Well Caniacs, you can finally breathe a sigh of relief.
On Sunday afternoon, the Carolina Hurricanes announced they had officially matched the offer sheet awarded to Aho by the Montreal Canadians. The contract equates to $42.27 million over five years ($8.454 million AAV) and was initially offered on July 1st. Had the Hurricanes failed to match, Montreal would have surrendered a first, second, and third round draft pick.
With the ordeal finally wrapped up, the 21-year-old took to his own Twitter page to express his excitement about the new contract. According to Aho, his hope was always to “return to the Hurricanes.”
Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell didn’t show any hesitation to match and seemed somewhat surprised that Habs GM Marc Bergevin’s number wasn’t higher. The only real kicker to the deal is that it’s front-loaded over the first two seasons.
With Aho locked up, Carolina now has nearly $10.4 million in cap space to sign RFAs Brock McGinn, Clark Bishop and Gustav Forsling. Now that the Finn's taken care of, every hockey fan’s attention will shift towards Mitch Marner and the Toronto Maple Leafs, where another offer sheet could be on the horizon.
(H/T Sebastian Aho)
