Kotkaniemi finishes the season with 27 points in 79 games.

[Derailed75]

And just a few years ago you had the lowest attendance figure in the league but you have the nerve to mouth off about it now. Montreal never sank to 58% and you go "in 20 years when Montreal moves" lol?

Got nothing against the Canes but your comment was aggressively stupid.

More then half a decade ago. Also when teams don't put forth the effort the fans don't show. I mean its what happens with most reasonable things, once the products value drops people stop using it. Im glad Habs fans continue to show up to watch one of the worst products in the league, but I dont think its quite the clap back you think it is. Either shows there is nothing to do at all what so ever in Montreal that you would spend hard earned cash to watch an awful product ( i know thats not the case) or Habs fans don't know when to leave a bad relationship.

 

[Montreal Shadow]

More then half a decade ago. Also when teams don't put forth the effort the fans don't show. I mean its what happens with most reasonable things, once the products value drops people stop using it. Im glad Habs fans continue to show up to watch one of the worst products in the league, but I dont think its quite the clap back you think it is. Either shows there is nothing to do at all what so ever in Montreal that you would spend hard earned cash to watch an awful product ( i know thats not the case) or Habs fans don't know when to leave a bad relationship.

Oh, please. What it shows is that the Montreal fanbase is one of the most passionate in the league and doesn’t consist of a bunch of fair weather fans. The bottom line is, you tried to mouth off by suggesting Montreal could move in 20 years when that would never happen. The Hurricanes would relocate before Montreal would even be considered (which would never happen anyway).

Also "more than half a decade ago" is very recent. I’m not reaching 40 years back here.

 

[Derailed75]

Oh, please. What it shows is that the Montreal fanbase is one of the most passionate in the league and doesn’t consist of a bunch of fair weather fans. The bottom line is, you tried to mouth off by suggesting Montreal could move in 20 years when that would never happen. The Hurricanes would relocate before Montreal would even be considered (which would never happen anyway).

Also "more than half a decade ago" is very recent. I’m not reaching 40 years back here.

FYI I'm from Cleveland Ohio. You keep thinking they will never move.

 

[Montreal Shadow]

FYI I'm from Cleveland Ohio. You keep thinking they will never move.

The NHL would fold before the Canadiens ever leave Montreal.

The point still stands that the Hurricanes would move before Montreal ever gets a look. I cannot guarantee that the Hurricanes won’t move in 2 decades. I can say without a shadow of doubt that the Canadiens aren’t going anywhere.

 

[Ralph Malfredsson]

FYI I'm from Cleveland Ohio. You keep thinking they will never move.

Bro I'm from Toronto and straight up you might have ingested a bit too much Lake Erie water if you think the Montreal Canadiens are moving anywhere other than to a newer arena on the Island in a couple of decades.

 

[PeteWorrell]

FYI I'm from Cleveland Ohio. You keep thinking they will never move.

The NHL was founded in Montréal. It would reflect poorly on the league to not have a team in the city where it all began.

 

[Frank Drebin]

FYI I'm from Cleveland Ohio. You keep thinking they will never move.

5 whole years eh?

 

[Halakitlikethat]

It was embarrassing how the canes social media team acted after this offer sheet. Absolute Bush league stuff from a Mickey Mouse organization.

Also, Everyone on here knows damn well that if KK was doing well in Carolina that Habs fans would be roasted for losing this player for pretty much nothing.

 

[Derailed75]

The NHL was founded in Montréal. It would reflect poorly on the league to not have a team in the city where it all began.

The NFL was founded in Canton Ohio less than 30 minutes from Cleveland. I hope the Habs never go through a move but you better realize the billionaires that run the league dont give a damn about the Hans history

 

[Jee]

 

[viceroy]

We never forget and we rarely forgive

Our province's motto is "Je me souviens" literally "I remember."

FYI I'm from Cleveland Ohio. You keep thinking they will never move.

Are you comparing the Habs to the Cleveland Barons?

 

[Bob and 200 others]

^Aimed mostly at Carolina fans, your organization literally OS'ed a player and then signed him to a ridiculous contract, all out of spite and for twitter trolling. Now that it's clear how stupid and vain that was you're big mad at Habs fans for throwing it back in your face

 

[cave troll]

Bambi already has a nice amount of millions stashed on his account.
Now he waits for the buyout and comes back home as a rich millionaire with a smile on his face knowing how he fooled NHL teams and scouts.

 

[mattihp]

Most playoff games of any player born in the 2000s. Interesting

 

[Jay26]

Did he not also get like half of them in the first 15 or so games?

He never improved really since his rookie season.

Yeah I was gonna say... I remember he started the season hot and everyone thought the Hurricanes were geniuses.

Can't believe he finished with 27 points. What the hell??

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Kotkaniemi last year: 18G, 43P, +10, decent defensively and on an upward trajectory.
- This deal looks pretty good

Kotkaniemi this year: 12G, 27P, -4 and healthy scratched a couple of times.
- This deal looks pretty bad

The truth is probably somewhere in between.

That said, I don't think it's a good way for the Canes to spend cap space right now with all their upcoming UFAs and RFAs. The fact that they took on 2 years of Kuznetsov also makes me think they see him as a 2C next year, with Staal as the 3C, but maybe not.

 

[Frank Drebin]

Once Carolina buys him out Habs fans and Canes fans can have a beer together and talk about how disappointing of a player he was.

Complete waste of a top 3 pick and wasted cap space for the Canes.

 

[Michoulicious]

Has any other fanbase been so obsessed over a former player? I mean, I’m sure every fan keeps tabs on former players, but I’ve never seen the long-lasting vitriol for so little slight.

You’d think KK gave Montreal the Tavares/Eichel treatment based on how Habs fans react to him.

To be fair, Carolina (especially their marketing department) was so petty about the Aho/KK OS that it made what is now happening inevitable.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

To be fair, Carolina (especially their marketing department) was so petty about the Aho/KK OS that it made what is now happening inevitable.

Like I said earlier, if a week (tops) of memes is worth 3 years of obsession, more power to you. But it comes off as very unhealthy to me. Carolina fans have been memed on bad deals twice in recent memory (Skinner and Nedelkovic), both of which got a worse return than KK did for the Habs, but you don’t see them creating topics dedicated to the play of former players.

 

[Michoulicious]

Like I said earlier, if a week (tops) of memes is worth 3 years of obsession, more power to you. But it comes off as very unhealthy to me. Carolina fans have been memed on bad deals twice in recent memory (Skinner and Nedelkovic), both of which got a worse return than KK did for the Habs, but you don’t see them creating topics dedicated to the play of former players.

Did the official Wings/Sabres Twitter account chirped the Carolina fans about it, created a website to troll Carolina's fans, etc?

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

Kind of sad because KK is getting the worst of it, but it is all because of Carolina's marketing department. He only signed an offersheet to play with another team than the one who drafted him, like Aho did.

Carolina decided to milk everything they could out of it, so that is where we are.

If you think Montreal's fanbase is the only one with a long memory, it is false. This situation was just very unique in its own way because of Carolina's actions on the PR front.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

Did the official Wings/Sabres Twitter account chirped the Carolina fans about it, created a website to troll Carolina's fans, etc?

Yes? Carolina fans heard nothing but “Pu” jokes about the return for Skinner, and Yzerman himself took a shot at the organization for trading Ned.

 

[Michoulicious]

Yes? Carolina fans heard nothing but “Pu” jokes about the return for Skinner, and Yzerman himself took a shot at the organization for trading Ned.

Carolina PR team literally created a website to troll Habs fabs.

Yzerman just answered a question.

 

[Frank Drebin]

Like I said earlier, if a week (tops) of memes is worth 3 years of obsession, more power to you. But it comes off as very unhealthy to me. Carolina fans have been memed on bad deals twice in recent memory (Skinner and Nedelkovic), both of which got a worse return than KK did for the Habs, but you don’t see them creating topics dedicated to the play of former players.

The offersheet was engineered to mock, humiliate, and cripple the Habs. If you can't understand why Habs fans are basking in the Schadenfreude its on you. This was an offersheet that the league has never seen before and likely will never see again.

When Montreal offersheeted Aho, the primary motivation was to improve the Habs. Yes the Canes were disrespected and had they not matched their team would have been crippled, but that was not the primary motivation.

With the Kotkaniemi signing, the primary motivation was to harm the Habs, and improving the Canes was secondary. They didn't even have a center position available to him at the time of the signing.

Did the official Wings/Sabres Twitter account chirped the Carolina fans about it, created a website to troll Carolina's fans, etc?

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

Kind of sad because KK is getting the worst of it, but it is all because of Carolina's marketing department. He only signed an offersheet to play with another team than the one who drafted him, like Aho did.

Carolina decided to milk everything they could out of it, so that is where we are.

If you think Montreal's fanbase is the only one with a long memory, it is false. This situation was just very unique in its own way because of Carolina's actions on the PR front.

Not sad. KK was complicit in the whole thing. He felt he was mistreated by the Habs by being benched in the finals. He signed the contract with 20 extra dollars on it.

3 years later he's still a healthy scratch.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

The offersheet was engineered to mock, humiliate, and cripple the Habs. If you can't understand why Habs fans are basking in the Schadenfreude its on you. This was an offersheet that the league has never seen before and likely will never see again.

When Montreal offersheeted Aho, the primary motivation was to improve the Habs. Yes the Canes were disrespected and had they not matched their team would have been crippled, but that was not the primary motivation.

With the Kotkaniemi signing, the primary motivation was to harm the Habs, and improving the Canes was secondary. They didn't even have a center position available to him at the time of the signing.

False. The Canes had the 2nd line center position ready for KK, as they weren’t going to be able to pay Trocheck the money he wanted, and the belief was that if he didn’t develop into that role, he’d be able to take Staal’s role in the 3rd line center position once Staal retired. Because as BBA pointed out a few posts up, KK’s defensive metrics were doing well up until this year.

I don’t think it’s too out there to believe that a 3rd overall pick that was (by your own admission) poorly developed by an organization could find a new start and success in another. Which is what Carolina believed when they made the offer sheet and signed him to his new deal.

 

[Fatass]

Would the Canes consider trading JK with 1 mil retention? At just under 4 per he might have done decent trade value.