Canes Continue Building For The Future By Locking In Aho Long-Term

RALEIGH, NC. -Don Waddell and Rod Brind'Amour are both fond of iterating the phrase, "We build our team during the summer."

Inking Sebastian Aho to an eight-year extension Wednesday, an integral part of that team is now built and set in stone through the 2031-22 season.

"This is the place I want to play," Aho started

. "The organization has taken huge steps over the last five years and we're building every year... (Signing an extension with the Canes) was an easy decision, and the only choice I had in mind."

Aho now joins Andrei Svechnikov and Jesperi Kotkaniemi as focal points of the team's forward group that are locked up long-term, with Svechnikov signed through the 2028-29 campaign, and Kotkaniemi etched in until the end of the 2029-30 season.

"It's nice to have these young guys locked up," Waddell said of the deals. "When you look at our forward group and the guys that we have signed, along with the guys we have coming up (Jarvis, Necas), and when you lock these guys up long-term, you put yourself in a great position to work around the edges and fill out the holes. You know you have your key pieces in place."

While Aho's contract is the largest in Canes history to date, his average annual value (AAV) comes in at $9.75 million, which could prove to be a bargain in the salary cap world by the end of the 2031-32 season. Projections anticipate the league's salary cap reaching $92 million for the 2025-26 season, an increase of $10 million from the 2022-23 season.

Having the team's future solidified into contracts now is a part of the plan to allow the club maximum flexibility beyond just their expectations of a Stanley Cup in 2024.

"We're a franchise that doesn't want to win one cup, we want to try and win ten cups," Waddell continued. "You have to put yourself in a position in to compete for the cup every year and we think we can do that for numerous years coming up."

Aho enters the 2023-24 campaign with one year left on his current contract, only becoming eligible to discuss a new extension with Carolina just 25 days ago.

Although all parties involved could have elected to table discussions until after the upcoming season, all instead expressed that it was a priority to get something done sooner rather than later.

"It was a no-brainer for me that I wanted to keep playing for the Canes. The earlier the better was my mindset," Aho said of his signing. "We started off really well when we first talked to Don and Tom (Dundon) and we thought it could be done this summer."

"Knowing how important Sebastian is to our organization, and to not have to sit on it all year, this is critical for us," Waddell echoed. "Nobody has to worry about it now, we know we have Sebastian for the next nine years. It was a goal of ours as an organization to get this done quickly."

With the healthy relationship reaching a new level of commitment today, Aho's attention now turns to bringing the ultimate prize to Raleigh by the conclusion of his new deal.

Already having grown in many ways since being drafted by the club in 2015 and cementing his name among the franchise's leaders in most major offensive statistical categories, #20 believes that his goal of winning a Stanley Cup can be achieved and that the best personally is yet to come.

"It feels like just yesterday that I got to Raleigh and now we're here," Aho reflected. "I feel like I'm a lot more of a complete person and a better player than I was seven years ago and I'd like to think that I still have another gear or two to be a better player."

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