Rumor: Canadiens interested in offer sheeting Laine

[tbcwpg]

You don’t win with one dimensional “elite” scorers. Especially when they only score 50 points.

So they take two 1sts, which if Laine pushes Montreal over the line into a playoff team, will be between 17-22 or thereabouts, a 2nd, and a 3rd to....what? Draft players who will be ready when the team is on the downswing? Trade for players who don't score 40 goals a year? Use the cap space to sign the huge lineup of UFAs desperate to sign in Winnipeg? After all the big UFAs this off-season have already signed, of course. It would be easy to sell the Jets fanbase on losing their top goalscoring young sensation for some mid 1sts and cap space to offer Marcus Johansson a silly contract. Especially two years removed from a WCF appearance and no playoff succes before that since the team came back.

The Jets have almost $22m in cap space right now, much of it to keep Laine. The only thing they can do with that cap space now without him would be to take on bad contracts for other teams, and they're bad contracts because they're bad value players.

If Laine was to leave Winnipeg, I'm sure most, if not all, Jets fans would rather it be in a trade for actual good, young NHL players playing right now than some lotto picks.

 

[Beyonder91]

Neither the Islanders or Canadiens are in a strong enough franchise position to give up 4 first rounders which is the only way Dubas MIGHT not match. Anything less and Dubas is matching for sure.
Laine and Connor are better targets though! Jets are in a tougher spot to match a big contract... especially for Laine.

 

[waffledave]

Calling their bluff. Also, it actually increases their trade value later on if they want to trade them. Aho’s cap hit will be a lot more than actually money the new team has to pay.

I am certain that most teams would rather keep their RFAs an extra 3 years in their mid to late 20's instead of trading them in the last year. I definitely see the positive for the player, less so for the club. I would be pissed if my star player at 21 years old was only signed 5 years and then UFA.

 

[JianYang]

They would owe a 1st, 2nd, and a 3rd for Aho and if they offered Laine over 10.5 they would owe four 1sts in a row which can start in 2021 if they don't have their 1st in 2020 (which would go for Aho). So could they not offer sheet and acquire both at the same time in that case?

There could be some nuances that we don't know about. Placing 2 offersheets that overlap each other has never happened.

I'm a big believer that offer sheets are nothing more than hail Mary attempts. They are only fun to talk about, but they don't materialize often enough to take them seriously.

But here's another unprecedented scenario. A team offer sheets Laine. Of course Winnipeg would do everything to make sure they keep that asset. But in the meantime, what if another team offersheets Connor? Now Winnipeg might be cornered into a situation where they have to choose keeping one guy. Obviously that guy would be Laine.

I'm thinking for teams that want a somewhat moderate chance at succeeding in getting a RFA, wait for someone to OS Laine, then immediately move in to OS Connor.

 

[webersshot]

I think jets would match anything no? Seems like the heir apparent to Ovechkin. Better chance prying marner out I think.

 

[waffledave]

Perhaps he secretly works for the player's union. The contract was not horrible but certainly didn't have anything going the GM's way. Aho is pleased.

Players are thrilled, especially RFAs. This is the dream for them.

 

[han316]

Neither the Islanders or Canadiens are in a strong enough franchise position to give up 4 first rounders which is the only way Dubas MIGHT not match. Anything less and Dubas is matching for sure.
Laine and Connor are better targets though! Jets are in a tougher spot to match a big contract... especially for Laine.

explain why you think that

 

[Hockey Stick]

A steal they didn't want to offer. I don't get it. Why are they angry then?

Yeah, like there's a reason that Aho's party agreed to sign the offer

 

[waffledave]

Canes were preparing to deal with a negotiation

Aho wanted it over

that's the difference. Could we have come to something close? Of course, the money probably would have been dead on at about $8.5m anyway, but we wanted more years and he wanted 5. So the OS did everyone a favor in just ending what would have become the stalemate before it even got to that point. In that regard, even though we didn't get exactly what we wanted, it still did us a favor by ending it now.

I agree with you with this point of view. But the sentiment seems to be more that the contract is great financially. Yeah, AAV is great, but 5 years for an RFA coming off their ELC sucks. This is trend that GMs will absolutely hate, but players and agents will be dancing in the street.

 

[Mickey Marner]

Also idk why you can't offersheet another player while the picks from the other OS are 'froze'? Why wouldn't they just 'roll over' to the next year(s) until whatever happens with the prior Offer Sheet?

Because teams don't want picks 8 years from now for a player today.

 

[Drew311]

If at first you don't succeed!!


They will match anyway, Bergevin is desperate if this is true.

I'm not sure they match 10.5M on a 7 year deal. That makes things interesting considering Connor will get at least 8M. I suppose they can get rid of Kulikov, but the rest of the roster will be league minimum players. I guess it will come down to how much they like Laine. That was a pretty weird season he just had.

 

[HandshakeLineRespect]

There should be more offer sheets, it would make things so much more interesting. Winnipeg seems to have a lot of cap space though, so they should have no problem matching. Why not target Point instead? Tampa is right up against the cap.

I’m sure you would have the exact same take of it was the habs young players getting targeted for an offer sheet. Hypocrites smh.

 

[jetsv2]

I think jets would match anything no? Seems like the heir apparent to Ovechkin. Better chance prying marner out I think.

They would likely match anything short of a deal that would return 4 1sts, so anything with an AAV of less than 10.5.

 

[Frank Drebin]

Neither the Islanders or Canadiens are in a strong enough franchise position to give up 4 first rounders which is the only way Dubas MIGHT not match. Anything less and Dubas is matching for sure.
Laine and Connor are better targets though! Jets are in a tougher spot to match a big contract... especially for Laine.

Hit the Jets twice, 10.5 for Laine followed by Conner at 8.5 if required

 

[ManofSteel55]

Keep them offer sheets coming Bergevin. Laine. Marner. Rantanen.

I still don't know why he started with the guy on the team with enough cap space to match it without any problems.

 

[clunk]

I think jets would match anything no? Seems like the heir apparent to Ovechkin. Better chance prying marner out I think.

I think 4 firsts would have them walking away from him pretty quickly.

 

[jetsv2]

I'm not sure they match 10.5M on a 7 year deal. That makes things interesting considering Connor will get at least 8M. I suppose they can get rid of Kulikov, but the rest of the roster will be league minimum players. I guess it will come down to how much they like Laine. That was a pretty weird season he just had.

10.5 x 7 would be 4 1st round picks, so they would likely not match.

 

[waffledave]

and it's not even a $21 million signing bonus. it's a $11.3m signing bonus this year and a $9.87m signing bonus next year. lol @ anyone who thinks a billionaire has trouble paying that, or that it's going to wreck the team's finances when aho's base salary is only 700k in both years.

Yeah, number one rule in finance is that money today is worth less than money in the future

 

[Langdon Alger]

Montreal’s next offer sheet will be all you can eat poutine and free metro rides.

Match that other teams!

 

[TomasHertlsRooster]

Was well publicized that GMs with pending RFAs approached Waddell asking him to wait the full 7 days.

Do you have a source for this?

 

[ManofSteel55]

Hit the Jets twice, 10.5 for Laine followed by Conner at 8.5 if required

If they do Connor at 8.5, wouldn't that make it harder for Winnipeg to match Laine? That would be an interesting approach. Send an overpay offer sheet to Connor just to make sure that they don't have the room to match one for Laine.

Of course, they may end up actually getting Connor instead of Laine then, ha ha.

 

[Frank Drebin]

I’m sure you would have the exact same take of it was the habs young players getting targeted for an offer sheet. Hypocrites smh.

Montreal has a disadvantage geographically, tax wise and with all due respect to the people of the province culturally. Why shouldn't they use whatever advantages they do have?

 

[jj cale]

I'm not sure they match 10.5M on a 7 year deal. That makes things interesting considering Connor will get at least 8M. I suppose they can get rid of Kulikov, but the rest of the roster will be league minimum players. I guess it will come down to how much they like Laine. That was a pretty weird season he just had.

Good point.


What do you think? should the Habs offer sheet the guy? I vote no myself.

 

[jetsv2]

Do you have a source for this?

Pierre Lebrun said it multiple times on TSNs free agent frenzy show on July 1st, I think there were other reports as well but the referenced Lebrun's initial report.

 

[ManofSteel55]

Better offer 10 minimun then.

He gave Carolina a steal on Aho.

In all fairness, Aho signed it, so it must have been in the ballpark of what Aho himself thinks he is worth.