He's in a good situation and unlike Bergevin, Carolina won't be a penny pinching cheap ass. He's allowed to sign extension that is less than 6.1 million per year.
Getting former 3rd overall for a late 1st is definitely a home run. He might be UFA but Montréal can't control his destiny anymore. Also, he's not a super star who will trigger a bidding war. His career is back on track in Carolina, why would he risk it, as long as Hurricanes come up with a respectable offer.
That offersheet was a joke. If you're trying to poach a star, don't offer an underpayment. Every move in this saga was a wrong one, that's what I call an utter embarrasment.
When he's extended, it's worth a lot more than late 1st. This isn't 2014, being a career under 40 point producer is a definition of 3C. Just because he's been awarded the opportunity to play top-6 in an awful laughing stock doesn't make him genuine top-6 center. He's paid less than KK for one year. And he should be paid less for his zero ceiling plug hockey. If we don't compare his salary to KK's one year salary, he's actually overpaid by a lot. I do mind wasting KK into an expensive plug.
A lot of weird flexes in this post:
1) Carolina may not be a penny pinching cheap ass but they, just like the Habs, have this thing called
salary cap. I don't know if you've heard of it.
2) Since he's a former 3rd overall who had way more value than a late 1st even before getting his career back on track and with extension will be worth even more, wouldn't there be a bidding war if he decides to UFA? That sounds like a hell of a sexy asset to me.
3) If what MB offered Aho would've been an underpayment, he wouldn't have signed it. Miscalculation? Sure. Underpayment? No.
4) By definition there were 186 top six forwards in the NHL before Seattle joined in (31 teams, 6 top six forwards each). In the last two years, Dvorak in the last two years ranks 113th in points and 167th in PPG in the league, both within the definition of a top six forward. Lower end, definitely, but that's why I said his production suggested he's a 2nd liner. Before comparing KK's new deal which through your crystal ball will be amazing and desired by every team in the league, we should probably compare what's actually happening: even in a situation where Dvorak has completely failed against expectations while KK has progressed, their respective PPGs are actually identical. If Dvorak is an expensive plug this year, so is KK. Will that trend continue in the future? I don't know, but it looks like you do.
Stop painting a picture where everything regarding KK turns to gold while everything the Habs do has been a miserable failure, because that's not the case.