Ah, the offer sheet. It’s one of the most useful transactions at starting controversy in the National Hockey League.
While a team’s fanbases will have rivalries with other fanbases, it’s not quite the same for general managers. A team needs to make trades with other teams to get better, leading to an unwritten rule to not screw over other teams with the offer sheet. Realistically, a ton of high-quality restricted free agents remain as such after the Jul. 1 deadline, but general managers often avoid using the offer sheet.
The offer sheet has been around forever, with the first player receiving one in August of 1986. From that season until Feb. 1998, 32 offer sheets were handed out to players, with the likes of Teemu Selänne, Brendan Shanahan, Guy Lafleur, Larry Robinson, and countless other 90’s stars receiving one.
Prior to the implementation of the salary cap after the 2004-05 lockout, the last offer sheet was when the Carolina Hurricanes gave one to Sergei Fedorov of the Detroit Red Wings. The Wings matched, but the contract the Hurricanes offered featured a bonus of $12 million if the team he signed with made the Conference Finals. Of course, this was added to incentivize the contending Red Wings not to match, but they did and won the 1998 Stanley Cup.
From the 1998 off-season, until a new offer sheet structure was implemented after the 2004-05 lockout, there were no offer sheets. With the introduction of the salary cap, the Philadelphia Flyers offered Ryan Kesler a one-year, $1.9 million deal which the Vancouver Canucks promptly matched. 
The following off-season, the Oilers offered two players an offer sheet, Thomas Vanek (which the Buffalo Sabres matched) and Dustin Penner, who ended up being the first player in the salary cap era to move teams thanks to an offer sheet. Edmonton lost their first, second, and third-round picks in the 2008 season.
Over the years, there were a few more offer sheets, one we’ll look at in a bit before the Philadelphia Flyers offered Shea Weber a 14-year, $110 million deal. The Nashville Predators accepted, and only one more offer sheet the following season before there were six years of no offer sheets.

The Art of the Revenge offer sheet

On Jul. 1, 2008, the Vancouver Canucks and David Backes agreed to a three-year, $7.5 million deal, which the St. Louis Blues promptly matched. A week later, the Blues offer sheeted Steve Bernier a one-year, $2.5 million deal. Vancouver also matched. Bernier, who had his RFA rights acquired in a trade with the Buffalo Sabres a few days prior, went on to have a couple of 15+ goal seasons but finished his playing career in 2019-20.
David Backes was the more notable player of the two, scoring 13 goals and 31 points in 2007-08 before the Canucks gave him an offer sheet. The season after, he scored a career-high 31 goals and matched it two seasons later, often hitting the 20-goal plateau before signing with the Boston Bruins in the twilight of his career.
That was one instance of the revenge offer sheet with an immediate payoff, but the two most recent offer sheets prior to Blues giving Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg one is a much better example.
Carolina selected Sebastian Aho early in the second round of the 2015 draft, two picks after where the Oilers would’ve picked if not for the Griffin Reinhart trade. Anyway, he scored 30 goals and 83 points in 82 games during the 2018-19 season, leading to the Montréal Canadiens giving him an offer sheet of five years, $42.27 million (or $8.454 million annually).
Had the Hurricanes not matched it, they would have received the same compensation the Anaheim Ducks did for Dustin Penner, a 2020 first, second, and third. Aho is a pretty good example of a player who actually deserved an offer sheet, as he’s a talented player who often scores 35+ goals and 80+ points.
What I assume was out of pure spite, the Hurricanes gave Jesperi Kotkaniemi, the Canadiens’ third-overall pick in the 2018 draft, an offer sheet at the end of August 2021. Unlike Aho, Kotkaniemi scored just five goals and 20 points in 2020-21, while only scoring 11 goals and 28 points in his past 92 games up to this point.
Now, he had a solid postseason, helping the Canadiens reach the Stanley Cup Finals in 2021 with five goals and eight points in 19 games, but the Hurricanes gave him a one-year deal worth $6,100,035, along with a $20 signing bonus.
Of course, the Canadiens didn’t match, and Kotkaniemi has had “meh” results with the Hurricanes. Scoring 42 goals and 99 points in 227 games with the Metropolitan Division team. This, without a doubt in my mind, was revenge for the Aho situation.

The St. Louis Blues and the Edmonton Oilers

Having rapport with fellow general managers is important if you want to lead a team to a Stanley Cup. When the Oilers hired Stan Bowman as their new general manager, they opened themselves up to these kinds of dealings.
On Aug. 13, the Blues offer sheeted defenceman Philip Broberg and forward Dylan Holloway. The defenceman agreed to a two-year deal worth $4,580,916 a year, while Holloway agreed to a two-year deal worth $2,290,457 a year. 
On Monday, the Oilers decided not to match, and they received a second-round pick in 2025 for Broberg and a 2025 third-round pick for Holloway. Had the Blues offered another dollar to either player, they would’ve lost a first-round pick and a second-round pick. The Oilers had the cap room to match both contracts but settled on acquiring Paul Fischer and a 2028 third-round pick to not match.
Realistically, it didn’t make sense for the Oilers to match at those price points. Broberg was selected eighth overall in the 2019 draft but has played 81 regular season games with subpar results, scoring two goals and 13 points. He had a good postseason with the Oilers, but $4 million for an inexperienced defenceman is far too much for a contender. The Oilers have enough firepower upfront to not miss Holloway, especially with their acquisition of Vasily Podkolzin.
With that being said, if the Oilers want to pull a Carolina Hurricanes, there are quite a few players set to become restricted free agents after the 2024-25 season for the St. Louis Blues. One of which is Alberta-native, Jake Neighbours.
Last season, Neighbours scored 27 goals and 38 points in 77 games, up from the six goals and 10 points he had during the 2022-23 season. Selected late in the 2020 draft, Neighbours was born in Calgary, Alberta, and spent his five junior seasons with the Edmonton Oil Kings of the Western Hockey League. Could we see the Oilers offer sheet Neighbours in retaliation?
Moreover, forward Alexei Toropchenko is another player who’s set to become a restricted free agent after the end of next season. Like Neighbours, Toropchenko scored a career-high 14 goals and 21 points in 82 games.
Backup netminder Joel Hofer broke onto the scene last season for the Blues and had a .914 save percentage and a 2.62 goals-against average in 30 games played, along with a 15-12-1 record.
All three of these players may be of interest to the Oilers if the Blues are unable to re-sign them prior to Jul. 1, 2025.
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