Sebastian Aho could pocket close to ten million a year on his next contract

Remember back in the summer of 2019 (July 1, to be precise) when the Montreal Canadiens submitted a hostile offer for talented Carolina Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho?

At the time, Marc Bergevin took a chance with this hostile offer.

Aho accepted the CH’s five-year contract (as a hostile offer) worth $8,460,250 per year.

This hostile offer prompted the Carolina Hurricanes to either match the CH’s offer in order to keep Aho, or not match the offer in order to get their hands on the compensation, which at the time was three draft picks: one in the first round, one in the second round and one in the third round.

Unfortunately, the Hurricanes matched the offer a few days later, so Sebastian Aho remained a member of the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Hurricanes never recovered from the CH’s “attack”, however, and submitted a hostile offer to Jesperi Kotkaniemi in the summer of 2021, which the CH did not match.

In short, here we are four years later, with only one year remaining on Aho’s CH contract.

The Hurricanes will therefore have to extend Aho’s contract for the seasons beyond the next campaign, i.e. 2023-2024.

Well, according to recent rumours, a contract extension with the Hurricanes could bring Aho close to ten million dollars a year.

Indeed, according to reputable whistleblower Elliotte Friedman, Aho’s next contract with the Hurricanes is expected to be for eight years, with an annual value of around $9.5 million.

With this annual amount, Aho would enter the top-20 highest earners in the NHL.

9.5 million is a lot of money for a player, and it makes you wonder how things might have turned out differently for the Tricolore had the Hurricanes not matched the CH’s offer.

Aho would have been the CH’s highest-paid player after Carey Price with his $8.5m (approx.), which would have made sense considering that the Finn would have been the Tricolore’s number-one center.

But would it have made a difference to the contracts of Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield?

Most likely, yes.

Nick Suzuki might not have developed as well with Aho in front of him, and he might never have become the CH captain.

He would probably have signed for less money than his current eight-year contract worth $7.875 million a year.

And so, the CH hierarchy that Kent Hughes is trying to establish with his contracts would have been higher and more expensive.

Aho would have asked for a salary increase and would sign for around $9.5M-$10M as rumours currently suggest.

This means that the not-to-exceed mark would have been much higher than Suzuki’s current $7.875 million.

Cole Caufield would therefore have potentially asked for more money than his current eight-year contract worth $7.85 million a year in order to get closer to Aho.

In short, things could have been very different for the Tricolore if the Hurricanes hadn’t matched the offer in 2019.

Getting back to Aho’s contract extension with the Hurricanes, it’s unclear when it will be signed, given that the Hurricanes are still busy with several files, including Erik Karlsson and Vladimir Tarasenko.

So it’s another file to keep an eye on in Carolina.

En Rafale

– Speaking of the Hurricanes.

– Beautiful to see.

– Way-too-early predictions for next season.

– Incredible.

Sabrina Ionescu(@sabrina_i20) just set the all-time record for NBA or WNBA with a score of 37 PTS in the FINAL ROUND of the #Starry3PT Contest to be crowned the NEW 3-PT CHAMPION 🏆 | @starrylemonlime pic.twitter.com/YcGy3fDfBq

– WNBA (@WNBA) July 14, 2023

– Great performance from Corbin Burnes.