Carolina Hurricanes troll Montreal Canadiens with offer sheet to Jesperi Kotkaniemi

Oh, how the tables have turned.  

It's been some time since we've had any fun hockey news to talk about, with the NHL offseason still in full swing. But on Saturday, the Carolina Hurricanes dropped a major news bomb on us all out of nowhere with the announcement of an offer sheet to Montreal Canadiens forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi, the third overall pick in the 2018 NHL draft.

In simple terms, any player that is a restricted free agent in hockey who receives a qualifying offer from their team or doesn't go to arbitration can be tenured an offer sheet. An offer sheet is essentially just a contract offered to a player from another team, one their original team must match or they lose their player.

On Saturday, the Hurricanes tenured an offer sheet to Kotkaniemi for a one-year, $6,100,015 million contract, which carries a $20 signing bonus. The Canadiens have seven days to match the contract and if they don't, they lose Kotkaniemi but receive a first and a third round pick in the 2022 NHL draft as compensation.

Offer sheets are a rarity in the NHL, because they are frowned upon by other GMs even though they are very useful and underutilized tools in the league. But why is this offer sheet special? Well, two years ago, the Canadiens tenured an offer sheet to Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho, which Carolina eventually matched.

So, of course, the Hurricanes went full troll mode on the Canadiens after announcing the offer sheet.

The Canes tweeted out the announcement in French, as the Canadiens' Twitter often does.

Then, the Hurricanes continued to troll on Twitter with some memes.

And then, people came to the realization that the $20 signing bonus corresponds to Aho's No. 20.

That, right there, is some top-tier trolling from Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell and the team's social media staff.

Hockey fans were over the moon with the incredible display of pettiness the Hurricanes put forth on this revenge offer sheet.