Hurricanes Tender Jesperi Kotkaniemi to Offer Sheet

Well.

Two years after the Montreal Canadiens signed Sebastian Aho to an offer sheet that the Hurricanes had no issue matching, Carolina decided to mess with Montreal a bit, signing Jesperi Kotkaniemi to a one-year contract worth $6,100,035 with a $20 signing bonus.

The Canadiens have one week to match the deal. If they do, the contract would put the team $2-million over their long-term injured reserve exception space. If the Canadiens decline to match, the Hurricanes will send their first-round pick and third-round pick in 2022 back to the Habs.

"Jesperi Kotkaniemi accepted our offer. He wants to come to Carolina," Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell said in a statement. "He sees the core we've built here and he wants to be a part of that. We're proud, but there's still a waiting period. When you make an offer like that, we saw a vulnerable position. The offer, with the compensation and the core we have, we realized that it was the best chance we had to get the player."

But, this definitely sounds a little bit like a meme. And if it sounds familiar, here's why:

''Sebastian Aho accepted our offer. He wants to come to Montreal. He sees our youngsters coming up in the organization and he wants to be a part of that. We're proud, but there's still a waiting period," GM Marc Bergevin said back in 2019.

Kotkaniemi hasn't lived up to the expectations of being the No. 3 pick back in 2018. In three seasons with the Canadiens, Kotkaniemi has a career-high 34 points set as a rookie and 62 points total in 171 games.

That's not the output you'd expect from someone getting a contract of this size. But it's clear it's payback for Canadiens mingling with Aho's deal when they signed him to a five-year, $42.27-million offer sheet in 2019.

Oh, spite can be so fun sometimes.