Don Waddell revealed his true intentions behind KK's offer sheet
Carolina Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell was interviewed this morning, following Marc Bergevin's decision not to match the offer sheet tabled to Jesperi Kotkaniemi. He made some interesting revelations during this meeting on the Zoom platform.
According to him, the fact of deposing an offer sheet to KK was not a revenge against Marc Bergevin, who had offered the same thing to Sebastian Aho in 2019. Did he said this to avoid losing face? Most likely yes... However, let's remember that Waddell had apparently tried to acquire KK via a trade during the off-season. Marc Bergevin was obviously not interested in getting rid of him at that time.
"It wasn't about revenge, but rather because we were interested in the player."
Waddell also referred to the numerous trolls the Hurricanes' Twitter account put the Canadiens through during the seven-day wait for Marc Bergevin's decision. According to him, it was all in an effort to expand the Canes' fan base and keep their loyal followers.
"They had a lot of fun with it," Waddell said, referring to the Carolina Hurricanes' social media people.
With the addition of Jesperi Kotkaniemi, the Carolina Hurricanes are left with no space under the salary cap, but Waddell didn't seem to be any more worried about that. The reason? Jake Gardiner will have a huge upper body surgery, which will put him on the long-term injured list, so Waddell will have room on the payroll to absorb KK's contract.
It's very hard to believe that this whole thing wasn't an "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" situation, especially since Waddell offered Kotkaniemi $20 in signing bonuses... As luck would have it, Sebastian Aho is wearing number 20... What a coincidence!
