Yvon Pedneault talked about J.T. Miller in return for... Brendan Gallagher!
If I understood correctly what Yvon Pedneault told Martin Lemay on 91.9 Sports, Carolina Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell offered Jake Gardiner and/or a 4th string player in return for Jesperi Kotkaniemi before making an offer sheet. From there, if this information is true, Marc Bergevin knew that the Canes were putting the hammer down for a steal, right?
In short, it doesn't matter what the information and speculations about KK are, since the Finn has accepted the offer that the Hurricanes made him and everything indicates that he is no longer interested in playing for the Montreal Canadiens.
Time is running out. Marc Bergevin has not yet announced the direction he will take, but one thing remains certain, he is shopping around right now. He is talking to other teams to prepare his back. He has to make sure he plugs the gaping hole that Jesperi Kotkaniemi will leave before accepting 1st and 3rd round compensation picks.
When a team's general manager makes an offer sheet to a player, he always makes sure that the team in question is vulnerable. From there, could Bergevin make a MASSIVE offer sheet to Elias Pettersson, or could he contact Jim Benning to talk to him and find some common ground? Yes, the Canucks have space under the salary cap, but they need to sign Pettersson and Quinn Hughes.
If Pedneault was wearing Bergevin's well-shined shoes, he would contact Benning to see if he would negotiate for JT Miller. If the answer is yes, the Habs need to see what player they would give in return. Pedneault brought up Brendan Gallagher's name as a speculation, mind you. At the time, the Canucks dealt Marek Mazanec, a 2019 3rd round pick (Hugo Alnefelt) and a 2020 1st round pick (Shakir Mukhamadullin). Tampa was vulnerable.
In the end, Pedneault talked about Gallagher since he's from around here (Vancouver). But why go to Gallagher? Let's use a first round pick, right? All in all, these are still suggestions and speculations from Lemay and Pedneault, so don't take this as serious as it sounds!
