Offer Sheet Candidates

Created by: KrakenTheCode

Team: 2023-24 Montreal Canadiens

Initial Creation Date: Aug. 15, 2023

Published: Aug. 16, 2023

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Legend

Left Handed

Original Team

Waivers Exempt

Right Handed

Position

Trade Clause

Max Perf. Bonus

Expiry Status

Term Remaining

McDavid, Connor

$12,500,000 ( Performance Bonus

$250,000)

NMC

UFA - 5

Description

Disclaimer: These players are not offer sheet candidates for the Canadiens specifically. I merely chose them for this exercise since they have been involved in the two most recent offer sheet cases. I also know offer sheets are an extremely unlikely tool to be used, especially at this stage of the offseason. This is more of a fun thought exercise.

A successful offer sheet requires the right balance: that the player be talented enough to warrant the draft pick compensation an acquiring team would have to give up, and that the player's current team have limited cap flexibility such that a high enough offer sheet would be difficult for them to match. In my mind, three remaining RFAs could potentially be targets for an offer sheet:

Evan Bouchard, RHD, Edmonton Oilers
Alexis Lafrenière, LW, New York Rangers
Calen Addison, RHD, Minnesota Wild

I've included breakdowns on each player and the offer sheet I believe would be required to get them below. Do you think any of these offer sheets would be successful and/or worth it to any team signing them? Let me know in the comments!

Free Agent Signings

RFA	YEARS	CAP HIT
Bouchard, Evan	3	$6,435,000
Lafrenière, Alexis	2	$6,435,000
Addison, Calen	2	$4,290,000

Offer Sheets

Offer sheet annual average (AAV) is calculated by dividing the contract value by the lower of: 1. The contract length, or 2. Five years

PLAYER	AAV	COMPENSATION
Bouchard, Evan	$6,435,000	2024 1st round pick 2024 3rd round pick
Addison, Calen	$4,290,000	2024 2nd round pick

Trades

MTL

Lafrenière, Alexis [RFA Rights]

Additional Details:

Lafrenière is a former first overall pick who was viewed as a future superstar at the time he was drafted. However, he hasn't quite lived up to that billing in his first three seasons and is now stuck in a depth role for a contending Rangers squad. Perhaps a change of scenery coupled with a larger role could help him unlock any latent potential.

The Rangers currently have just around $2.278M of cap space remaining. A contract with an AAV of around $6.435M for Lafrenière (in the 1st and 3rd round pick compensation range) would put New York $4.157M over the cap and potentially force them to let their former top pick go.

NYR

Note: These would be 2024 1st and 3rd round draft picks. This "trade" is just to simulate the compensation owed to the Rangers for an offer sheet on Lafrenière with a cap hit between $4,290,126 and $6,435,186.

MTL

Evan Bouchard

EDM

Bouchard is an offensively gifted defenseman who can still hold his own defensively. He has blossomed into a mainstay on Edmonton's blue line, with at least 40 points in back-to-back seasons, and put up over a point per game in the playoffs last season. He's well on his way to being a legit top-pairing RHD. Bouchard is the best player I think could receive an offer sheet this year, but that also means he'd be the most difficult to pry away from his current club.

Edmonton has earmarked around $3.509M of cap for Bouchard's next deal, and I'm sure they would do everything in their power to make sure he sticks around for years to come. However, an offer sheet with an AAV of $6.435M or so would leave the Oilers nearly $3M in the red and force them to make some difficult decisions.

MTL

Calen Addison

MIN

Addison is an offensive-minded RHD who served as Minnesota's power play quarterback for the majority of the past season. However, he was also a black hole on defense and as a was frequently scratched down the stretch. His name has come up in trade rumors and he's probably the most likely remaining RFA to switch teams, be that by trade or offer sheet.

The Wild are facing a severe cap crunch due to the Parise and Suter buyouts, with only $1.643M in cap space remaining. An offer sheet in the 2nd round pick compensation range, with an AAV topping out at $4.29M, would place Minnesota $2.647M above the cap. Since a second round pick was rumored to be in the ballpark of what the Wild were seeking as a trade return for Addison, getting one as compensation might just be enough to convince them to sanction his departure.

MTL

2024 2nd round pick (MTL)

WPG

2024 2nd round pick (COL)
2024 3rd round pick (MIN)

Buyouts

Karl Alzner: $833,333

Retained Salary Transactions

Joel Edmundson: $1,750,000 (50%)
Jeff Petry: $2,343,750 (50%)

Buried

Casey DeSmith: $650,000 ($1,800,000)

Draft	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7
2024
2025
2026

ROSTER

LONG-TERM OUTLOOK

EMBED

TEXT-EMBED

ROSTER SIZE	SALARY CAP	CAP HIT	OVERAGES	BONUSES	CAP SPACE
26	$83,500,000	$89,237,083	$1,170,000	$3,790,000	-$5,737,083

Left Wing	Centre	Right Wing
Caufield, Cole $7,850,000$7,850,000 LW, RW UFA - 8	Suzuki, Nick $7,875,000$7,875,000 C UFA - 7	Dach, Kirby $3,362,500$3,362,500 C, RW RFA - 3
Newhook, Alex $2,900,000$2,900,000 C, LW RFA - 4	Dvorak, Christian $4,450,000$4,450,000 C M-NTC UFA - 2	Anderson, Josh $5,500,000$5,500,000 RW, LW M-NTC UFA - 4
Slafkovsky, Juraj $950,000$950,000 ($3,500,000$4M) RW, LW RFA - 2	Evans, Jake $1,700,000$1,700,000 C UFA - 2	Gallagher, Brendan $6,500,000$6,500,000 RW, LW M-NTC, NMC UFA - 4
Harvey-Pinard, Rafaël $1,100,000$1,100,000 LW, RW RFA - 2	Monahan, Sean $1,985,000$1,985,000 ($15,000$15K) C, LW, RW UFA - 1	Ylönen, Jesse $775,000$775,000 RW, LW RFA - 1
Lafrenière, Alexis $6,435,000$6,435,000 LW, RW RFA - 2

Left Defense	Right Defense	Goaltender
Matheson, Michael $4,875,000$4,875,000 LD M-NTC UFA - 3	Savard, David $3,500,000$3,500,000 RD UFA - 2	Allen, Jake $1,925,000$1,925,000 G M-NTC UFA - 2
Harris, Jordan $1,400,000$1,400,000 LD/RD RFA - 2	Kovacevic, Johnathan $766,667$766,667 RD UFA - 2	Montembeault, Samuel $1,000,000$1,000,000 G UFA - 1
Xhekaj, Arber $828,333$828,333 LD/RD RFA - 1	Barron, Justin $925,000$925,000 ($275,000$275K) RD RFA - 1
	Bouchard, Evan $6,435,000$6,435,000 RD RFA - 2
	Addison, Calen $4,290,000$4,290,000 RD RFA - 1

Scratches	Injured Reserve (IR)	Long Term IR (LTIR)
Armia, Joel $3,400,000$3,400,000 RW, LW UFA - 2		Price, Carey $10,500,000$10,500,000 G NMC UFA - 3
Lindström, Gustav $950,000$950,000 RD RFA - 1
Pezzetta, Michael $812,500$812,500 LW, RW UFA - 2

Top Comments

Aug. 16, 2023 at 4:19 p.m.

Sagecoll

Joined: May 2017

Posts: 6,731

Likes: 1,559

The ratio of offer sheets actually occurring in real life vs. Offer sheets proposed on here may be one of the most skewed in all of sports.

Andy_Dick liked this.

Aug. 16, 2023 at 4:20 p.m.

littlejerryseinfeld

Joined: Nov. 2017

Posts: 27,921

Likes: 14,595

Montreal should not be trading their 1st round pick for atleast 3 years

CD282 and aedoran liked this.

Aug. 16, 2023 at 4:24 p.m.

CD282

Joined: Mar. 2017

Posts: 24,091

Likes: 7,772

FYI Edmonton has $4.183M available for Bouchard.

https://www.capfriendly.com/armchair-gm/team/4508168

aedoran liked this.

Aug. 16, 2023 at 4:35 p.m.

Campabee

Joined: Nov. 2018

Posts: 15,558

Likes: 6,457

Quoting: littlejerryseinfeld

Montreal should not be trading their 1st round pick for atleast 3 years

Read description, OP literally says it is not specifically Montreal.

I think you could add Zegras to the list of potential candidates, I know almost any OS gets matched but he is still without a contract and if someone offers him like 10 x 1 year then maybe Anaheim takes the 4 1sts. Irregardless it would have to be a ridiculous amount and/or Anaheim would have to know he wants to leave (not saying he would just laying out scenarios where they might not match)

KrakenTheCode, Andy_Dick and aedoran liked this.

Aug. 16, 2023 at 5:07 p.m.

F50marco

Joined: May 2015

Posts: 19,595

Likes: 6,735

I don't think any teams are going to be doing any OS on these guys. If a team was willing, they would have pulled the trigger already I feel. They're simply not worth it anymore.

See All

DISPLAY SETTING

BETTING ODDS

LOCALE

ARCHIVE

CBA

CALCULATORS

FANTASY HOCKEY TOOLS

TOOLS

PLAYERS

WESTERN CONFERENCE

EASTERN CONFERENCE

INTERACTIVE FEATURES