Three RFAs Likely To Be Offer Sheet Targets This Summer

[Spyro Gyra]

Looks like the Blues might have started something!

It was reported on Thursday that some NHL agents and executives are expecting an increase in offer sheets to be made this upcoming off-season. This is in large part due to the rise in the salary cap year-over-year and will present every team with more opportunities to hunt down young, high-end talent on expiring entry-level contracts.

The offer sheets for Edmonton's Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg by the St. Louis Blues made waves throughout the hockey world as they were able to scoop up two key players from the defending Western Conference Champions.

MORE HERE

[hockey jedi]

The Blues definitely did start something from my reading. The Blues made it cool to offer sheet. I totally believe the GM's felt like it is poaching, but Edmonton could have made it work. They just didn't believe Bro and Holly were difference makers.

Also, signing Toews and Kane to those ridiculous $12 million per year contracts were the beginning of the end for the Hawks years ago. They did win three Cups, so it's debatable, but it hurt their depth and secondary scoring. It's the same with Edmonton having McDavid at Draisatl. Bowman has got to be smarter.

[Wattage]

Disagree with this article. The guys getting offer sheetted are guys having much more under the radnar seasons. Because signing top notch guys likenthese will absklutely purge your poclet of dragt picks in additjon to paying the contract because these guys wont go cheap. At 6.9 million you already have to send your 1st 2nd and 3rd round pucks for next draft.

Slightly over 9.1 million andnylu have to send 2 firsts as well asnyour 2nd and 3rd.

Less feasible for the signing team.

[Section315]

You do know, when the cap goes up, salaries go up. It's not like the cap goes up and salaries are flat.

[hockey jedi]

You have to believe there are certain players that are offer sheet-eligible, but their GM's won't be so lackadaisical as Bowman was. They will get their players locked up if they want to keep them and have a better financial plan for their team.

[Cujo's Mask]

Disagree with this article. The guys getting offer sheetted are guys having much more under the radnar seasons. Because signing top notch guys likenthese will absklutely purge your poclet of dragt picks in additjon to paying the contract because these guys wont go cheap. At 6.9 million you already have to send your 1st 2nd and 3rd round pucks for next draft.

Slightly over 9.1 million andnylu have to send 2 firsts as well asnyour 2nd and 3rd.

Less feasible for the signing team.

This. The perfect candidate is someone like Broberg. Offering a guy 4+ who hasn’t broken out and would normally make half (or less) is the play. Offering team in this case only owes a second and presumably has plenty of cap to overpay. The team with control may have less cap space and/or not a clear lineup spot for the player in the short term. Remember that Edmonton had Ekholm, Nurse, and Kulak on the left side already and were play Bro on the right.

The team with control is in a tough spot since the player salary is inflated, but the comp coming back is relatively weak.

[leedog68]

The cap IS going up. Teams will have more space to match offers.

[dhsux]

Thing is it's the GM's who have to have some kind of smarts before running around just making offers and inflating salaries which will ultimately hurt themselves and every other franchise in the long run.

DA pounced upon the rare perfect storm....good young ignored talent for cheap playing for a franchise chasing the Cup, up against the cap..... and poorly managed doing it all.

It will be interesting to see if there are a lot of offer sheets this summer and just how many will be a pizzzing match of salary inflation versus successfully completed deals offering some kind of value.

[moose-and-squirrel]

Thing is it's the GM's who have to have some kind of smarts before running around just making offers and inflating salaries which will ultimately hurt themselves and every other franchise in the long run.

DA pounced upon the rare perfect storm....good young ignored talent for cheap playing for a franchise chasing the Cup, up against the cap..... and poorly managed doing it all.

It will be interesting to see if there are a lot of offer sheets this summer and just how many will be a pizzzing match of salary inflation versus successfully completed deals offering some kind of value.

what folks aren't mentioning is, there are probably lots of offer sheets each offseason. only the ones that get 'accepted' get mentioned

[dhsux]

Thing is it's the GM's who have to have some kind of smarts before running around just making offers and inflating salaries which will ultimately hurt themselves and every other franchise in the long run.

DA pounced upon the rare perfect storm....good young ignored talent for cheap playing for a franchise chasing the Cup, up against the cap..... and poorly managed doing it all.

It will be interesting to see if there are a lot of offer sheets this summer and just how many will be a pizzzing match of salary inflation versus successfully completed deals offering some kind of value.

what folks aren't mentioning is, there are probably lots of offer sheets each offseason. only the ones that get 'accepted' get mentioned

Interesting...had not thought of that...you'd think there would be more "loose lips" surrounding these offers.

[Cedar]

The cap IS going up. Teams will have more space to match offers.

Agree, teams will also have more cap space for the ability to match offers. Armstrong recently mentioned this and he believes there will be less offer sheets (may just be a ploy to disguise his latest sinister plan!).

[seattleblue]

I believe they asked Armstrong this in that Biz interview.
Biz said do you think this makes offer sheets more likely and Armstrong speculated he thought it made it less likely.

[billybaseball]

If someone were to give Bouchard a top end offer sheet, Edmonton would have a very difficult time matching. That Nurse contract is an absolute albatross. They could match if they traded Ekholm and Kane but losing Ekholm would hurt bad and Kane's limited NTC might be enough to kill any chance of a trade. They could buy Kane out but would only save half his cap hit. They also have an extremely thin farm system so no cheap depth.

[Wattage]

If someone were to give Bouchard a top end offer sheet, Edmonton would have a very difficult time matching. That Nurse contract is an absolute albatross. They could match if they traded Ekholm and Kane but losing Ekholm would hurt bad and Kane's limited NTC might be enough to kill any chance of a trade. They could buy Kane out but would only save half his cap hit. They also have an extremely thin farm system so no cheap depth.

The more money you offer, the more compensation you ha e to give edmonton. To offer sheet bouchard, a team would need to have their own 1st 2nd and 3rd round draft picks and offer them all at the very least. Thats a very steep price to pay for the offer sheet assuming its between 6.9-9.1 mil range. Offering more than that requires 2 1sts which no team is gonna do.

[bluetunehead]

The fact that the Cap is due to rise substantially over the next several seasons makes successful offer sheets less likely IMO. Most teams are going to have the wiggle room unless some player gets a preposterous overpayment.

[larueskee]

Disagree with this article. The guys getting offer sheetted are guys having much more under the radnar seasons. Because signing top notch guys likenthese will absklutely purge your poclet of dragt picks in additjon to paying the contract because these guys wont go cheap. At 6.9 million you already have to send your 1st 2nd and 3rd round pucks for next draft.

Slightly over 9.1 million andnylu have to send 2 firsts as well asnyour 2nd and 3rd.

Less feasible for the signing team.

This. The perfect candidate is someone like Broberg. Offering a guy 4+ who hasn’t broken out and would normally make half (or less) is the play. Offering team in this case only owes a second and presumably has plenty of cap to overpay. The team with control may have less cap space and/or not a clear lineup spot for the player in the short term. Remember that Edmonton had Ekholm, Nurse, and Kulak on the left side already and were play Bro on the right.

The team with control is in a tough spot since the player salary is inflated, but the comp coming back is relatively weak.
[/quote

If you were to ask Broberg and Holloway, they would tell you that more important to the money was the playing time they would get. That playing time has translated to even more future contract potential. These dudes were stars that were being buried.