Jesperi Kotkaniemi removes Montreal Canadiens affiliation from his social media bio
On Saturday, the hockey world stood witness to a rare event in the NHL when Montreal Canadiens forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi signed an offer sheet with the Carolina Hurricanes for 1 year and $6.1M.
The move, by all appearances, was a retaliatory one from the Hurricanes, who just a pair of offseasons ago, matched a 5-year, $42.27M offer sheet from the Habs to then RFA forward Sebastian Aho.
The consensus here seems to be that there is no way that the Canadiens will choose to match Carolina's offer and that they will receive the Canes' 2022 1st and 3rd round picks as compensation.
Perhaps Kotkaniemi already knows something that we don't. On Sunday, the 21-year-old removed the Montreal Canadiens from his social media bio.
Is it possible that Kotkaniemi has already received word that the Habs intend to take the compensation? Or is this merely due to the uncertainty surrounding whether or not he will be a Hurricane or a Canadien next season?
Regardless of the outcome, this is certainly one of the more exciting offseason occurrences. I, for one, wish that offer sheets were more commonplace in the NHL for two reasons.
1) Because seeing restricted free agents (potentially some big name RFA's) move around is exciting and puts some negotiating power in their hands, adding to the overall intrigue of the negotiation process
And
2) Because it would add a different dimension to the offseason that would appeal to more sports fans and likely draw some additional interest.
Just imagine if there were 3, 4 or even 5 developments like this one. Regardless of which side of the fence you're on, you're talking about it. It has made for a very interesting 24 hours. Just some food for thought.
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Taylor Hall | 3 | - | 3 | |
| Brayden Point | 3 | - | 3 | |
| Brock Nelson | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Bryan Rust | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Pavel Zacha | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Quinn Hughes | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Carter Verhaeghe | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Erik Karlsson | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Elias Lindholm | - | 3 | 3 | |
| David Pastrnak | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Tim Stutzle | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Adam Gaudette | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Dylan Holloway | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Brad Marchand | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Aleksander Barkov | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Sam Bennett | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Sean Couturier | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Alex DeBrincat | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jack Drury | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Cutter Gauthier | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 23 | 18 | 5 | - | 36 | |
Hurricanes | 22 | 16 | 5 | 1 | 33 | |
Wild | 22 | 14 | 4 | 4 | 32 | |
Devils | 25 | 15 | 8 | 2 | 32 | |
Capitals | 22 | 15 | 6 | 1 | 31 | |
Golden Knights | 23 | 14 | 6 | 3 | 31 | |
Maple Leafs | 22 | 13 | 7 | 2 | 28 | |
Flames | 23 | 12 | 7 | 4 | 28 | |
Panthers | 23 | 13 | 9 | 1 | 27 | |
Kings | 23 | 12 | 8 | 3 | 27 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||