The Montreal Canadiens made some serious moves today, changing up their center core completely with their decision not to match Jesperi Kotkaniemi’s offer sheet and trade for Christian Dvorak. Canadien fans have mixed feelings about GM Marc Bergervin’s bold decision, whether this move will hurt or help them in the next few years. There is a bunch of information to unpack so let’s break it down.
The first move that sparked all of this drama was the Carolina Hurricanes offer sheeting Kotkaniemi to a one-year, $6.1 million contract, which appeared to be revenge for the Sebastian Aho offer sheet in 2019. This left the Canadiens in a tough situation because yes Kotkaniemi was not worth anything close to $6.1 million, but the Canadiens desperately needed centers and Kotkaniemi is still relatively young and could develop into a solid center. The sensible decision was to offer sheet Kotkaniemi and hope he develops, however, the Canadiens made the bold move to not match the offersheet, sending him to Carolina for a 2022 1st and 3rd round in compensation.
Grades
Carolina Hurricanes – C: Even though it seems like an act of revenge, the Kotkaniemi offersheet seems like a useless move for the Hurricanes. Giving a player they didn’t need $6.1 million, along with giving up a 1st and 3rd round pick is bad handling of assets when they could have used the picks and cap space to resign Dougie Hamilton, Alex Nedeljkovic and others they lost to due to a “lack of cap space”
Montreal Canadiens – B: The Canadiens were put in a tough situation with the Kotkaniemi offersheet but played their cards wisely as they didn’t end up overpaying for Kotkaniemi and ended up getting picks on top of it. Losing Kotkaniemi hurts but now the Canadiens had more cap flexibility and assets, which they could use to acquire another center.
After the Canadiens decided not to match the Kotkaniemi offersheet, they turned their eyes to other center options. With the assets the Canadiens acquired from the offersheet compensation, the Canadiens made a trade to acquire Christian Dvorak from the Arizona Coyotes for a 2022 first-round pick and 2024 2nd round pick. The conditions on the pick are the Coyotes receive the better of Montreal/Carolina’s 2022 1st round pick BUT if either or both are top 10 picks then Montreal will instead transfer to Arizona the worse of Montreal/Carolina’s 2022 1st round pick.
Grades
Arizona Coyotes – A: The Coyotes sold high on Dvorak, getting a 1st and 2nd round pick in return. This will help the Coyotes tank by making their team worse and helps them to stockpile picks for their rebuild. The Coyotes now have eight picks in the first two rounds of the 2022 NHL Draft.
Montreal Canadiens -B: Instead of keeping Kotkaniemi, the Canadiens decided to go for the better, older, and cheaper center option in Dvorak who is locked up at $4.45M for the next four seasons. Dvorak was a solid contributor in Arizona but could flourish in Montreal with a bigger opportunity and better wingers. However, the Canadiens slightly overpaid for Dvorak, bumping their grade down.