It's one of the rarest contract situations in hockey: the offer sheet.

Well... rare unless you're the Carolina Hurricanes who have been involved in both of the latest two offer sheets (both with Sebastian Aho and Jesperi Kotkaniemi), but regardless it doesn't happen often.

While normally a team has full control over their RFAs, there is a way in which another team can sign them to a contract.

Rival teams can tender an offer sheet to most any unsigned RFAs and an offer sheet is just like any other contract as its terms and payment are laid out the same and binding.

It's almost identical to any other contract offered to a player.

If a tendered player then chooses to sign that offer sheet, the team who holds the RFAs rights has a week to decide whether or not they want to match the offer. 

If that team does decide to match, the player is locked into the deal laid out in the offer sheet just with the team that held his rights to begin with instead.

If the team doesn't match, the contract applies to the other team and that player is now theirs, but the former team does receive compensation in the form of a draft pick package.

The current packages are as follows:

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So could the Hurricanes be looking at a three-peat this year with a very complicated and dicey offseason already in front of them?

According to Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic, a few teams have started to ponder the possibility of going the offer sheet route for Martin Necas.

It's been reported that the Hurricanes are looking for a 'star-caliber' return in any trade involving Necas and at this point, a lot of teams are unwilling to offer what Carolina is looking for.

With Necas also reportedly unhappy with his role with the Canes and looking to move on, it would be fairly likely that he would sign an offer sheet that was tendered to him.

Necas is also the most likely candidate because teams won't be beating down the door for Jack Drury and the Hurricanes will 100% match anything offered to Seth Jarvis.

The most likely bracket that a Necas offer sheet would fall in would be in the $6,871,375 to $9,161,834 range because any lower and the Hurricanes would definitely match and any higher would be too much for the player.

AFP Analytics currently projects Necas' value at between $6.24 million AAV on a short-term, three-year deal and $7.52 million AAV on a long-term, seven-year deal.

The compensation for that bracket would be a first, second and third round pick in the upcoming draft.

Currently, only 13 teams have the picks necessary to even tender an offer sheet in that range, although that number would increase if a team made that offer following the draft.

It's tough to say what number the Hurricanes would become hesitant to match at. 

While Necas is a talented player, the Canes also understand his shortcomings as a player and the associated risks with him on top of already having a pretty complex situation currently with a large percentage of the roster unsigned. 

But anything in that $6.8 to $9.1 million bracket would be a bit tough for Carolina to swallow.

The Canes have to rebuild or re-sign a good bit of their forward group and Necas absorbing a big part of their cap space isn't ideal.

At the same time, losing too many of their talented offensive players will put them in a tough spot heading into next season.

The more you think about it, the more an offer sheet for Necas seems like a likely outcome. 

Teams won't have to give up nearly as much as Carolina wants them to and they can also attempt to put the Hurricanes in a bind either by poaching a good player or screwing up their cap projections.

So if I'm the Hurricanes, I try to get this deal moving as quick as I can before the draft because once it passes, that door is going to swing open and who knows what will happen then.

However, I'm just a writer, what do I know?

Because the man in charge seems pretty unfazed. 

New general manager Eric Tulsky, in an appearance on 99.9 FM The Fan on Friday, stated that he's 'not that worried about offer sheets.'

"First of all, they're pretty rare," Tulsky said. "Second of all, we have plenty of room to match any offer sheet so it's pretty unproductive for a team to do that. If a player doesn't want to be here and signs an offer sheet, he's making a mistake because he knows we're going to match and he's going to end up here. It's not really a route that I expect to see anyone take."

To me, that seems like pretty clear messaging to not only Necas, but also the rest of the league.

Being an NHL general manager goes beyond just making deals, it's also about posturing and playing a psychological game against 31 other opponents. 

Tulsky and the Hurricanes have made their move and now we'll wait and see if it's the truth or all talk.

And even if an offer sheet is tendered, signed and matched, Tulsky isn't worried that that would have a negative affect on the group.

"Players have ups and downs all the time," Tulsky said. "Everybody had times in their career where they're a little frustrated and times in their career where they feel great about things. I think everybody's been through it and they know how it goes. Once the season starts, everybody will be together and they'll be a cohesive unit. I'm not worried about it. We have a really good group of guys and group of coaches that know the players really well and know how to push the right buttons to keep everybody pulling on the same rope."

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