In the Montreal Canadiens’ end-of-season media availability, Jeff Gorton raised a few eyebrows when he said there would be more offer sheets in the future, and it got people talking. Now, fans are speculating about who the Habs might have in their crosshairs, but I doubt we’ll see Kent Hughes go down that route.

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While RG.org’s Marco D’Amico makes a good point when he rightfully points out that if the Canadiens were to put in offer sheets, there would be no retaliatory offers possible to either Laine Hutson or Ivan Demidov since players need to have played three pro seasons (of at least 10 games in the AHL or NHL) to be eligible to receive offer sheets, that’s not the only possible repercussion of going down that route.

To be efficient, an offer sheet must either be for an amount that the other team cannot afford or isn’t ready to pay. Considering the salary cap is set to go way up ( $95.5 million in 2025-26, $104 million in ’26-27, and $113.5 million in ’27-28), the chances of making offers teams can’t afford will decrease dramatically.

There will always be the possibility of making an offer the other team is unwilling to match, but that’s not great for business. That’s what the Carolina Hurricanes did for Jesperi Kotkaniemi, and it didn’t exactly work out for them.

If you offer an amount that another team is not willing to pay, you are overpaying and throwing a spanner in the works of your salary cap structure. Hughes has already shown he values a good salary structure, and while the one he’s been going from so far will be discarded with the cap increase, overpaying for one player is a slippery slope because your other players will be comparing themselves to him.

If there’s one thing Hughes has shown so far, it's that he knows how to negotiate and make trades. It’s hard to see how he would decide to go down that route rather than make a deal with the team of the player he wants to get.

Furthermore, there’s the small matter of compensation if you poach a player. If the average salary is over $11,700,192, the team has to give up four first-round picks. That’s quite the package, especially when building a perennial contender. As exciting as offer sheets may be, there’s a reason why they’re hardly used.

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