Should the Montreal Canadiens offer sheet or trade for Sebastian Aho?

Take what happened with Joe Pavelski. The 34-year-old really wanted a third year on his deal and the San Jose Sharks were unwilling to do that. The Dallas Stars, on the other hand, were and thus Pavelksi becomes a Star.

If the negotiating battles fall underneath that threshold, the Montreal Canadiens are fine. However, if a lower-scale team who is desperate to improve instantly pushes the number over and the compensation goes to four first-rounders, the Habs may have to reconsider.

The more simple scenario is a regular trade. Things can get fairly dicey for the Habs here as well. What kind of value would the Carolina Hurricanes want in exchange for their franchise centre?

Carolina hasn’t been the best at trades when it comes to returns (the Jeff Skinner trade for example), but they may tread more lightly here. Would they want a centre back? If that’s the case, they could easily ask for Jesperi Kotkaniemi or Ryan Poehling. Bergevin likely hangs up the phone at that point yet it could move on to Nick Suzuki who is a centre though many believe he would excel more as a winger.

Another possibility is including Jonathan Drouin in a package with a first round pick and a prospect or two. Drouin played centre in his first season with the Montreal Canadiens and it didn’t go as well as everyone planned. However, a change of scenery may be what does the trick for Drouin after another polarizing season in Montreal.

That likely isn’t enough given Aho’s impact on the Hurricanes making a trade very complicated.

We’ll have to wait and see how this plays out, but the fact that the Montreal Canadiens are in this battle is a massive positive. Bergevin isn’t sitting on his hands and is trying to make the Habs better and getting Aho would surely do that.