The Montreal Canadiens clearly set off a bit of a rivalry when they signed Sebastian Aho to an offer sheet two years ago.
The Hurricanes matched the offer and said they were just fine with it. In fact, they said it made their jobs much easier and it didn’t bother them at all that the Canadiens tried to poach their young, star centre with a bonus-laden contract offer.
Then the Hurricanes retaliated with an offer sheet to Jesperi Kotkaniemi in August.
It wasn’t so much that the Hurricanes signed Kotkaniemi that showed there was a lot of animosity, it was the way the Hurricanes organization acted in the days after that showed they were quite upset and hurt by the Aho offer sheet. The social media team was tweeting in French, and general manager Don Waddell released a statement that was essentially word for word what Marc Bergevin had said when he signed Aho.
However, it is time for the Canadiens fans to put those feelings aside and start cheering for the Hurricanes to win every single night.
The reason has nothing to do with either offer sheet, but a trade made shortly after the Kotkaniemi saga reached its conclusion and he headed for Carolina. In exchange, the Canadiens received first and third round picks from the Hurricanes in the 2022 NHL Draft.
The Canadiens needed a centre and made a deal with the Arizona Coyotes to acquire Christian Dvorak. The Habs gave up a first round pick in 2022 and a second round pick in 2024 for Dvorak.
There was a condition on the first round pick. The Canadiens had two at the time of the trade, their own and the Hurricanes. The stipulation on the trade is that the Coyotes receive the better of the two picks, unless one is a top ten pick. If one of them is a top ten pick, the Habs keep the better pick and give up the later pick to the Coyotes instead.
With the Canadiens off to a terrible start, it surely looks like they will be keeping that top ten pick. With the Hurricanes off to an amazing start, their pick appears to be the one the Habs will move to the Coyotes at the NHL Draft.
So, if the Canadiens stay in the bottom ten of the standings and end up with a top ten pick, they traded away the Hurricanes first rounder and a 2024 second round pick for Dvorak. Considering Dvorak has two goals and seven points in 18 games, you want that first round pick to be as late as possible so you don’t look back wondering what could have been.
It might seem odd, but the Habs trade looks better with every Hurricanes win. So, Go Canes Go… until the playoffs. Hopefully they win the President’s Trophy and then get swept in the first round which would give the 28th overall pick to the Coyotes in the Dvorak trade.