It's decision day for the Habs on Jesperi Kotkaniemi; pros and cons to matching the offer sheet

One week ago, the Carolina Hurricanes threw out an attempt at their pound of flesh by offer sheeting Montreal Canadiens center Jesperi Kotkaniemi to a 1-year, $6.1M deal, as retribution for the Habs offer sheeting Canes forward Sebastian Aho just two summers ago.

The speculation has mostly been about the Habs not matching the deal, instead opting for the Hurricanes' 1st and 3rd round picks as compensation, so let's take a look at some of the pros and cons to the Habs matching/not matching the offer sheet on Kotkaniemi.

First, the pros to matching:

- The Habs are thin at center, so matching the offer sheet provides the Habs with a young and improving piece up the middle.

- Kotkaniemi has shown glimmers of being able to score big goals when it counts most - in the postseason.

- At just 21 years-of-age, Kotkaniemi still has room to grow and improve on both sides of the puck.

- The Habs can avoid having to package multiple assets in a deal to bring in a replacement pivot.

Now, let's take a look at the cons to matching:

- $6.1M sets Kotkaniemi up to a qualifying offer that is way above his pay grade at current time.

- Kotkaniemi has shown to be quite inconsistent at times in both his play and his overall development.

- If the Habs use the 1st and the 3rd they receive from Carolina in a trade package with a piece or two of their own, they may be able to bring in a vast improvement over KK at center.

- The Habs had benched Kotkaniemi in some of the most important games in the postseason, which shows that they do not trust the pivot in critical games.

While it's probably safe to suggest that the Habs probably already have their minds made up on which way they're going to go here, there are good arguments for and against matching the deal.

I'm leaning towards the Habs choosing not to match and instead taking the compensation they receive to bring in an improvement over KK as the team's #2C.

The Canadiens have already been linked to Coyotes pivot Christian Dvorak, but if I'm GM Marc Bergevin, the guy I'm targeting is disgruntled San Jose Sharks center Tomas Hertl.

The deadline for the Habs to make a decision is 5pm E.T. today, and I'm very interested to see how this situation plays out.

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