While the Colorado Avalanche take a breather after a long season, busy draft, and pretty eventful opening of NHL free agency, other teams have really swung for the fences.
In particular, we’re talking about the offer sheet mania that has suddenly gripped the league. For reference, an offer sheet is a contract offer given to restricted free agent (RFA). The team holding an RFA’s rights can sign the player at any time. Other teams wanting to sign an RFA via an offer sheet must extend the offer and wait for the player to sign. If he does, the rightsholder has seven days to match the offer.
That’s where things get a little dicey.
The first offer sheet this offseason came from the New Jersey Devils. The Devils extended an offer to forward Barret Hayton. The contract was a one-year, $4.77 million deal. If the number seems a little interesting, that’s because of the compensation thresholds. The Devils were careful to keep Hayton’s offer below a certain threshold, one that would only cost the Devils a second-round pick as compensation.
And that’s the thing. Any team signing a player to an offer sheet must pay the corresponding compensation for plucking that player away. In a manner of speaking, it’s like a trade between the two sides. In this case, if the Utah Mammoth matched the offer, they keep Hayton. Otherwise, the Mammoth get the pick in return.
That brings us to the massive offer sheet from Friday. The Philadelphia Flyers extended the mother of all offer sheets, signing Leo Carlsson to a five-year, $90 million contract. The $18 million AAV triggers the upper limit of the compensation chart, that is, four first-round picks.
If the Anaheim Ducks don’t match the offer, the Flyers would send over their next four first-rounders. It’s worth pointing out that those first-rounders are the team’s own. The picks can’t have originally belonged to another club. As such, the Flyers would be forking over their first-rounders in 2027, 2028, 2029, and 2030.
That’s a pretty hefty price to pay.
But that’s the sort of situation that teams face when going the offer sheet route.
Incidentally, the Avalanche are not quite in a position to offer sheet anyone. Unless the Avs wanted to target a player whose cap hit triggered a third-round pick, it might work. The Avs hold their own third-rounder in 2027.
As for the other side of the equation, the Avalanche don’t really seem to have any offer sheet-worthy RFAs. That’s why Avalanche fans can sit by and watch teams issuing offer sheets duke it out.
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