History of NHL Offer Sheets

[Canada 02]

The Flames have made two unsuccessful offers in their history.
The Blues lead all franchises, with 9 offer sheets; 4 successful.

The Scott Stevens compensation of five 1st rounders was crazy, especially since they lost him one year later as compensation for the offer sheet to Shanahan. I saw a "trade" tree (trade is quotes since parts were not via trade) that went from Stevens to Shanahan to Pronger to Brewer to Binnington, with lots of drama each step of the way

Not as many retaliation offers as I thought. Blues and Bruins, Blues and Canucks and yesterdays. 37 offer sheets in NHL history, with 13 successful and one pending



https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/arti...-offer-sheets/

[Geeoff]

Interesting to see that a lot more offer sheets were accepted in the past. Including Hall of Famers like Brendan Shanahan and Scott Stevens

[SportsJunky]

Man, Selanne in Calgary. What could have been.

[Ped]

My favourite remains the Gratton offersheet.


Philly frontloaded it with a 9 million dollar signing bonus because Tampa Bay had cash problems. Phil Esposito knew he probably couldn't match, tried to claim the offer sheet was invalid because they couldn't read the fax, and traded Gratton's rights to Chicago for Carney, Moreau, and Dubinsky without telling Chicago that Gratton had signed the offer sheet.


The league upheld the offer sheet, invalidated the trade, and Tampa got 4 1st round picks, which they then traded back to Philly for Renberg and Dykhuis


Gratton had a decent season in Philly but got off to a slow start the next season and was promptly traded back to Tampa Bay... for Renberg.


https://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Bill...egins/45/45933

[Ped]

Some other interesting ones that I recall;


for the Nedved one, the Canucks asked for Shanahan, the Blues offered Janney, and the arbitrator sided with the Blues. Janney didn't want to leave St Louis, so the Canucks traded him back to the Blues for Jeff Brown, Bret Hedican, and Nathan Lafayette. All three played regularly as the Canucks went to the finals that year. Before the next season was over, the Blues traded Janney to the Sharks.


For Hjalmarsson, the Blackhawks matched the Sharks offer, but that meant they couldn't afford Antti Niemi, and walked away from his abitration award. The Sharks promptly signed him as a free agent.


And as far as I know, Ohlund and Selanne were the only ones to sign their first contracts as offer sheets, both because they were having trouble coming to terms with their teams.

[GioforPM]

“Accepted” here means the team didn’t match, they just took the compensation. I’d like to know how many offer sheets were made but not even signed by the player. I guess it’s unknowable.

[PegCityFlamesFan]

Yuck 5 years 10 million for McSorley. And Thomas Vanek, man I really wish the Oilers had got him. What a terrible offer.

[1qqaaz]

Wow, a lot of good names on that list.

[gvitaly]

Originally Posted by Geeoff

Interesting to see that a lot more offer sheets were accepted in the past. Including Hall of Famers like Brendan Shanahan and Scott Stevens

I think its because there was no cap. When you don't have to worry about how you split the money so it's enough to keep everyone, you can afford to overpay if your owners are willing. Also, draft picks were less valuable, for much the same reasons.

[MegaErtz]

Sergei Federov was paid $28m US to play 43 games in the spring of 1998 because Carolina put a $12m poison pill bonus in their offer sheet to be paid if the team made it to the Eastern Conference Finals. Detroit matched and Sergei got paid.

[FlamesAddiction]

I am still curious if the Avs didn't match the O'Reilly offer, if he would have had go on waivers right after. Did that ever get figured out, or was the debate just dropped because it was moot at that point?

[MegaErtz]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

I am still curious if the Avs didn't match the O'Reilly offer, if he would have had go on waivers right after. Did that ever get figured out, or was the debate just dropped because it was moot at that point?

https://www.nhl.com/news/oreilly-off...lames/c-658088

Feaster should have been fired on the spot for that stunt.

[AC]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

“Accepted” here means the team didn’t match, they just took the compensation. I’d like to know how many offer sheets were made but not even signed by the player. I guess it’s unknowable.

We'll never know, but it must happen often.

I know Brayden Point was approached by Dallas and Montreal 2 years ago (after Carolina matched the Aho offersheet), but he wanted to stay in TB for obvious reasons.

[IamNotKenKing]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

I am still curious if the Avs didn't match the O'Reilly offer, if he would have had go on waivers right after. Did that ever get figured out, or was the debate just dropped because it was moot at that point?

No. He would not have had to clear waivers. They changed the CBA from the MOU because of this.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by IamNotKenKing

No. He would not have had to clear waivers. They changed the CBA from the MOU because of this.

He would have had to clear. That was all backtracking. And Feaster didn’t even check.

[Beatle17]

My favourite was the St. Louis one for Shanahan. They got the player but compensation was Scott Stevens who they had signed a couple years earlier.

[IamNotKenKing]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

He would have had to clear. That was all backtracking. And Feaster didn’t even check.

Sorry, but you are wrong.
And it doesn’t matter anymore anyway.

[getbak]

Since it's all pointless speculation at this point, I'll stand by my original assumption about the O'Reilly offer -- It was all a ruse where the Avs and O'Reilly had hit a wall in their negotiations and the relationship had soured to the point where the player wasn't willing to budge, so Sherman secretly asked Feaster to give the offer sheet within parameters that the Avs were willing to match.

Remember, the Flames and Avs were playing in Denver that night and the Avs announced they were going to match almost instantly (I think it was before that night's game had even started).




In exchange for doing him the favour, Sherman agreed to help out Feaster at some future point. Unfortunately, Sherman got fired before he could pay up. Or maybe, the handshake deal rolled over to Feaster and Sherman's replacements and that's why the Avs inexplicably gave up a 2nd round pick for Berra.

Another reason why Feaster was willing to play along is the Flames and Avs were both near the bottom of the Western Conference standings at the time, so helping get O'Reilly signed and playing in Colorado would hopefully make the Avs better enough that they wouldn't have a chance to get MacKinnon (oops!).


That's why Feaster wasn't worried about the whole waiver thing or losing the compensation, he knew the Avs were never not going to match the offer. Everything he said afterward was just CYA to avoid any blow-back from the PA for conspiring with another GM in that way.

[Eric Vail]

The Oilers lead the league in having 6 players try to escape with the offer sheet - 3 were successful in getting out.

Can't blame them for trying every available means to play anywhere but Edmonton.

Maybe they should hang a banner for this league leading stat.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by IamNotKenKing

Sorry, but you are wrong.
And it doesn’t matter anymore anyway.

It was very clear from the league reaction that (a) he didn’t check and (b) had he checked they would have taken the same position they did afterwards. Are you telling me if you seek a preapproval from CRA for a tax arrangement and they say “no that doesn’t work” you just roll the dice because you believe otherwise? Not to mention no lawyer has ever supported Feaster on this (unless you count Feaster himself and I don’t).