Are There More Offer Sheets To Come?
Elliotte Friedman of Spotsnet was on Sirius XM NHL Network Radio Morning Skate with Gord Stellick and Scott Laughlin and was asked about offer sheets. With how the St. Louis Blues utilized the offer sheet to perfection to get Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg from the Edmonton Oilers, Friedman was asked if we could see more teams use them this summer.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
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Gord Stellick: “The hottest team right now is the St. Louis Blues. Dylan Holloway, what goal number 24? Philip Broberg, four points night. It always irked me that it was never used more often because it’s in the collective bargaining agreement. I have to think a lot of general managers are rethinking offer sheets now, whether it’s being a target of one or offering them, given the success Doug Armstrong had last year.”
Elliotte Friedman: “I have to think so too, Gordy and I think that the other thing about it is too, is that we’re going to see big cap jumps, right? And there are going to be teams that are going to say, you know what, we might as well try that. Now, the cap jumps work both ways. Some teams are going to be better prepared to handle that than others. If teams get their players offer sheeted, they may have more cap room to save themselves, but we’ll see how that one plays out.
I think the thing is too Gord, the one thing we’re looking at right now is, when you look at free agency this year, more and more players are coming off the board. (Jakob) Chychryn with the big deal, he signed. So there’s still (Mitch) Marner, there’s still (Sam) Bennett, there’s still Brock Nelson. There’s still a few guys, but the more of them that come off the board, Gordy, the more I wonder if teams are going to say, okay, offer sheet is the way we go now.
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One of the things you keep an eye on is who’s got their picks. You have to have your own draft picks, or you can do what St. Louis did last year, which is reacquire them at the last minute. If you’ve traded them away, so you can go out and get things done. But yes, I do think the offer sheet is going to become more of a tool. I think one of the reasons that they didn’t happen was that people were worried about revenge against you.
Maybe there was also a little bit of. I don’t want to do that because I’m worried about it being inflationary. (Gary) Bettman has said that before. He finds them inflationary. So when he comes out and says stuff like that, there are people who sit there and look and say, okay, you don’t necessarily know if you want to get on his bad side. But the way it worked last year for St Louis, I agree with you, is going to change things. And to be honest, it made them this summer a bit more interesting.”
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