• Over $4.0 million to $5.0 million Two First Rounds, Second Round, and Third Round
  • Over $5 million Four First Rounds

    • The ’sweet spot’ seems to be in the $1 million to $2 million range — for instance, Marek Svatos made $1.05 million this season. An offer sheet similar to Kesler’s could pay him up to $1.99 million, and the offering team would only lose a second-round pick if Svatos signed and Colorado didn’t want to match.

    And there the two conditionals make their appearance: Firstly, did the player sign the offer sheet, and secondly, does the team match?

    Number one is pretty easy — there doesn’t seem to be much downside to a player signing an offer sheet if he considers the offering club to be a good destination. Once he gets that offer sheet and signs it, he’s going to be paid that amount, wherever he ends up playing. If the player thinks he can make more than the offer sheet, then it wouldn’t make sense for him to sign, however. (Svatos might be a good example of that.)

    Number two isn’t quite as simple, as the targeted team suddenly has their budget thrown out of whack, with a new pay rate suddenly changing the landscape of negotiations. This can be especially problematic for teams who are close to the salary cap ceiling, as their balance sheet suddenly takes an unexpected turn. Can they afford to pay the new price to the player in question? Is it wise to?

    With teams seemingly valuing draft picks less than ever, we could see clubs willing to pay the price for a player now, and leaving the drafting and developing to other teams. Organizations with plenty of draft picks and/or prospects in their system might feel they are in a position where they can afford to pass up adding to their pool of developing talent for a year in order to secure the services of a current NHLer.

    The kind of team that would tender an offer sheet would seem to have a comfortable amount of cap space, a solid base of prospects and draft picks, and a desire to improve in the short-term.

    Remind you of any team you know?

    All salary numbers taken from nhlnumbers.com

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    Posted at 11:06 am. Filed under Washington Capitals.
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    7 Comments

    1. usiel wrote:

      Buffalo will match any offer sheet I would think. Most teams will match on their good young players. In the end I don’t think we’ll see much RFA action but I could be wrong, heh.

      Tuesday, May 29, 2007 at 12:11 pm | Permalink
    2. Caps Nut wrote:

      David “Bud” Poile had the right idea when it came to RFA offer sheets “I’m not going to do their job for them.”

      The other issue with the offer sheets is that is can skew your own salary structure both directly and indirectly as much as it throws the other team out of whack.

      Your structure is directly effected if the team does NOT match your offer sheet and you get that player. By definition FA’s are overpaid whether or not they change teams restricted or unrestricted. Overpaying one player on your roster leads you to overpay another player on your roster and the whole thing begins to spin out of control.

      You are affected indirectly should the team match because your own and other players point to the contract that was matched and they use it against you in contract negotiations especially if you’re stupid enough to throw a big offer sheet around before arbitration.

      Personally I think this fad of rejecting draft picks over FA’s will fall out of favor rather quickly. As the Blues signing Shanahan away from New Jersey as an RFA showed us, just because you don’t have the picks doesn’t mean that the NHL cannot come up with compensation.

      Tuesday, May 29, 2007 at 1:03 pm | Permalink
    3. chanuck wrote:

      Personally thought it a D@#k move by Bobby Clark. Could have one reason he had to quit. Maybe other GMs started to freeze him out. The other reason being that the Flyers sucked.

      Tuesday, May 29, 2007 at 1:22 pm | Permalink
    4. Mark Tucker wrote:

      A very interesting thought.
      I do wonder about being blacklisted, though. Bobby Clarke did it last year for Ryan Kesler (Hardly a Svatos or better), and you would have thought he committed an unforgivable act. Maybe Bobby was just one step ahead of everyone else. :-)

      Tuesday, May 29, 2007 at 1:29 pm | Permalink
    5. maruk wrote:

      So let me get this straight, loyalty to fellow GM’s trumps doing your own job well? It’s one thing to give, as a silly example, A-Yash an A-Rod contract. But it’s quite another to make a shrewd judgment to give the right RFA the right offer. GMs who exploit inefficiencies in the new marketplace will be the ones who succeed.

      Tuesday, May 29, 2007 at 1:53 pm | Permalink
    6. Michael McDonald wrote:

      I don’t see Vanek getting an offer from the Flyers - it is amazing how these things get started. If you knew how the Joni Pitkanen rumors started last year with the Oilers you’d ‘pee’… Kimmo is tops on the list, then watch for TWO big name centers…and maybe a trade at the draft?? Macnow has 5 plus hours to fill…theres only so much Eagles mini camp to talk about:)

      Tuesday, May 29, 2007 at 9:44 pm | Permalink
    7. CurlyBill wrote:

      The Caps offered RFA Dave Manson from Edmonton years ago. Glen Sather matched the offer, but he was furious. He never made a trade with the Caps after that. This isn’t a big loss if it’s a team or two… but you certainly don’t want something like this to come back and haunt you.

      Tuesday, May 29, 2007 at 10:57 pm | Permalink

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