The St. Louis Blues' successfully signing away Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway from the Edmonton Oilers last summer sparked speculation of more offer-sheet signings during this off-season. A rise in the salary cap to a projected $95.5 million for 2025-26 is fueling the conjecture.
Adam Proteau doesn't expect high-end RFAs like Edmonton Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard and Toronto Maple Leafs winger Matthew Knies to become offer sheet targets. They're important core players to their current teams, meaning most teams lack the salary-cap space and compensatory draft picks necessary to sign them.
Players considered emerging talent, like Broberg and Holloway, could be targeted this summer. Proteau speculated that those players could receive offers between $4.68 million and $7.020 million. The compensatory draft picks in that salary range would be a first and a third-rounder, plus the average annual values are more affordable.
Those are the type of players James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey now had in mind in his recent list of proposed offer sheet targets for the Devils. They included JJ Peterka of the Buffalo Sabres, Marco Rossi of the Minnesota Wild and Mason McTavish of the Anaheim Ducks.
Rossi was also part of Stefen Rosner's proposed offer-sheet targets for the New York Islanders, with forward Gabriel Vilardi of the Winnipeg Jets being the other.
Ty Anderson of Boston's 98.5 The Sports Hub included McTavish on his seven-player offer-sheet proposal list for the Boston Bruins. The others included wingers like Will Cuylle of the New York Rangers, Luke Evangelista of the Nashville Predators, Dmitri Voronkov of the Columbus Blue Jackets and Kaapo Kakko of the Seattle Kraken.
Singling out RFA players on rival teams for offer sheets is one thing. Signing them is another. A player eligible to receive an offer sheet doesn't mean he's open to inking a deal with another club. In most cases, they prefer staying with their current clubs.
The Blues signed away Broberg and Holloway because the Oilers lacked the cap space to match the offers. Most players on these lists are with teams carrying plenty of cap space to match any offer.
For example, the Ducks have a projected cap space of $36.62 million for 2025-26 and the Blue Jackets carry over $41.2 million. An offer for McTavish or Voronkov is bound to fail.
If the intent is to force a rival club to pay more than they prefer to match an offer, it leaves the team making that offer vulnerable to a retaliatory move at some point when they can least afford it.
Of the players listed, Cuylle is the most likely offer-sheet target. The Rangers have only $8.4 million in cap space with 19 active roster players under contract.
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