There’s an idea floating around Canuck fandom right now suggesting that Jim Benning sign Oilers centre Leon Draisaitl to an expensive offer sheet. It seems to have been sparked by a Blake Price hypothetical on TSN 1040 on Wednesday.
This comes on the tails of reports that Connnor McDavid will sign an 8-year contract extension with the Edmonton Oilers with a $13.25 million per year cap hit, making him the highest paid player in the NHL.
Draisaitl is due for a massive raise from his entry-level contract after finishing 8th in league scoring and following it up with 16 points in 13 playoff games. They’ll have to be careful with his cap hit, however, thanks to McDavid’s new contract and a number of other .
The benefit to signing Draisaitl to an offer sheet is two-fold: you either nab a 21-year-old first line centre for your team or you force Edmonton to match, pushing them into a salary cap crunch that would make it difficult to add complementary players to their stars to ice a championship-caliber team. Seems like a win-win.
It’s not just the Canucks fanbase considering an offer sheet for Draisaitl; .
There are a number of reasons why this won’t be happening, but let’s deal with the specifics first. The cost would be significant to acquire Draisaitl: a $10-11 million offer sheet, which is likely what it would take for Draisaitl to sign and Edmonton to balk at matching, would cost four first-round draft picks.
Is Draisaitl worth not just four first-round draft picks but also $10-11 million for six to eight years? Is it still worth it if the Canucks are still terrible next season, as they likely will be even with someone like Draisaitl on the roster, making their first-round pick potentially first overall? Is Draisaitl worth losing out on a game-breaking talent like Rasmus Dahlin plus three more first round picks?
Maybe. Draisaitl is very good, a rare combination of elite skill and power forward strength and size. He did play all season with Connor McDavid, however, so you have to wonder if he can produce at the same elite level without the best player on earth on his line. If you’re going to pay someone $10+ million per year, you better be damn sure of what you’re getting.
I just don’t see that as a move the Canucks will make, but that’s not much of a bold statement: offer sheets are incredibly rare, so betting the under is playing it pretty safe.
So why are offer sheets so rare?
Many people express amazement that general managers don’t use offer sheets more often. Why not use all the tools at your disposal to improve your team and make it harder for other teams to compete? I regularly see fans on Twitter bemoaning the idiocy of GMs for not using offer sheets or claiming it's collusion between the teams to prevent rising salaries.
I don’t think GMs avoid offer sheets because they're stupid and, while collusion is a possible answer, I don't necessarily see a conspiracy theory here. I see people who don’t want to burn any bridges.
As much as NHL general managers are competing with each other, in many respects they’re also co-workers. These are people that need to regularly communicate and make deals with each other. Generally speaking, you want to be on good terms with everyone in the league.
You might scoff and suggest that these are grown men who are professionals and shouldn’t let hurt feelings get in the way of doing their jobs, but let’s be honest: that’s just not the reality of the situation. I’m not judging — we all get upset at one time or another and let our emotions get the best of us and emotions run particularly high in the world of sports, particularly when millions of dollars are at stake.
Just look at few of the more recent offer sheets. They’re few and far between, but when they happen, sometimes GMs take them personally.
Back in 2007, when then-Oilers GM Kevin Lowe offer sheeted Dustin Penner from the Anaheim Ducks, then-Ducks GM Brian Burke called Lowe “gutless.” He tried to act like he was mostly upset by the inflated salary in the offer sheet, but Burke later made it clear that he was willing to .
That came after Lowe signed Thomas Vanek to an offer sheet, which clearly exasperated Darcy Regier in Buffalo, who called it an “.”
Mike Gillis sparked a minor battle with the St. Louis Blues when he signed David Backes to an offer sheet back in 2008. The Blues matched, then retaliated by signing Steve Bernier to an offer sheet of their own.
It’s all very petty, but if you later need to make a deal with another GM to get a player, prospect, or pick you need for your team, why risk burning bridges? And it’s not just that one GM; you might jeopardize relationships with others around the league who don’t like offer sheets.
As much as offer sheets are fun for fans to speculate about and may make all sorts of sense in a vacuum, I suspect most GMs are not interested in doing something seen as underhanded to their colleagues.
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