move, the Carolina Hurricanes tendered an offer sheet to restricted free agent forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi yesterday. The contract is for one year and is worth $6.1 million.
Kotkaniemi was selected by the Montreal Canadiens with the third-overall pick in 2018. He’s now 21 years old and this past season, he scored five goals and 20 points in 56 games.
The move is being viewed as retaliation for the Canadiens tendering an offer sheet to Sebastian Aho two years ago, based on some not-so-subtle jabs taken at the Canadiens as part of the move.
For starters, Kotkaniemi’s deal includes a $20 signing bonus, which just so happens to be Aho’s number with the Hurricanes. You can also take a look at the statements below, which were for Montreal’s offer sheet for Aho in 2019 and Carolina’s offer sheet for Kotkaniemi.
I don’t think there’s any debating that this is one of the most entertaining moves made by an organization in recent memory. Also, if you haven’t seen the Hurricanes' Twitter account as this has been going on, that’s a worthwhile stop as well.
All the pettiness aside, however, was this really the right move?
For starters, I think it’s clear that Kotkaniemi isn’t worth anywhere near $6.1 million per year. The argument could be made that the Hurricanes have cap space and can make the deal work for a year, but the larger issue comes in the form of Kotkaniemi’s qualifying offer next year. If he does end up coming to Carolina and holds out on an extension to become a restricted free agent once again next summer, the Hurricanes would need to issue him a $6.1 million qualifying offer. This means this isn’t necessarily just a meaningless 'we have the cap space right now' one-year move.
I won’t go in-depth about how this plays against the team’s other decisions this offseason but I do think it’s absurd that Carolina would be willing to give up a first and third-round pick to get Kotkaniemi at a $6.1 million cap hit, but then didn’t extend Alex Nedeljkovic or make a better offer to Dougie Hamilton. Remember, the Hurricanes’ final offer to Hamilton was reportedly $6.2 million per year, according to The Athletic’s Sara Civian. This means the Hurricanes were willing to give Kotkaniemi the same cap hit (on a one-year deal) – while giving up solid draft picks in the process – as they were for Hamilton on an eight-year deal.
The Hurricanes don’t particularly need another center either, with Sebastian Aho, Jordan Staal and Vincent Trocheck playing down the middle in their top-nine. So while the decision to tender an offer sheet to Kotkaniemi as retaliation is wildly entertaining, it really wasn’t necessarily the best idea.
Perhaps the real retaliation here is betting on the Canadiens keeping Kotkaniemi and just having to massively overpay him. If I were Marc Bergevin though, I’d probably just be taking the two high picks, rather than paying that price.
So we’ll see how this turns out. At the very least, it’s been a fun 24 hours.
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Hurricanes looking weaker at every position after early offseason moves
Hurricanes should look to add a third-line winger
Revisiting the Dougie Hamilton trade three years later
Hurricanes sign Andrew Poturalski
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What to expect from each defenseman the Hurricanes added this offseason
Hurricanes sign Aleksi Heimosalmi and Ville Koivunen
Hurricanes will face tougher competition in return to Metropolitan Division
Hurricanes' forward depth took a hit with Brock McGinn's departure
Revisiting the Nino Niederreiter for Victor Rask trade
Hurricanes sign Andrei Svechnikov to eight-year contract extension
Analyzing Andrei Svechnikov's new contract
Hurricanes tender offer sheet to Jesperi Kotkaniemi 
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