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The Clock is Ticking | HABS HEADLINES

Rick Stephens
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The Clock is Ticking | HABS HEADLINES
Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Marc Bergevin (Photo by Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports)

Habs News: Montreal Canadiens, NHL, Marc Bergevin, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Jake Allen, Jonathan Drouin, Carolina Hurricanes, Offer Sheet, Sebastian Aho

Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Marc Bergevin (Photo by Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports)

ROCKET SPORTS MEDIA | MONTREAL, QC. — This is your one-stop destination every week day for your Canadiens news capsule. Here are your Habs Headlines!

Offer Sheets Typically Matched

There have been just 37 offer sheets in the NHL since 1986 with the majority of them being matched. Offer sheets are rare because they are viewed as bad practice by general managers, a move that drives up salaries and upends a team’s salary structure. And they are usually matched because teams have invested a lot in the development of their young drafted talent.

The fact that we don’t have an answer from the Canadiens to date — in fact, it’s been radio silence from the club — speaks to how well the Carolina Hurricanes chose their target and crafted their offer.

It was quite a different story two years ago when Marc Bergevin announced his ham-fisted offer sheet to Canes forward Sebastian Aho. The entire hockey world knew that the impotent offer was guaranteed to be matched by Carolina. In fact, the Hurricanes Twitter account left no doubt in their playful poll posted just hours after the Canadiens announcement.

But with Hurricanes GM Don Waddell dropping a bombshell in Bergevin’s lap, the Canadiens general manager has likely spent most of his week on the phone looking for a lifeline. And he is being handed anchors from fellow general managers. It’s no secret that Bergevin was not popular with his peers for the Aho debacle.

It’s fair to say that it’s unlikely that GMs around the league are lining up to do him a favor.

Faux Outrage

While it’s been quiet from the Canadiens camp, the same can’t been said for Bergevin’s acolytes. Unofficial mouthpiece Renaud Lavoie was getting far more worked up that you might expect from a hockey reporter. Lavoie screamed bloody murder questioning the legitimacy of the Hurricanes offer sheet and mocking the player who didn’t rate a front page story placement in Montreal.

A reaction so out of proportion with the circumstances, coming from a person who has the ear of the general manager might provide some insight into the reaction by team management. As we wrote in yesterday’s Headlines column, Bergevin would be wise to not take this act as a threat to his manhood. He needs to shelve his ego, accept his 2019 mistake, evaluate all of the outcomes with the team’s future in mind and make a solid hockey decision.

It is fascinating to watch how the events of the past few weeks have affected the projections for the favorites to win the 2022 Stanley Cup. The Canadiens opening odds were set at +2500 according to SportsBettingDime.com with analysts already skeptical of Bergevin’s off-season moves. The Carolina Hurricanes are listed as top-four favorites for the Cup in June 2022.

Well done Jake!

Congratulations to Canadiens backup goaltender Jake Allen who helped raise $70,000 for the Chalmers Foundation through his golf tournament on August 12th.

Congrats Jo!

Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin posed for photos but was not available to speak to the media on Wednesday. Drouin was attending the golf tournament in his name, an event that raised $810,000 to support the CHUM Foundation.

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1 COMMENT

  1. There has been no reply from Bergevin because he has no intention of paying a $2 million a year player $6 million and he is looking around to see how he can upgrade to a top six forward.

    Get real.

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