We can’t have nice things, but we can watch fun things.
You’ll often hear free agent offer sheets are never extended to other teams’ RFAs because the NHL is an old boys’ club where everyone has each other’s back.
It may be an old boys’ club, but that’s not the real reason for the lack of offer sheets; the CBA system itself discourages offer sheets, as you need a particular situation where you can afford to (usually over)pay a player enough that it discourages his current team from matching; but the higher your offer, the more draft compensation you’ll have to give up if the team doesn’t match.
Which brings us to a rare bit of mid-August news in the NHL: The St. Louis Blues issued simultaneous offer sheets to two Edmonton Oilers RFAs. The offers are pricey but not cap-busting, and the prescribed compensation for Philip Broberg (second-round pick) and Dylan Halloway (third-round pick) isn’t futures-busting. But the Oilers are in a particular kind of cap crunch where they’ll have to do something uncomfortable in order to match within the next week.
What’s fun about this one the Blues took the oft-theorized but never utilized one-two punch approach: Offer sheet two guys at once, making it more difficult for a team to maneuver its way to a match. (It’s also fun in that all the major NHL media are at their cottages or wherever, so they were taken off guard by a scenario they’re normally desperate to see play out.)
Interestingly, because the CBA requires you to have your own draft picks available for compensation, the Blues had to send a 2026 second rounder and a 2025 third rounder to the Pittsburgh Penguins to get back their own 2025 second rounder; they’d only a month ago sent that pick to the Penguins as part of getting Pittsburgh to take Kevin Hayes off their hands. So nobody’s a genius here.
Islanders & Other Reads
- The Maven relives some classic playoff goals from Ken Morrow and…Dave Langevin! When you win 19 series in a row, everyone has to be a hero at some point. [Isles]
- Do you recline on airplanes? Jerk. [Isles] *Okay, okay, it’s really the airlines who are the jerks, but that doesn’t make it any easier for those of us who are tall and get our legs crunched for your beauty sleep.
- Giving the offer sheet news the Toronto-style “how can I make this about the Islanders?” treatment: recalling when John Spano “owned” the Isles in 1997 and wanted them to offer sheet Joe Sakic with Spano’s new influx of “money.” [THN]
- The Oilers now have decisions to make. [Oilers Nation]
- Blues Doug Armstrong isn’t talking until after the Oilers make their decision, but he hinted at going the offer sheet route a couple of months ago: “The cap has gone up, but a lot of that money has already been spent by the teams. If you have an RFA that is in an uncomfortable spot, it’s at least my job responsibility to assess: Is that an option that we should explore?” [Oilers Nation]
- The Leafs are taking the captaincy from Good Toronto Boy John Tavares (a pending UFA next summer) and handing it to American Auston Matthews. [Leafs Nation]
- Three questions facing the Los Angeles Kings and old friend Jim Hiller. [NHL]