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Also no other RFAs are unsigned this off-season or have gone unsigned all the way until, uh, August 28th so it’s outrageous that Kotkaniemi was still unsigned.
Also because MB should assumed Carolina was hunting him like a dog he should have 4D chess guessed this move is coming, even though we haven’t seen the “one year massive overpay for struggling RFA that other team wants & thinks has upside & thinks they can work around massive overpay in future while current team can’t or won’t try, while publicly mocking the shit out of them” offer-sheet gambit ever.
The last thing resembling it was the Flyers giving Ryan Kessler a 1 year/1.9m offer sheet on Sept 12th 2006 which was matched. And yes, other GMs were pissed because they were worried the bigger salary could potentially effect future RFA signings as they still were totally into not paying RFAs anything at the time.
Perhaps this is this the sort of hypothetical NHL management types discuss over drinks but, to me, while Bergevin has made potential missteps or questionable moves, not preparing for the potential 6.1m Kotkaniemi offer sheet isn’t one of them.
And yes, the Habs did seem like were kind of dumping on him (after rushing him to the NHL) but they were planning to get their grumbling RFA with no arbitration rights to take roughly whatever deal they offering, like every other NHL team does. It wasn’t going to help long term relationships but again, no one expects the Spanish Inquisition. (or whatever.)
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