So… who do we offer sheet this next off season?

[callitwhatyouwant]

I know a couple people have touched on it but just to put it in writing, Blues draft picks for next 3 years

2025
1st 5th 6th

2026
1st 3rd 4th 5th 5th 5th 6th 7th

2027
1st 3rd 4th 4th 5th 6th 7th

Blues in 2 years will have over 40 million in cap space. This offseason we only have Faksa and Suter coming off the books from a UFA standpoint. The Blues are in a position where they are going to be big players in a couple years. 8m open next year (more if krug stays LTIR) 42m the next year 76m the next year.

This summer they should be extending Broberg Holloway and Fowler. They need to get Hofer signed and I imagine a couple teams will try and stick it to the Blues if an option happens there. But after that the Blues are in primo position with contracts coming off the books and youth taking those spots. Get Neighbours extended in a couple years. Steener is getting to be the GM of an awesome situation.

We will not be players in the offer sheet mania this summer. But, potentially we could make a big signing if LTIR Krug stays the same.

[Old_Goat]

Thank you all for the various great responses and information above...definitely a lot to take into consideration.
Good thing there are 4 months to think about it! Sounds like a trade-and-sign would make more sense than an Offer Sheet as more info filters in? It appears that Dobson may be a better value than Bouchard. It's more important to get it right than risk having another regrettable long-term contract.

[STL fan in MN]

I know a couple people have touched on it but just to put it in writing, Blues draft picks for next 3 years

2025
1st 5th 6th

2026
1st 3rd 4th 5th 5th 5th 6th 7th

2027
1st 3rd 4th 4th 5th 6th 7th

Blues in 2 years will have over 40 million in cap space. This offseason we only have Faksa and Suter coming off the books from a UFA standpoint. The Blues are in a position where they are going to be big players in a couple years. 8m open next year (more if krug stays LTIR) 42m the next year 76m the next year.

This summer they should be extending Broberg Holloway and Fowler. They need to get Hofer signed and I imagine a couple teams will try and stick it to the Blues if an option happens there. But after that the Blues are in primo position with contracts coming off the books and youth taking those spots. Get Neighbours extended in a couple years. Steener is getting to be the GM of an awesome situation.

We will not be players in the offer sheet mania this summer. But, potentially we could make a big signing if LTIR Krug stays the same.

The 5th from the Islanders in 2026 is a big maybe. It was referred to as a conditional 5th but I’ve yet to see officially what the condition is. What was rumored is that the condition is that Perunovich has to play 20 games for the Isles this season for the Blues to get the 5th. Peru played his first 9 games after joining the Island but has been benched since. The Isles have 8 games left so Peru won’t be playing 20 games for them this season. So if that is in fact the condition, then not sure if the Blues get something lesser (6th or 7th perhaps) or nothing at all.

[rbirules]

The more I think about it, I doubt $6.87M is enough to entice Dobson to sign (at least not max length), and not high enough for the Islanders to not match. $6.5-7M is going to seem very cheap in a short time. Would he sign for $9.16M (or less)? Would the Islanders match that, as that would make filling out the rest of their roster difficult?

That would take a 1st, 2nd (reacquire) and 3rd in 2026. I think if the Islanders are looking to re-tool (we'll probably know before the draft if they have extended Dobson or are shopping him) moving nearer term assets (2025 1st, prospects) would be enticing in that scenario.

I just don't see a lot of players that are that appealing for offer sheets, which isn't a bad thing considering we have most of our roster set for next year. It would be nice to upgrade or add to our RHD corps.

An offer sheet’s AAV is calculated differently than a normal contract. If the contract’s longer than 5 years, the total salary is still divided by 5 to determine the AAV. So a 6 or 7 year contract offer could really make the value sky high and up the compensation.

Also, no way Dobson signs for anything close to that. If Chychrun is worth $9M/year then Dobson easily is as well, even not being a full UFA yet. I’d love to have Dobson but that’s some big game hunting that will likely just be too expensive.

Thanks for the additional information about how offer sheets are treated under the salary cap. In that case I think it makes even more sense to trade for Dobson (or other RFA of your choice, if you want to go big game hunting) and then extend them normally.

Good call on Chychrun's deal, I had forgotten that we've already gotten a glimpse at what the new market might look like with that signing.