Kent Hughes, the Montreal Canadiens GM has been in the post for five offseasons already, and so far, he’s not made any big signings in free agency or used the weapon of mass destruction that an offer sheet can be. That’s not to say he never will, but don’t expect one this year. There’s been a lot of talk about the Philadelphia Flyers signing the Anaheim Ducks’ first-line center, Leo Carlsson, to an $18 million offer sheet, and the New Jersey Devils doing the same with the Utah Mammoth center, Barrett Hayton.

As of now, Cutter Gauthier, Connor Bedard, and Adam Fantilli remain available, but with just over $14 million in cap space and three RFAs still to sign in Kirby Dach, Zachary Bolduc and Arber Xhekaj, the Canadiens just can’t afford to make an offer sheet worthy of those top names.

Could the Canadiens target a less high-profile player with an offer sheet as the Devils did with Hayton? They could, but only if the offer sheet is for a contract with a cap hit that lands between $2,387,833 - $4,775,666. According to this year’s offer sheet compensation scheme, if a player were to accept that kind of offer sheet and his team didn’t match it, a 2027 second-round pick would have to be sent. Since the Canadiens do have their second-round pick at the next draft, they could do it.

However, when the Canadiens traded up to pick 26th overall instead of 28th overall to claim Gleb Pugachyov at the last draft, they sent the 28th overall pick and a 2027 third-round pick to the Vegas Golden Knights. The Canadiens would have needed that third-round pick to tender offer sheets with cap hits ranging from $1,575,970 - $2,387,832, $4,775,667 - $7,163,498, $7,163,499 - $9,551,332, and $9,551,333 - $11,939,166.

The compensation scheme was announced on May 19, so when Hughes made that trade at the draft, he knew what he was getting himself into. Therefore, the Canadiens could only make two kinds of offer sheets. It would have to be worth less than $1,575,969 (since no compensation is owed then) or more than $11,939,167 (when the compensation is four first-round picks over the next 5 drafts).

As mentioned above, right now, the Canadiens do not have the cap space needed to make one of those top offer sheets, even if they do have their next five first-round pick. Next year, however, they will have quite a few contracts coming off the books: Phillip Danault, Josh Anderson, Alexandre Carrier and Samuel Montembeault (if he’s still there by then). Who’s set to be a RFA by then? Columbus Blue Jackets’ forward Kirill Marchenko…

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