I guess we shouldn’t be holding our breaths…
The window for NHL teams to talk to restricted free agents officially opened on Monday and it is believed that some RFAs could get the return of an offer sheet on July 1.
While all eyes on focus on RFA Mitch Marner with less than a week away before the opening of the free-agency market, but others have gathered interest.
The Toronto Maple Leafs could face similar issues with Kasperi Kapanen and Andreas Johnson. There are also Winnipeg Jets’ Patrik Laine, Carolina Hurricanes’ Sebastien Aho and Tampa Bay Lightning’s Brayden Point.
Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell called the subject of offer sheets "overblown by the media" on Tuesday, but added the team would not lose Aho to one this summer. The Maple Leafs keep struggling to sign their prized restricted free agent in Marner. The Colorado Avalanche don’t appear close to a deal with Mikko Rantanen and the Lightning are not yet on the same page with Point on term.
However, one high-profile NHL agent spoke with Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News and made it quite clear when asked about the possibility of offer sheets this summer.
“You know no offer sheets are coming, right?”
It is believed that too many NHL GMs see offer sheets as an attack on a rival team and wouldn’t want to be seen differently across the league after that. The strategy of using an offer sheet to lure a restricted free agent is oft-criticized and that agent believes it won’t happen this year.
The Calgary Flames were the last team to submit an offer sheet, which came when they tried to acquire forward Ryan O'Reilly from the Colorado Avalanche in 2013. The Avalanche matched the two-year, $10-million offer. The last successful offer sheet was in 2007, when the Anaheim Ducks chose not to match the Edmonton Oilers' five-year, $21.5-million deal signed by forward Dustin Penner.
