Shots Fired In The NHL, Canadiens And Hughes Safe In Their Culture-Built Bunker

The Philadelphia Flyers gave a huge jolt to a hornet’s nest on Friday afternoon, signing RFA Leo Carlsson to an offer sheet carrying an $18M cap hit for the next five years. The Anaheim Ducks, who recently traded another center, Mason McTavish, are now on the clock to either match the offer and keep Carlsson or let Danny Briere poach their player and get four first-round picks in return.

Anaheim is facing a real catch-22 here. If they match the offer, Cutter Gauthier will soon be knocking on the GM’s door to claim his share of the money pie. He’s an RFA and not eligible for an offer sheet, which gives him less leverage, but once you give a player that kind of money, good luck getting your other key pieces to sign team-friendly deals. If they let Carlsson walk, they will be left with a huge hole at center, which will no doubt set them back for quite a while. There’s no right answer here, not if you don’t want to take a step back.

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Meanwhile, a couple of days before that offer sheet was signed, Montreal Canadiens GM Kent Hughes signed one of his most promising players, who was set to become an RFA at the end of next season, to an 8-year contract extension with a $9.15 M cap hit. Last season, his rookie year, Demidov put up 62 points in 82 games. Carlsson, in his third NHL season, put up 67 points in 70 games. His first two years saw him gather 29 points in 55 games and 45 points in 76 games.

That gives you a sense of just how good a deal Hughes signed with Demidov. Of course, Demidov wouldn’t have been on an offer sheet at the end of next season, but he still could have used Carlsson as a comparable. This potential issue has been averted because the Canadiens are tucked away in a culture-built bunker that started with Nick Suzuki, got another layer with Cole Caufield, another with Juraj Slafkovsky, and one more with Lane Hutson earlier this season. Earlier this week, Demidov got with the program as well. Because Hughes got his players to buy into the idea that they were better off being part of something than being the team’s main something, the Habs find themselves in an advantageous situation.

Because Pat Verbeek didn’t sign his players early, he was put in a very vulnerable situation, and Briere decided to shoot to kill. Whatever he does, Verbeek can forget about setting a salary structure that is advantageous to the team. He let the wolf in among the sheep, and now, he must live with the consequences. The funny thing is, though, Briere prevented Verbeek from being able to deploy a sound salary structure, or prevented himself from doing it, because his own players will have seen the money he was willing to throw at Carlsson and think they’d like some of that.

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Say what you will about Kent Hughes failing to embark on the Canada Day free-agent frenzy for five consecutive years now, but it’s that reluctance to overpay that has allowed him to stir his young core the right way. Granted, they do expect him to bring in more help with the money that they’ve left on the table, but they’re not demanding that he do it right this instant. This latest development in the free-agent market sure makes it look like Hughes was right to spend his time negotiating Demidov’s deal in earnest.