He won't go unqualified

what if he wants 6.1M again
because he can fairly ask for that

His QO is only 5, and you think he wants to live on 1 year deals as a fringe NHL player right now? He might be in the same PPG/60 as Matthews, Marner, MacKinnon... but he's on the 4th line of the deepest team in the NHL.

even if Kotkaniemi wasn't QO'd why would he want to come back to Montreal, there is bad blood there

how is his qo 5 genuine question
but yeah i see where you come from



just speculating for fun

thats fair. but just seems like a mix message....if he isnt QO'd and only wants to sign for 3.1m...why wouldnt Carolina sign him to that contract? They arent treating him poorly there.
IMO in this scenario if he become a UFA bc of a non QO, you would have to over pay him once again to come back.

If they don't qualify him, they'll trade his rights to a team that will or qualify and then trade him.

Bergevin is gone. And hopefully ducharme is gone by next year as well

His qualifying offer is 6.1 he will take that every time. But I think he will sign I Carolina for 5 years 5 million

Ducharme would be the bigger issue bc how he misused him, but bad blood doesn’t go away over night, once that relationship is soured, it’s hard to go back

I’m sure ROR still doesn’t have the nicest things to say about the avs and it’s been multiple years

Kk never disliked his teammates, it was bergevin who didn't want to give him the contract, mostly he's upset at ducharme from making baffling decisions of scratching him when he was a very good player for us. I think if he would want to stay in Carolina tho bc he has fellow Finnish superstars. Of course he loves brindamour. But let's say Carolina doesn't want to give him that contract. Maybe a return to mtl to him would be enticing

The Canes wouldn’t give him a 3 x 3.15 million deal? Geez

ROR never disliked his teammates either, its the org and how they treated him in his eyes
No different that KK, if a player feels slighted by a team, its rare that they kiss and make up

If he become a UFA, he will have a big market for teams who would want to add him, contenders as well. Sure he could listen to Montreal but he will have better options else where if all he would sign for is 3m. A contender could easily give him that, like Florida as an example, or Tampa. the Avs etc