Should the Montreal Canadiens have given Sebastian Aho a greater offer?

The Montreal Canadiens took July 1st by storm after offer sheeting Sebastian Aho, but there’s a good chance the Carolina Hurricanes will match.

The beginning of the 2018-19 season set the stage for what happened on July 1st. The threat of an offer sheet comes around every year, but with the number of high-end restricted free agents out there, the odds of it happening this summer were higher than previous. The Toronto Maple Leafs and Winnipeg Jets may be at risk of one via Mitch Marner and Patrik Laine respectively, but no one expected the Montreal Canadiens to swoop in and throw one at Sebastian Aho of the Carolina Hurricanes.

Aho was linked to the Habs for the majority of the day, and Montreal was one of the teams interested in acquiring him. However, after clearing more cap space by trading Andrew Shaw and Nicolas Deslauriers while avoiding bigger names on the free agent market, the plans were in the works for Marc Bergevin to make his move.

According to Pierre Lebrun, the Montreal Canadiens were initially on Brayden Point of the Tampa Bay Lightning. He is another RFA who could’ve gotten plucked via offer sheeting, but the Habs felt they had a better chance at getting Aho to sign.

The offer sheet broke and social media went ablaze. The Habs offered Aho a five-year deal worth $8.4 million per season. As several have already brought up, a key aspect of the contract is the breakdown which follows the ‘small salary but high signing bonus’ model we’ve seen recently.

Most importantly, Aho will be getting $21 million in his first year via signing bonuses.

That’s very enticing, and some believe it could be the deal breaker in whether the Carolina Hurricanes match or not. On the other hand, the fan base doesn’t seem too worried about it.