Why wouldn't the Rangers match that?

Leafs might accept that, management seems to like SDA though so it might be a different prospect like Kokkonen as we have a surplus of left shot defenceman

Zibanejad's contract extension kicks his hit from $5.35M to $8.25M next year, and more importantly, Adam Fox's ELC ends and his $9.5M cap hit arrives. They've got 9 forwards and 1 goalie under contract for next year, and only $10M to replace the guys they're losing (Ryan Strome & those rentals they just traded for) and give their RFA guys raises/replace those RFA guys (Kakko, Georgiev, Blais, Hajek). Worst case scenario is you make them tie up probably $2M more than they wanted to in Kakko and make it harder to upgrade other parts of the team.

I'm sure it would make things more difficult, but they're not going to sacrifice a guy they selected 2nd overall for a $2M overage. They could just trade Georgiev for picks and prospects and sign a league minimum backup to make up the difference. Not ideal, but better than losing Kakko for a 2nd.

Also, why would Kakko want to sign an offer sheet with arguably the worst team in the league that has to play in a 2500-seat arena for the foreseeable future for only 1 year @ $4M? The Coyotes would need to offer 5+ years at $6M+ for him to bite.

I think you're right, the Rangers do match if it's only $4M and figure it out from there. The only reason I wouldn't want to go that high if I'm the Coyotes is because there goes my 1st rounder if I push my offer into the next tier - at that point I'd probably just call up Chris Drury and offer one of my other 1sts & one of my many, many 2nds to just trade for Kakko's RFA rights. I wouldn't be surprised if that kind of offer makes Drury take the bait.

According to Steve Dangles the Yotes already tried to trade for Weber's contract and the league vetoed it. They claimed it would be too much bad publicity, yet they allowed the Yotes to get Little's contract.

The league ahahah. Bettman is a total clown. He will let Arizona play in a 5000 seat arena. But trading for Weber contract would make bad publicity. I hope players association and Owner put their feet on the grown and stop all that non sense. There multiple city that could take a NHL team next year. Houston is a super big market. This absolutely need to stop. There not a single free agent that will accept a deal with a franchise who had been throwed out off their building for default of payment.
Sorry for my «  monter de lait » absolute clown of Bettman have been good for the league but he need to be replace now for the best of the NHL

here is the link to the video.

https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/comments/tkibov/via_todays_steve_dangle_podcast_allegedly_the/

didnt know that

Thank

Dangles is the ONLY one who reported on it, so I don't know how true it is or not but he is pretty well respected and does seem to have some league sources so....