New York Rangers forward Will Cuylle Mar 16, 2025; New York, New York, USA; New York Rangers left wing Will Cuylle (50) skates during the first period against the Edmonton Oilers at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Danny Wild-Imagn Images
For more than two decades, offer sheets were mostly scoffed at by NHL general managers as an interesting thought exercise or salacious media speculation – but not a viable means for acquiring young players. Only two players transacted previously in the salary cap era. That changed last August when the St. Louis Blues pried Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg out of Edmonton.
Now, at least one NHL owner has pressed his GM: Go out and get me one. Does that mean this will be the Summer of the Offer Sheet? Or was that one moment in time, the Blues preying on a particularly vulnerable Edmonton Oilers cap situation, and are offer sheets are less viable now with teams having more cap breathing room than they’ve had since before the pandemic?
Part of what made the Blues’ poison pills so intriguing is how they used the compensation thresholds to offer just enough money and security to Holloway and Broberg that they made it interesting, but little enough that they weren’t giving up much at all to Edmonton in terms of draft capital relative to the players’ roster value. Here are this summer’s thresholds:
| Offer Sheet AAV | Compensation Due |
| Under $1,544,424 | None |
| $1,544,424 to $2,340,037 | 3rd Round Pick |
| $2,340,038 to $4,680,076 | 2nd Round Pick |
| $4,680,077 to $7,020,113 | 1st and 2nd Round Picks |
| $7,020,114 to $9,360,153 | 1st, 2nd and 3rd Round Picks |
| $9,360,154 to $11,700,192 | Two 1sts, One 2nd, One 3rd Round Pick |
| Over $11,700,193 | Four 1st Round Picks |
Restricted free agents (RFAs) are eligible to begin speaking to teams about offer sheets on June 30, but not eligible to officially sign offer sheets until 12:01 p.m. ET on July 1. Either out of fear of an offer sheet – or simply just to provide cap clarity and cost certainty – some of the biggest-name RFAs have already been taken off the board. The Dallas Stars re-signed Wyatt Johnston just hours before they acquired Mikko Rantanen on Deadline Day, the Calgary Flames extended Matt Coronato long-term and the Ottawa Senators locked up Ridly Greig.
In order to be successful with an offer sheet, numerous vulnerabilities must align – a difference-making or high-upside player who is going nowhere in negotiations on a team with significant salary cap limitations, and a manager unafraid of supposed retribution with a hunger to improve.
With those boxes to check as our guideline, here are five potential offer sheet candidates for 2025:
Potential 2025 Offer Sheet Candidates
Matthew Knies
Left Wing, Toronto Maple Leafs
Age: 22
Stats: 78 GP, 29 G, 29 A, 58 Pts
Projected Contract (per @AFPAnalytics): 7 years x $7.23 million AAV
Offer Sheet: 5 years x $11,700,192
Compensation: 2026 and 2027 1sts, 2026 2nd, 2026 3rd Round Pick
Teams Capable (meet pick requirement): Anaheim, Boston, Calgary, Chicago, Detroit, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Montréal, Nashville, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Utah, Vegas.
Scoop: Knies is a Human Nail Gun and perhaps Priority No. 1 for GM Brad Treliving to re-sign before July 1 so that this isn’t on the table. Knies has said all the right things – that he wants to be a Maple Leaf – and that is an important part of the conversation here, because it’s not possible without his willingness to sign an offer sheet. Knies was seemingly just scratching the surface in his second year, nearly touching 30 goals (with only five on the power play), while throwing 182 hits. Wyatt Johnston seemed to set the table for what a Knies extension looks like at five years x $8.4 million, with Johnston having one additional 30-goal season under his belt in his third year and more playoff production. So figure that the $7.25 million or so projection from AFP Analytics is accurate in AAV, but probably a shade too long (buying too many UFA years) to be completely accurate. A team would have to present a deal that really dissuades Toronto from matching, and one way to do that would be to add another $11 million player to their books for the foreseeable future.
JJ Peterka
Right Wing, Buffalo Sabres
Age: 23
Stats: 77 GP, 27 G, 41 A, 68 Pts
Projected Contract (per @AFPAnalytics): 7 years x $7.8 million AAV
Offer Sheet: 2 years x $9,360,152
Compensation: 2026 1st, 2026 2nd and 2026 3rd Round Picks
Teams Capable (meet pick requirement): Anaheim, Boston, Calgary, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Montréal, Nashville, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Utah.
Scoop: It’s going to be fascinating to see how the Peterka situation plays out in Buffalo, the No. 1 player on our Trade Targets board. You’d have to think a worst-case scenario for GM Kevyn Adams is the offer sheet route, particularly for a team with little interest in futures as they’re trying to end a 14-year playoff drought. That also might just make it easy to match for a top-line player who is 23. But there is no shortage of buzz on the offer sheet potential for Peterka – because it’s difficult to acquire a young player of that impact. So, how would you structure it? The devil might be in the details. If you notice, the only player on the Sabres’ salary cap that is due a signing bonus next season is veteran Jason Zucker at $1 million. That’s it. Not Rasmus Dahlin or Owen Power or Tage Thompson. The Sabres loathe to give them out. So, you put $8.58 million (the maximum allowable) due on the date the offer sheet is contract is registered, plus another $8.58 million due on July 1, 2026. That’s north of $17 million due to the player within one calendar year. Could that make Buffalo think twice? Or are they better off trading him prior to July 1 if they can’t reach an extension?
Will Cuylle
Left Wing, New York Rangers
Age: 23
Stats: 82 GP, 20 G, 25 A, 45 Pts
Projected Contract (per @AFPAnalytics): 3 years x $3.4 million AAV
Offer Sheet: 5 years x $7,020,113
Compensation: 2026 1st and 2026 2nd Round Pick
Teams Capable (meet pick requirement): Anaheim, Boston, Buffalo, Columbus, Calgary, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Montréal, Nashville, New Jersey, NY Islanders, Ottawa, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Seattle, St. Louis, Utah, Winnipeg.
Scoop: Is it possible that Cuylle is a lower-cased version of Knies? Cuylle has turned heads as a physical player with tons of compete, a burgeoning player who has added layers to his game and can play up and down the lineup with versatility. We know the Rangers have some interesting decisions to make this summer, starting with a few difficult contracts to try and move to create salary cap flexibility. GM Chris Drury has done a great job with that so far, having teams take on deals without any dead cap space residual dinging New York. Clearly, Cuylle would be in New York’s plans – and at $3.4 million for the next three years as projected, he’d be a bargain. If Cuylle can net a half dozen more goals next season, cresting 25, he’ll be in the $6 million AAV range or more. So it wouldn’t be a crazy reach for him to think that at some point with the cap continuing to increase that he plays at a level commensurate with a $7 million value – even if it isn’t in Year 1 or Year 2 of this offer sheet deal. But it would be a stretch to think that the Rangers could make that bet on their own cap right now.
Joel Hofer
Goaltender, St. Louis Blues
Age: 24
Stats: 31 GP, 16-8-1, 2.64 GAA, .904 Sv%, 1 SO
Projected Contract (per @AFPAnalytics): 2 years x $2.8 million AAV
Offer Sheet: 2 years x $4,680,076
Compensation: 2026 2nd Round Pick
Teams Capable (meet pick requirement): All teams except Buffalo, Columbus, Colorado, Minnesota, NY Islanders, NY Rangers, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg.
Scoop: Want to have some fun? This one is admittedly a bit of a reach. No goaltender in the salary cap era has inked an offer sheet, leaving just two in history: Ron Tugnutt and Arturs Irbe. It was a different time then. The position is fickle year-to-year and so much success is predicated upon team support and structure in front of the netminder. But what if a team wanted some retribution on GM Doug Armstrong? What if a team desperately wants a younger goaltender with promise to grow with their team? Hofer checks some of those boxes. He’s been in the NHL full-time for two seasons now, arriving at age 22, which is young for a goalie. Jordan Binnington also has two seasons ahead as the full-time starter, so there isn’t quite a path there for more playing time yet. So, why not take a swing if you think Hofer is the real deal? His NHL career save percentage of .907 is quite good. There is a way, like Armstrong did with the Broberg and Holloway sheets, to structure this so it isn’t a crazy bet. If he can give you 50 games of NHL quality goaltending at that $4.8 million cap hit, and you’ve checked a positional box that isn’t otherwise readily available for you to check in your organization, you don’t have to squint so hard to see this one. The Blues don’t have a cap space issue, but they might not want to spend that much on their tandem for the next two years, only to bring Hofer to another RFA year with a $4.7 million qualifying offer.
Mavrik Bourque
Center, Dallas Stars
Age: 23
Stats: 73 GP, 11 G, 14 A, 25 Pts
Projected Contract (per @AFPAnalytics): 2 years x $1.95 million AAV
Poison Pill Offer Sheet: 2 years x $2,340,037
Compensation: 2026 3rd Round Pick
Teams Capable (meet pick requirement): All teams except Carolina, Colorado, Florida, San Jose, Vancouver, Washington.
Scoop: Perhaps no team is under more salary cap duress this offseason that Dallas, pending GM Jim Nill’s next move and whether he decides to ship out a more expensive contract or two (Jason Robertson?). Right now, the Stars have just a handful of million dollars to spend on a handful of players to fill out their roster, leaving not a lot of wiggle room. Bourque is more productive than Holloway was last season, before the offer sheet, even if Holloway probably had more long-term upside. But there is still certainly some upside in a double-digit goalscorer who is undersized but could add loads of skill as a middle-six contributor. You wouldn’t need to go crazy on the offer sheet in order to make Dallas think long and hard about it, just as the Oilers proved last summer. A Bourque offer sheet in that range, almost to the same dollar/pick threshold, could throw off the Stars’ cap in the short-term. The bigger question for an acquiring team: Does Bourque have the potential to get to that 25-goal, 60-point plateau in relatively short order like Holloway did in one season in St. Louis? And do the Stars see it that way, too?
Reminder: Teams can re-acquire their own 2026 (and beyond) picks to meet the pick requirements.
Under Consideration: D Mason Lohrei, Boston Bruins.
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