A Winning Habit
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Montreal Canadiens Should Offer Sheet A Division Rival

By Ken MacMillan

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - APRIL 19: Andreas Johnsson #18 of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ron Hainsey #2 celebrate with Kasperi Kapanen #24 of the Toronto Maple Leafs after he scored a goal as John Moore #27 of the Boston Bruins looks on during the third period of Game Five of the Eastern Conference First Round during the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at TD Garden on April 19, 2019 in Boston, Massachusetts. The Maple Leafs defeat the Bruins 2-1. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - APRIL 19: Andreas Johnsson #18 of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ron Hainsey #2 celebrate with Kasperi Kapanen #24 of the Toronto Maple Leafs after he scored a goal as John Moore #27 of the Boston Bruins looks on during the third period of Game Five of the Eastern Conference First Round during the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at TD Garden on April 19, 2019 in Boston, Massachusetts. The Maple Leafs defeat the Bruins 2-1. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) /
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Montreal Canadiens
MONTREAL, QC – APRIL 6: Montreal Canadiens (Photo by Francois Lacasse/NHLI via Getty Images) /

The Montreal Canadiens head into the offseason with a plethora of cap space. They could use that to take advantage of a division rival and offer sheet one of their young stars.

The Montreal Canadiens have lots of cap space to play with this summer. They will of course look to improve their roster in any way possible. Fishing for unrestricted free agents, dabbling in the trade market and doing damage with their ten draft picks are a number of ways to accomplish this.

Another method of improving the roster is to use the offer sheet. It is seldom used by general managers around the National Hockey League. They seem to have some sort of gentleman’s agreement to avoid offer sheets at all costs. I guess this is an attempt to keep salaries down, but then they go out and give Milan Lucic, Loui Eriksson and David Backes $6 million each per year.

So, if they can’t suppress salaries anyway, they may as well not bother adhering to the gentleman’s agreement on offer sheets.

Offer sheets are contracts extended to restricted free agents. RFA’s are free to sign with any team, but their current team has the ability to match the contract. If they choose not to match, then they receive compensation based on the cap hit.

It would be foolish to sign anyone for the compensation of four first-round picks. This means the Habs won’t be going after Mitch Marner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, or Brayden Point of the Tampa Bay Lightning. It would simply be too much of a price to pay. Even targeting someone with an $8.5 million cap hit would mean giving up their next two first round picks, a second rounder and a third rounder.

That’s risky. However, signing a good player in the $4-6.25 million range would keep the compensation to a more tolerable level. Not only could the Montreal Canadiens improve their own team this way. They could put a rival in a tough position as well. An offer sheet to a division rival can handcuff them, especially when they are tight to the salary cap.

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