The Carolina Hurricanes say they will match the offer sheet tendered to restricted free agent Sebastian Aho by the Montreal Canadiens.
Montreal signed the centre to a front-loaded, bonus-heavy contract worth $42.27 million US over five years on Monday on the first day of NHL free agency.
Carolina had a week to match the deal. If the Hurricanes had declined to match the offer sheet given to the 21-year-old Aho, the Canadiens would have had to surrender first-, second- and third-round draft picks as compensation.
The <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/hurricanes?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#hurricanes</a> will be unable to trade Sebastian Aho for 12 months once they officially match the <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/habs?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#habs</a> offer sheet. By that point, he’ll already have been paid $21.87M of the $42.27M deal.
—@reporterchris
This article was originally published by Www.cbc.ca. Read the original article here.