Oh, how the tables have turned.
It’s been some time since we’ve had any fun hockey news to talk about, with the NHL offseason still in full swing. But on Saturday, the Carolina Hurricanes dropped a major news bomb on us all out of nowhere with the announcement of an offer sheet to Montreal Canadiens forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi.
In simple terms, any player that is a restricted free agent in hockey who receives a qualifying offer from their team or doesn’t go to arbitration can be tenured an offer sheet. An offer sheet is essentially just a contract offered to a player from another team, one their original team must match or they lose their player.
On Saturday, the Hurricanes tenured an offer sheet to Kotkaniemi for a one-year, $6,100,015 million contract, which carries a $20 signing bonus. The Canadiens have seven days to match the contract and if they don’t, they lose Kotkaniemi but receive a first and a third round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft as compensation.
We've tendered an Offer Sheet to Jesperi Kotkaniemi đź‘€ pic.twitter.com/4Mmw3n4DVr
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) August 28, 2021
Offer sheets are a rarity in the NHL, because they are frowned upon by other GMs even though they are very useful and underutilized tools in the league. But why is this offer sheet special? Well, two years ago, the Canadiens tenured an offer sheet to Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho, one which Carolina eventually matched themselves.
So, of course, the Hurricanes went full troll mode on the Canadiens after announcing the offer sheet, first by tweeting out the announcement in French, as the Canadiens Twitter often does.
Les Hurricanes ont annoncé aujourd’hui avoir déposé une offre hostile au joueur autonome avec restriction Jesperi Kotkaniemi des Canadiens de la Montreal. L’entente proposée est d’une durée de un ans et d’une valeur annuelle moyenne de 6,1 millions $.
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) August 28, 2021
Then, they continued to troll on Twitter with some memes.
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) August 28, 2021
lmao they changed the bio to French pic.twitter.com/cv2dMMqtZp
— Evan Sporer (@ev_sporer) August 28, 2021
Oh my god pic.twitter.com/tgn66dMARm
— Kevin Papetti (@KPapetti) August 28, 2021
And then, people came to the realization that the $20 signing bonus corresponds to Aho’s player number, No. 20.
The signing bonus on the offer sheet is $20.
For those who may not have picked up on it, Sebastian Aho wears No. 20. https://t.co/BmjNayIPsu
— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) August 28, 2021
That, right there, is some top-tier trolling from Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell and the team’s social media staff. Hockey fans were over the moon with the incredible display of pettiness the Hurricanes put forth on this revenge offer sheet.