Many fans bemoan NHL GM’s for not signing young talent through the avenue of NHL offer sheets. However, many GM’s have responded with saying that offer sheets are a pointless endeavor. Offer sheets are matched over 90% of the time. So, I understand the GM’s who echo the statement about the pointlessness of attempting this tactic. We had two offer sheets (so far) this summer. The New Jersey Devils offer sheeted Barrett Hayton only a few hours into free agency. The thinking was superb from Devils GM Sunny Mehta. He had earlier attempted to acquire Hayton from Utah at the draft, Utah declined. He decided to put Utah in a real bind… He gave Hayton roughly a million more than Utah would have liked to spend, but also only gave him a one-year contract. This was pivotal because you cannot trade a player signed via matching an offer sheet for one season. Hayton is also only one year away from free agency. The Devils know, or think to know, that Hayton will come to New Jersey after this season and there is nothing Utah can do to stop it, but they still matched.
I understand Utah’s thinking. While they are stuck with Hayton this season, they intend on being good and him being their third line center. They don’t have any plans to be selling so not having Hayton as a trade chip isn’t completely destructive towards their plans. Also, I believe they will be totally fine losing Hayton next summer in free agency. The Mammoth have several prospects who are about a year away from entering the league and assuming Hayton’s responsibilities.
I think this was a very creative offer sheet and more GMs should try to corner teams like New Jersey tried to do.
The other offer sheet that got matched has been the entire talk of the NHL offseason so far. Philly sent Leo Carlsson 18 million dollars per season for 5 seasons to extract him from Anaheim. Anaheim had previously stated that they would match any offer sheet, but I don’t think they imagined someone making Carlsson the highest paid player in the NHL. Yet, the Ducks kept their word and matched the offer sheet. There was some true skepticism out there that Anaheim would match. Philly couldn’t corner Anaheim the same way that New Jersey could with Utah, so they tried the brute force approach (lots of $). Philadelphia was smart to make the entire contract signing bonuses which meant that Anaheim’s owner had to cut a 39 million dollar check to Leo Carlsson yesterday. Most people assumed that the Ducks owner would not be too keen on doing this. I also don’t think Anaheim wanted to be an upper cap team, not yet anyway, but they are now forced to be. As a matter of fact, the Ducks need to shed salary so they can resign Cutter Gauthier.
This offer sheet is similar to some of the ones we have seen before. Team’s just throws insane money at a good player hoping ownership for the other team baulks. Unfortunately for fans, billionaires don’t like being big dicked with money and this approach is less likely to work going forward. I did think for a little while that the Ducks wouldn’t match because it honestly puts them in salary cap hell. I am glad they did though because I didn’t need the Flyers having Leo Carlsson in my life.
NHL Offer Sheets Are Awesome, Actually
The title is do offer sheets suck and really it should be “Are Offer Sheets Overhyped?”
My simple answer to this is no. I think offer sheets are awesome regardless of what ultimately happens with the player. For instance, the salary cap complications that are now imposed onto Anaheim is fascinating. The Ducks likely need to trade Frank Vatrano and Chris Krieder/Alex Killorn on massive discounts, hell they might even need to pay to get the contracts off the books. The Ducks also knew an offer sheet was a possibility and did nothing in free agency leaving their defense a complete gong show.
Also, it’s summer. For those of us that don’t love watching soccer or baseball we need something exciting to happen. Having offer sheets provides 7 days of discourse for us hockey sickos. I listened to more hockey content this week then I did at times during the regular season, that’s how compelling these things can be. I think the GMs around the league need to continue pushing the envelope with this tactic because eventually someone will be like Edmonton a couple of years ago and lose out on some real quality young talent. As the league turns more towards thinkers in the GM chairs, as opposed to ex-players, we will likely see more of this and that’s a great thing.
I think player movement in the NBA is a little too extreme, but some level of player movement is very important to a league’s health. Player movement helps keep things lively in the off-season and ultimately provides a lot of excitement whenever the season rolls around. The NHL is slowly moving more towards more player movement, and I am all for it.
