Will the Montreal Canadiens make another offer sheet?
By Omar L
Marc Bergevin raised eyebrows with his offer sheet to improve the Montreal Canadiens, and it’s possible he does it again this year with Mathew Barzal.
For the longest time, an offer sheet was one of the pinnacles of empty threats in the NHL. It was of fair use, but general managers would never want to do it as it puts other general managers in a tough spot. Take the Shea Weber situation before he became captain of the Montreal Canadiens.
Weber signed an offer sheet presented to him by the Philadelphia Flyers worth $110 million over 14 years. The Nashville Predators, not wanting to give up, matched the offer, and thus the contract was signed. And that same contract is now on the Habs’ books and will be for another six years. Additionally, in the event of early retirement by Weber, the Predators will be on the hook for some cap recapture while the Flyers, who created the deal in the first place, will be free.
Aside from the angle of “forcing” GMs to sign their players to contracts they weren’t intending to offer, there’s also the side of “stealing” players from teams. I put those words in quotation marks as these aren’t actually happening. It’s all in the CBA, and GMs have a right to make use of offer sheets, but there can be hurt feelings from taking a player by offering an unmatchable deal. That said, this is professional sports, and if that move leads to success, you do it every single time.
The Montreal Canadiens offer sheeting Sebastian Aho last summer was shocking for two reasons.
First, no one thought it would happen. The summer of 2019 was to be known as the summer of restricted free agents, considering the names who reached that status. Patrik Laine, Kyle Connor, Brayden Point, Mitch Maner, Matthew Tkachuk, Mikko Rantanen and Aho were all RFAs. Because of the number of them, some thought if there was ever a year for an off sheet, it would be this one.
And then it happened. The Montreal Canadiens signed Aho to an offer sheet. Enter reason number two as to why the whole thing was shocking: the actual offer.