You could have just replied no
Of course I've heard of Pippen, are you kidding? People who weren't even alive when he played know who he is, let alone those of us old enough to have watched that Bulls dynasty develop in real time.
Pippen's whole thing with going to Houston was that he was going to get paid superstar money like he had deserved all those years. And it turned out, he was absolutely miserable. Chasing the big contract kicked off a journeyman phase of his career where he looked like he was having absolutely zero fun in spite of everything. Again, when you've already got tens of millions in the bank, there are much bigger factors to your happiness than clawing out another million.
The entire reason he was unhappy in Montréal was supposedly because he didn't get the ice time. Now this year he was going to get all the time he could handle but instead he left for objectively more money than he was worth.
The thinking was that he was doing it to get a better spot to prove himself but instead he's playing less than he ever did on the Habs, often as a winger. Now apparently he'd be happy to sign an 8 year deal for 3rd line C type of money?
You would think a 21 year old third overall pick would want either a bigger role or the possibility of a bigger contract. He's taking the money and if he was on my team I'd question his competitiveness.
It would be more accurate to say that the thinking was that he would be in a better spot to develop, not necessarily to have higher ice time right away. He knew he was joining a team that was already set at its top 3 C positions, and which had little room for a top-6 winger. Remember, the whole mantra was "why pay so much for a bottom-6 winger?".
By all appearances, the plan was to take this year and let him develop in a limited role. His actual play has been fine, and he has shown himself fully capable of playing farther up in the lineup when asked. He is simply not being asked to do that yet. In the next year or two we will likely see at least one of Trocheck or Niederreiter move on for contract reasons, and that will be Kotkaniemi's opening to move into the top-6. Eventually Staal will also move on, which opens the 3C slot as a fallback scenario. Presumably this is what Kotkaniemi was signing up for when he took the offer sheet, and what he would be committing to with an 8-year deal. Middle-6 center, possibly a winger. It makes total sense given the price range.
