The real beauty of this situation they've bumbled themselves into is that Carolina is left with two options:
1. They let Aho walk and get very little compensation, or
2. They match the deal and enter the season with James Reimer as their starting goalie
That initial boost in attendance they'll have for the home opener is going to die off very quickly.
And on that note, the RFA compensation is there pretty much to protect those small markets. As you're suggesting, with it being so rare, that process seems to be working.
I'd imagine that people paid a bit more attention to Peca though, groaning about that deal. That's completely understandable when you're talking about sending Mogilny out of town. There's not all that much concern when Chris Gratton is sent packing.
We've talked a bit in here about trading him after a year, but that option is probably out the window at this point. If they match, the contract is fairly cheap in terms of actual dollars beyond this first year. Fairly cheap fits the Dundon model perfectly.
I don't know if it changed since last week, since I was out on vacation, but the story at that point was that Waddell didn't actually have a contract for next season yet. Nothing official anyway.
Not cash poor, just plain cheap. The rest of the guys on that team probably aren't even making the combined $21 million that Aho will get over the next year. If anyone could pass on this contract, it's Dundon.
People are going to want to spin that as talking to the other team's guys, but it must have been in relation to our own. Do we know the question there?
I'd need to take a look at the body count. With enough of these kind of signings, I'd expect to see some of the guys currently slotted in at Rochester moved as a part of a package deal.
I need to see the full picture before I crap all over anything. We've seen absolutely nothing so far. That depth piece may look so much better if they can find that 2C.