When the Montréal Canadiens tendered an offer sheet to poach Sebastian Aho from the Carolina Hurricanes in 2019, it was the first offer sheet signed in six years. In an attempt to shore up centre depth, the Canadiens offered Aho a five-year deal worth $8.4 million per season. Aho did sign the offer sheet as it was closer to his desired contract than what the Hurricanes had originally offered. However, the Hurricanes matched the offer sheet, and Aho has been in Raleigh ever since.
The Canadiens retained their first, second, and third round picks but were no further along in their search for centre depth. Now, seven seasons later, it's clear that Aho truly was a player who could have solved the Habs' centre issue.
It would be a whole different world for the Montreal Canadiens if they got Sebastian Aho
While at the time it seemed like a reasonable offer, with Carolina having low-balled the Aho camp earlier in the negotiation, Bergevin likely needed to offer more if he was serious about fixing the Canadiens' issue at centre. Sure, if Aho had signed it, the Habs wouldn't have lost too much in return, sliding in just under the offer level that requires the team to give up more picks. Still, sometimes you have to give up more to get what you want.
Putting more pressure on the Hurricanes could have forced their hand. The Canadiens had already cleared nearly $15 million in cap space by sending Andrew Shaw to Chicago and Nic Deslauriers to Anaheim. Why not risk it all to get a centreman who could change everything?
At the time of the offer sheet, the Canadiens had enjoyed a good season with Phillip Danault, who had risen to the occasion and taken over the first-line centre role. They had two potential top centremen in the pipeline, with Ryan Poehling and Jesperi Kotkaniemi, but adding a 21-year-old Aho, fresh off an 83-point season. would have been game-changing for the Habs.
The Hurricanes were right to match the deal and retain Aho, who has continued to put up at least 50 points a season and maintained an over 50% win rate in the faceoff dot. When the Hurricanes lifted the Stanley Cup in the 2025-26 playoffs, Aho helped them to get there, contributing 12 points in 19 games.
Meanwhile, Poehling only spent one more season with the Canadiens, putting up 17 points and finishing with a 46.4 face off win percentage. Kotkaniemi was poached, ironically, by the Hurricanes through an offer sheet. Many still think that move was in retaliation for the Aho offer sheet, even if Hurricanes ownership says it wasn't.
Perhaps the best move Bergevin made that season was to trade Pacioretty to the Golden Knights, where he acquired Nick Suzuki, now the Canadiens' top centre. If that offer sheet had gone through, who knows where Suzuki would be now. It is likely, though, that already having that strong centremen in Aho would continue to benefit the Canadiens to this day.
If only Bergevin had been willing to risk more to make the offer sheet harder for the Hurricanes to accept, they might have been the team who won the Eastern Conference Finals this season.
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