And that's a no. For a PPG C, the ask would be the earlier of the two picks, so likely Montreal's, the 3rd is fine, but you're still light. With an extension too, you might be asked for both 1sts... this is an easy pass from Carolina.

Don't take this too seriously as it's never going to happen, just a "what if" they decided to bury the hatchet.
Gentleman's agreement to stop messing with each other.

I would suggest something around Staal instead, but he's the captain and has a NMC. Trocheck is a pending UFA with no such protection.

Trocheck is also a PPG C. If Montreal want to bury the hatchet, they're going to have to pay full price and stop acting like the Canes are a minor piece of the league. That's all! Dundon did this because Bergevin was so outspoken with Aho wanting to go to Montreal, and he's going to get himself a 21-year-old C with top 6 upside for it. Hell, I don't even thinks this happens if Montreal don't frontload the Aho deal. If they pay 10 mil and do it in 10 mil signing bonus every year, Dundon probably isn't as angry. It's just because the habs thought they could poach the best player on either team away.

I agree it was a mistake to start it. Disagree about Dundon, this was about ego for him, nothing more. MB prodded him by insinuating Dundon wasn't able or willing to pay.

Trocheck is not however, a p/g player. He's come close twice, but he's under .7 in his career. Even if you ignore his first 2 seasons, he's only .74.
I'm not taking away from him, but that's an oversell.
This is probably closer to the rental price, yes, but the motivation is to cease hostilities. The idea is for everyone to walk away happy.
MB is also giving up KK here, who he would not otherwise trade for a 1st and a 3rd, so there's lost value on both sides.

Anyway, we have looked at every angle except for the two teams making amends, which is more of where I was hoping the discussion to go.

If this is what Montreal will pay, they'll be rebutted. Trocheck is worth more than that, he was a PPG player last year, or close enough to it to call him a PPG player. Carolina have no need to move him and will not move him without their price being met.

This was not about ego. Bergevin started this with the Aho offer sheet. Dundon splashes money around for fun, and Bergevin was reckless. He acted on the notion Dundon was Karmanos, and it's blwon up iun his face, costing him one of the players on his roster with the biggest upside for a late 1st and a 3rd. This is a mistake Bergevin made.

I don't think you understand what I'm trying to say and why this is one way to end the whole situation in a way that works for both sides.

Have to disagree on the ego point. Center is not an area of need for Carolina and they let players go which would have made their team better on the way to this offer sheet. This was not a move made to improve the team, but to "stick it" to MB.

Carolina tried to trade for JK, when they could not agree to a trade they informed Montreal the OS was coming. Media and fans blowing it out of proportion.

Easy no from Canes though.

Carolina tried to trade for Kotka before offer sheeting him. This wasn't entirely about revenge. This is a REALLY good move. They let Nedeljkovic go, who's played 27 career NHL games and everyone is calling a vezina candidate. He let Bean go, who's been very Meh. He didn't bring Hamilton back, because he didn't want someone under contract making 9 mil until they were 35. They've been savvy. The team is probably better than last year, and this does improve the team. This means Kotka is playing 2LW, and Nino moves down. It gets a young talent with phenominal upside. There was no reason to not do this now that I really consider it. It's 1 year, Montreal can't instanly match because of their cap issues, Bergevin started this war long ago, Kotka is a good player... why not?

Thank you! This didn't come out of nowhere, and this isn't purely revenge! Carolina genuinely want Kotkaniemi

So many short sighted people. Everyone screaming about 1x 6.1

Canes and KK both know he’s not worth 6.1. But it makes it difficult for Montreal to match. Gives KK a way out of Montreal, which he wants. And when he signs an 3x3ish extension it ends up being 4 years at 15m which is not to far off what a 4 year extension would have been.

Had it been purely revenge they would have played the long game and gone after Suzuki or Caufield.

If it had been revenge, it would have been Suzuki. To do that so they're forced into a corner where they cannot match due to cap and they can't afford not to match do to on-ice product. This is so well done because it gets Kotka out of Montreal, it gives Carolina a 21 year old C with top 6 upside, and it allows them to negotiate in January a deal with a lesser cap hit going forward. As you rightly said, even Kotkaniemi knows this is too much. I'm assuming they worked out a deal while he was an RFA (which is fine, you're allowed to negotiate with RFA's before anyone cries out "Tampering!") and that will be announced on New Years day.

If they were gentleman, the offer sheets never would have happened.

Except the only thing he’s gonna be “stuck” with is an overrated overpaid player who screws up their cap going forwards. This was all about ego for Dundon. If he was smart, he would have traded for Kotkaniemi, and signed him to the 3x$2.5mm contract (max) that we would have given him. Instead, he’s blown up his own team’s cap going forwards.

Carolina will have a hard time without Hamilton this year, and Freddie Anderson couldn’t even outplay Jack Campbell in Toronto. Carolina might end up a lottery team for all we know.

KK’s agent isn’t a fool, he knows what his qualifying offer will be. The club can only elect for team initiated arbitration once. The long term deal will have at minimum a 5 handle on it, or the league will likely get involved at that point.

It isn’t purely revenge, you’re right there. It’s probably something like 1/3 revenge, 1/3 ego, and another 1/3 stupidity. If they were smart, they would have simultaneously got the player without the ridiculous cap hit.

Montreal didn't want to move him. This was the only option left. They went in low enough for the pick compensation to not be stupid, but high enough to force him out of Quebec. This is a very well made offer sheet. You're never going to find a bargain contract in a successful offersheet. This was very well done to get the player.

We’ll see. I have a feeling it’s a done deal already. I’d bet it was a contigent move. We’ll give you the 1 year at 6.1 up front to get you out if you give us a couple at half that to even it out. Just a unique version of a front loaded contract

If you offered a 1st and two 2nds, so that you could sign him to 3x$2.5mm and Bergevin said no, under threat of offer sheet, that would make Bergevin a very bad GM.
The fact that Dundon didn’t think of that instead, and preferred the $6.1mm cap hit makes him ”not the smartest knife in the drawer”, and ego driven.

But you’re a Canes fan, so I understand your bias.

Buddy, Waddell tried trading for Kotkaniemi before the offer sheet. Lebrun reported that a week ago. They did try to get Kotka before this.

Define “tried.”

Called up Montreal, asked for a price, Bergevin said "He's not moving" went "Okay, we're going to go and offersheet him"

Pretty lame “try” then. Do better next time.