Canucks AM Skate: Big Offer Sheet, Giant Goalie Fish, Coffee

No Vancouver Canucks contract news and no offer sheets. There was however a very entertaining one laid out to Jesperi Kotkaniemi of the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday …

Let’s Skate! …

— Vengeance used to be something dished out on the ice in the NHL, nowadays we’re seeing it in the executive suites. Not sure if you caught the details of this weekend’s offer sheet from the Carolina Hurricanes to the Habs 21-year-old centre but as Sportsnet reports, it was executed in as humourous a manner as one could imagine.

Two years ago, Montreal GM Marc Bergevin signed the Hurricanes star centre Sebastian Aho to a $42-million, five-year offer laced with a $21-million signing bonus. Bergevin was guesstimating that Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon was too frugal to match it. Wrongo. Dundon not only matched the offer and signed Aho, but now he’s seeking retribution in a creative manner and putting Bergevin in a bind. Knowing that the Canadiens are hard against the salary cap, Carolina offered the Restricted Free Agent a one-year deal worth $6.1-million with a $20 signing bonus. That’s right, 20 bucks!

In his reasoning to the media for making the offer, Carolina GM Don Waddell mockingly echoed Bergevin’s Aho reasoning practically word for word. Kotkaniemi has signed the offer and the Habs now have five days remaining to figure out whether they’ll match.

— Holy mackerel!! I mean, holy sturgeon!! Did you see this fish? Although they don’t bite, how about having this thing brush up against your leg the next time you go for a dip. I know there are some big, ancient sturgeon in the Great Lakes and they’ve been pulling some monsters out of BC rivers and lakes this summer, but as the Vancouver Sun reported yesterday (Sunday), former NHL goalie Pete Peeters helped out two weeks ago with very likely the biggest one ever caught. Eleven and-a-half feet and 890 pounds in the Fraser River. Peeters has a unique way of explaining it.

— For the last decade or so, Canada’s favourite coffee chain has found its way into markets in the northern US, including Pittsburgh. Tim Hortons can even be found in New York City at Penn Station beneath Madison Square Garden. Pittsburgh Hockey Now‘s Dan Kingerski tells us that Penguins captain Sidney Crosby and his favourite Nova Scotia coffee-huckster sidekick Nathan MacKinnon are back at it again in TV land. A new set of commercials is due.

— Once again, the NHL to the Olympics assurance from Ken Yaffe of Hockey Wanderlüst, reporting it’s a done deal. There should be plenty of Vancouver Canucks representing.

Enjoy the hockey action!