Revisiting the Disastrous Kotkaniemi Offer Sheet By Carolina

[WarriorofTime]

Yeah I didnt understand the Aho offer sheet, it was a good contract for Carolina, I’m surprised Aho even agreed to it.

From a cap standpoint, it was an obvious match. Aho hadn't even turned 22 yet and was coming off a 30 goal, PPG season. It was basically what Montreal would have given their own RFA in a similar circumstance. Only thing that I can think is they were really trying to stress test Carolina's financials with the frontloaded nature of the contract. Sort of a "lol, can this poverty-level franchise actually afford to pay half a total contract value within the first year of the deal?"

Obviously Carolina did match, and that is possibly where some of the pettiness and feud nature came from, since maybe Montreal does not offer such an offer sheet to a more known commodity wealthy franchise like Toronto, New York Rangers or Boston. Assuming finances were not really an issue, I think from a long-term cap management standpoint, they were most ticked off that the deal was 5 years, as they would probably would have liked to sign him to an 8-year deal and there was enough of a standstill with negotiations that he signed a 5-year deal to allow him to re-up during his UFA years with none getting "bought out" which is advantageous for the player.

 

[NOTENOUGHRYJOTHINGS]

Habs fans so caught up in crackling with glee at the Kotkaniemi contract that they forget they had a third overall pick and whiffed so hard on KK that losing him for picks that were used to trade for Christian Dvorak is considered a win.

I haven't seen such a terrible use of a third overall pick since Galchenyuk.

 

[The Mighty Duck Man]

It’s aged horribly but IMO it’s underrated how bad of a move in the moment it was. They were in a go year and spent a first round pick and $6 million in space on their fourth line center. Like, why?

 

[Brock Anton]

Trocheck, arguably

Not really. Trocheck wanted 8 years, which we didn’t want to do. The money was never the issue there.

 

[wetcoast]

but it let the Carolina Twitter account make some cute obnoxious content and thats what REALLY matters to that dork ass franchise

Hey the entire episode was hilarious and funny, sure it didn't work out but the Canes didn't lose the series because of him either.

 

[Turin]

It was awful at the time. This dude never had it

 

[le_sean]

Yeah he’s dogshit. We told Canes fans but they refused to see it. Good. Dundon wanted to toy with the Habs and even went as far as doubling down, looks good on the moron.

 

[RiverbottomChuck]

Bunch of jerks

 

[Blueline Bomber]

Do Carolina fans think that a buy out is likely? He's still under 25, right?

Buying out KK will depend on what our roster looks like, and we have so many UFAs and RFAs that trying to guess who’s signing and who’s not is an exercise in futility.

 

[le_sean]

It’s aged horribly but IMO it’s underrated how bad of a move in the moment it was. They were in a go year and spent a first round pick and $6 million in space on their fourth line center. Like, why?

That’s the worst part and should be a fireable offence. That’s how you know the owner pushed for it. A team on the cusp of contending using a 1st and $6m in cap space on a player like that is just stupid.

 

[DaveG]

Do Carolina fans think that a buy out is likely? He's still under 25, right?

I think the Canes will try to offload him for a defenseman that's not a fit on their current team if they can, and only then look at the buyout route.

 

[le_sean]

I think the Canes will try to offload him for a defenseman that's not a fit on their current team if they can, and only then look at the buyout route.

I highly doubt any team will want a player that ineffective on that long of a contract.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

That’s the worst part and should be a fireable offence. That’s how you know the owner pushed for it. A team on the cusp of contending using a 1st and $6m in cap space on a player like that is just stupid.

Again, the belief was that KK was in need of a change of scenery and could find his game again with a new organization. Not an unheard of concept. And spending a low 1st on a 20-year-old former 3rd overall pick is exactly what contenders should be doing.

 

[Forge]

I highly doubt any team will want a player that ineffective on that long of a contract.

If they are willing to buy him out, they may be willing to retain. I think I'd still have some interest as a devils fan if the canes ate about 900k (I think that's the buy out hit)

 

[le_sean]

Again, the belief was that KK was in need of a change of scenery and could find his game again with a new organization. Not an unheard of concept. And spending a low 1st on a 20-year-old former 3rd overall pick is exactly what contenders should be doing.

lol no it isn’t. Contenders shouldn’t be using that cap space and those assets on someone pencilled in as their 4C. They had Aho, Trocheck, Staal and even Stepan. It was a stupid move, no two ways about it.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

lol no it isn’t. Contenders shouldn’t be using that cap space and those assets on someone pencilled in as their 4C. They had Aho, Trocheck, Staal and even Stepan. It was a stupid move, no two ways about it.

Trocheck had already informed the team he wouldn’t be resigning with them when they got KK. Which is probably a reason why they went after him, under the belief that (if he found his game), he could eventually fill in that hole. And if he didn’t, he would be Staal’s eventual replacement as the defensive 3rd line center.

If you really believe they made that deal expecting KK to be a fourth liner, give your head a shake.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Habs fans so caught up in crackling with glee at the Kotkaniemi contract that they forget they had a third overall pick and whiffed so hard on KK that losing him for picks that were used to trade for Christian Dvorak is considered a win.

I haven't seen such a terrible use of a third overall pick since Galchenyuk.

Exactly. Habs fans are loving this meanwhile they wasted a tank year on a failed third overall pick. That’s a huge loss for a franchise.

 

[le_sean]

Trocheck had already informed the team he wouldn’t be resigning with them when they got KK. Which is probably a reason why they went after him, under the belief that (if he found his game), he could eventually fill in that hole. And if he didn’t, he would be Staal’s eventual replacement as the defensive 3rd line center.

If you really believe they made that deal expecting KK to be a fourth liner, give your head a shake.

They did exactly that for that season.

Even if they had long term aspirations, they sent an offersheet to a player that didn’t have a strong second half or a great playoff to show that he was at all developing. They acquired a kid who stagnated. He was the exact same player he was as a rookie.

It’s stupid. It handcuffed them for no reason during an excellent season ($6m in cap space at the deadline gets you two excellent players). And it was a player that showed little development and hadn’t shown any hidden potential to be uncovered.

 

[elitepete]

Kotakniemi's playoff stats: 10 GP 0 G 1 A and had 27 points in the regular season this year all for $4,8M cap hit. Provided basically 0 offense in the playoffs.

Carolina let Vincent Trocheck go and rolled with KK. Trocheck now has 14 points, with 8 against his former team and a few huge points in the clincher.

The move to offer sheet KK started a chain of events that might have closed the Canes' contention window shut, and it all started as a petty PR troll job. This may be one of the most franchise damaging offer sheets we have seen.

Discuss.

Absolutely brain dead move

 

[Blueline Bomber]

They did exactly that for that season.

Even if they had long term aspirations, they sent an offersheet to a player that didn’t have a strong second half or a great playoff to show that he was at all developing. They acquired a kid who stagnated. He was the exact same player he was as a rookie.

It’s stupid. It handcuffed them for no reason during an excellent season ($6m in cap space at the deadline gets you two excellent players). And it was a player that showed little development and hadn’t shown any hidden potential to be uncovered.

Again, it’s not unheard of for a player to stagnate in one organization and find new life in another.

 

[DaveG]

I highly doubt any team will want a player that ineffective on that long of a contract.

oh I have no doubt that the best case result is bad contract for bad contract, and all things considered a buyout is probably the better move.

 

[le_sean]

Again, it’s not unheard of for a player to stagnate in one organization and find new life in another.

Okay but wouldn’t you agree that a contending team should have used that space to help them that very season. Then in the offseason you reevaluate and use the cap space and those assets on someone that’s actually showed the ability to be a 2C, not a question mark.

The Habs are a team in a position to try players that “stagnate” (Dach, Newhook). It’s not the place of a contending team. I get being proactive, but this was being proactive at the detriment of your team.

 

[Treb]

Yeah I didnt understand the Aho offer sheet, it was a good contract for Carolina, I’m surprised Aho even agreed to it.

Option 1: Carolina wasn't willing to give him that much money before the OF ultimatum.
Option 2: He wanted a shorter/longer contract (to get UFA negotiation rights on his new contract) than Carolina was willing to offer.
Option 3: He wanted more early instant money than CAR wanted to offer (front-loaded signing bonus contract).
Option 4: He wanted out.

Whatever of option 1,2 or 3 it was, we'll likely never know. All we know is that it wasn't option 4 based on him re-signing, unless his opinion changed between 2019 and 2023.

TL;DR Salary, length or money structure

EDIT: Added another option

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

Of course it was a bad move. Offer sheets are basically bad moves by design because the league wants to discourage it. They're only ever defensible if the player is 'the guy' you are 100% sure about and definitely want. They aren't meant for taking flyers on guys that could use a change of scenery to jump start their development.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

Okay but wouldn’t you agree that a contending team should have used that space to help them that very season. Then in the offseason you reevaluate and use the cap space and those assets on someone that’s actually showed the ability to be a 2C, not a question mark.

The Habs are a team in a position to try players that “stagnate” (Dach, Newhook). It’s not the place of a contending team. I get being proactive, but this was being proactive at the detriment of your team.

The season they made the offer sheet, they weren’t going for it all. Obviously, they’d like to win the Cup. Every playoff team would. But they were still in the “Hey, we ended a long drought and are happy to make the playoffs” phase of building a contender. Every Canes fan knew this would be the year they’d make a real push. We all saw the ends of a lot of contracts lining up and knew it’d be the last hurrah for this group of players.

So (I assume) the hope was that we’d get a clear answer on where KK lies sometime between the start of the 2021 season and the end the of 2023 season. And it seemed like we did at the end of the 2022 one, when he signed his new deal. He had put up good numbers (43 in 82) and was solid defensively. And this year started out great for him, but quickly turned sour.