The Most Predatory Offer Sheet [Article]

[Tatar Shots]

This wouldn't work because of the term. Eichel just informs Buffalo he is going to sign the offer sheet unless they give him more term at a comparable amount. Buffalo would obviously cave into his demands at this point and all you've ended up doing is pissing off a team

 

[Beukeboom Fan]

Exactly! Why would any smart business person do something that would inflate the cost of an industry's operating assets?

Team A makes an exorbitant offer for Team B's player and only one outcome is guaranteed, the exorbitant price paid for the player will be referenced for precedent in the contract negotiations of future players.

At the end of the day, players get 50% of HRR, and all offersheets do is re-allocate ths $'s to the offersheeted players.

 

[s3antana5757]

I don't understand this whole no offer sheeting people garbage. Like you're all competitive and trying to win. What's the problem? You see it with RFA in the NBA and NFL all the time. Now the compensation doesn't hurt nearly as much in those leagues, but it can still cost a lot if a guy is on a franchise tag or gets a 1st round tender. I wish we'd see more of this, even if it hurt my team in the long-term.

Also, if you're a RFA, why would you not be shopping your services? If I was in that situation, I'd be trying to get offers from every team I could.

 

[Brodeur]

I don't understand this whole no offer sheeting people garbage. Like you're all competitive and trying to win. What's the problem? You see it with RFA in the NBA and NFL all the time. Now the compensation doesn't hurt nearly as much in those leagues, but it can still cost a lot if a guy is on a franchise tag or gets a 1st round tender. I wish we'd see more of this, even if it hurt my team in the long-term.

As the rules are written, it's just tough to get everything to line up where an offer sheet makes sense for both the player and the team.

http://www.prosportstransactions.com/hockey/DraftTrades/Years/2018.htm

Quick count has 8 teams who don't own their 2nd round picks. Another handful don't own their 3rds.

Without a 2nd round pick, that limits what type of offer sheet you can put out. How many guys worth 4 first rounders typically make it to RFA? It's not impossible, but a good chunk of those franchise guys get locked up ahead of time.

Also, if you're a RFA, why would you not be shopping your services? If I was in that situation, I'd be trying to get offers from every team I could.

Who says that they don't? Not every team can spend to the cap. Most teams are going to be preoccupied with their own RFAs.

Offer sheets aren't impossible, there are just a lot of boxes that need to be checked for them to be feasible. A team has to be motivated to put out an offer sheet, own its picks, and have the cap room to do it.

Makes a little more 'sense' in basketball just due to the fact that the team aren't forced to fork over compensation for a successful offer. And then it makes more sense in the NFL given the sheer number of roster spots (and the sheer amount of roster turnover year to year).

 

[hairylikebear]

The offer sheet was negotiated into the CBA as a perk to give the players some RFA bargaining power. However, it's purely up to the GMs and owners to make offers to RFAs and because it drives up RFA salary it's not something that NHL ownership wants to do. This predatory offer sheet is an extreme case because not only are you giving Eichel more AAV than he probably otherwise gets, but you're also helping him cash in earlier because of how soon he'll hit UFA. Every GM is going to try to use RFA leverage to lock guys in for a few of their UFA years, and I doubt anyone wants to risk compromising that by making this kind of offer, especially because if the offer sheet isn't matched, you're losing 4 1st rounders and gaining a huge liability and risk.

Revenue that goes to the league and owners is locked at 50% of total revenue so increasing one player or even every player's salary figure doesn't affect the amount the owners make. However, it does effectively reduce the take home salary of every other player in the league to have one or a few players with an inflated salary figure, and would almost certainly cause a lockout to happen the next time the CBA expires. Every GM is ultimately an employee of the league and so you're not going to see any decisions that are so blatantly damaging to their collective interests.

 

[BlueBaron]

This wouldn't work because of the term. Eichel just informs Buffalo he is going to sign the offer sheet unless they give him more term at a comparable amount. Buffalo would obviously cave into his demands at this point and all you've ended up doing is pissing off a team

It's hard to know Eichel's mind but if the Rangers offered him 12.5 Mil for 4 years to get him to early free agency you think the Buffalo would say " Ok we'll give you 8 years at the price, please don't leave us?"

 

[tempest2i]

It's hard to know Eichel's mind but if the Rangers offered him 12.5 Mil for 4 years to get him to early free agency you think the Oil would say " Ok we'll give you 8 years at the price, please don't leave us?"

I'm pretty sure Eichel doesn't play for the Oilers...

 

[Algernop Kreider]

This wouldn't work because of the term. Eichel just informs Buffalo he is going to sign the offer sheet unless they give him more term at a comparable amount. Buffalo would obviously cave into his demands at this point and all you've ended up doing is pissing off a team

That's the opposite of how this works. On a contract like Eichel's, longer term brings up the AAV. Eichel is negotiating against himself if he asks longer term at a comparable amount because he will probably make more money if he signs a new contract in 4 years than he will on years 5-8 of a contract signed right now. This is the same reason why McDavid's starting point for negotiations was rumored to be a 5-year deal rather than an 8-year deal.

The point of this hypothetical offer sheet is that the Sabres wouldn't offer Eichel his max AAV unless they were buying as many of his UFA years as possible. Buffalo would gladly pay him for an 8-year deal, but if a team offers him that same money at a lower term, Buffalo is forced to sign an undesirable contract for the team.

The real sticking point here is for the offer sheeting team; if Buffalo didn't match they'd be stuck giving up the max offer sheet compensation for a relatively short term contract.

 

[BlueBaron]

I'm pretty sure Eichel doesn't play for the Oilers...

Brain fart. Still on my first coffee.

 

[ijuka]

Well, paying 12mil a year for Eichel for 4 seasons might be nice, but so could the 4 firsts be. 4 firsts is a really high price, and you have to wonder how much Eichel's worth over 12 mil a season in the first place.

Certainly, it's a "win now"-move, but it's possible that the 4 first round picks would become something extremely valuable down the road as well.

 

[BackToTheBrierePatch]

So the GM with the offer-sheet is gonna be shunned by all other GMs. And Eichel won't even sign it anyway. So that's why it's a total wasted effort and no one would ever do it.

Seems like a nice way to get fired tho

there was supposed to be revenge and Clarke was going to be blackballed when he gave Ryan Kesler that offer sheet in 2006. Only there never was.

 

[wildandwoolly]

there was supposed to be revenge and Clarke was going to be blackballed when he gave Ryan Kesler that offer sheet in 2006. Only there never was.

I do wish there were more. If a GM likes someone - they should go for it. But targeting someone's most valued player won't get you very far.

The Kesler one was one year at 1.9, just a little baby contract.

The Vanek one was probably the most predatory out of all. They knew the Sabres HAD to match. So they locked them into it long term.