aho can't be traded for a year-- since carolina matched the offer sheet

Ok I know he cant be traded for a year after the offer sheet but I WOULD GUARANTEE YOU THAT IF THIS HAPPENED MARNER WOULD BE GETTING OFFER SHEETED BY BERGEVIN

I’m looking forward to what Carolina has in store for Montreal, they sounded sincere in repaying the offersheet

honestly cant think of a thing Carolina can do to harm Montreal with contracts or their negotiations

They could potentially bid one of there prospects up, when the elc are up, kind of a game of chicken on wanting them to match, but max the number up

They can but they are a small market team that has its own cap limits. Montreal can spend to the cap without having to worry how contracts are structures financially, they can front load them, add huge signing bonuses, all things Carolina cant do.

Probably right, but I think Carolina will be looking for a spot to stick it to mtl, and it may take a while, but I think it will come

Possibly completely throw a nothing game that would effect mtl in the standings even, reaching now. Lol

Domi's up next year, then Kotka, then Suzuki, Poehling and a lot of their young good players, and Waddell has left himself the cap space to do it, and Dundon has given him the green light to do it. Carolina also are coming off an eastern conference finals appearence, and it's a smaller market without as much critisism, some players may prefer it (see Dougie Hamilton). I really think that they have the ground and leeway to make the Canadiens regret this decision.

Have you seen the size of Dundon's bank account? Carolina have no financial worries ever, and Dundon has given the go ahead for any offersheet, and Carolina are in a better situation in terms of Cap then MTL

Just have to be smart about it and not be stuck with a player they didn’t really want or overpriced or termed

I think one of those players would have to actually have a large breakout season though, and that's still a big IF. IF one of them breaks out and puts up 60 points in their ELC's then maybe but other then that they are pretty easy signings for MTL in the next couple years as the cap rises and we have contracts coming off the board. Domi will get his 8+ next summer and if Carolina wants to go after him they would have to go over 9 million which probably isn't worth it for them.




If I had to say there was a point in the future for them to strike it would be Caufield. I f he comes out of college and puts up 40+ goals and we have Suzuki, kotkaniemi, poehling, Gallagher, danault all getting new contracts then Carolina could corner them, or Carolina could try to lure him to FA after his college career, but those are the only plausible situations I see.

I know he is rich but even with that playoff run they barely made money last year and mostly operate without generating profit. That's why Dundon came in trying to cut costs everywhere. Add the fact that he just had that football league go belly up, and is facing lawsuits from it, he is paying out quite a bit of money lately. He needs continued success in Carolina to get that team back to good financial terms before he goes out and starts handing out signing bonuses for players on an offer sheet.

I just wonder post expansion draft and mtl finds themselves in sorta the same boat as wpg, and Carolina picks off a brook and or Suzuki just to bid them up after the Poehling and kotanienmi the year before and with a aging Weber and price on roster could put mtl in a interesting predicament, may take three years, but Carolina looking for it

dundon came in wanting to spend, cap management, and moving out a guy with 1 year who didn't want to extend isn't cost cutting, in fact with the exception fo the De Haan trade, he's gained salary in every trade he's made. People are so illinformed about Dundon, and I'm not saying it's just you. Nino makes 1.5 more than Rask, he's paying the Marleau contract which is 6.25, he's paying Reimer more than Darling was getting, he's taking on money, not shying away

EDIT: This obviously exludes the skinner trade

It will be interesting to watch because the pull in Montreal is to spend to the cap right now to win but fans don't realize that it may screw us over in the way that your pointing out. I honestly think that is the reason Bergevin offer sheeted Aho when he did, comes out first day of free agency with an offer sheet ties up all his money for 7 days so he cant spend it, makes the offer sheet easily matched but structured in a way that he can sell it and then can come back to the fans and say well I tried to acquire the player we wanted and who felt was the best available, then can still save a bunch of cap space for the season and next off season.

I think your on to something, if they truly wanted aho, 2.0 million more would have got him, that extra first and more dough would have given both teams reasoning to match or not and why they did it.

Fair points but even those trades were just to good to pass up. I mean a 1st for the Marleau contract, come on. Nino deserves $3 million more than Rask and is another trade that Carolina ran away with. So I think they have found a balance for owner and GM to be comfortable with but unless one of MTLs young guns goes out and puts up 75 points in a season its not going to be worth it for Carolina to offer sheet

Its honestly think its the only thing that makes sense, I mean I love Aho and definitely think he is the player on an RFA I would most want but there are other RFAs with teams that are far more cap strapped then Carolina and would have had trouble matching if you got up into that higher tier of compensation. But use it as an excuse instead, Bergevin can point out that he tried for Duchene and Aho and lost out on both and now is stuck with cap space.

If I’m offer sheeting, aho is my target and 10.5 is the price, and leaving the rest in there court, I don’t think I do anybody else though. Partly because I don’t cross 10.5 into higher compensation and partly I only offer sheet centers to 10.5 or wingers to 8.5 and lower compensation, but not sure if anyone signs the 8.5 of the bigger name guys