If Winnipeg offer sheets anyone, you know the hounds are coming next year when Laine is up for a new contract and some idiot GM will offer him 8 years and over 10 million. No chance Winnipeg has the money to match that. I'd rather them not ruffle any feathers.

Winnipeg will absolutely be giving Laine somewhere along the lines of $10 million / 8 years anyways so I don't think he is an accessible target. They will certainly make cap space work for him and lock him up long term. I don't see offer sheets as particularly threatening and they can be very strategic if used correctly and can force teams into cap trouble.

He's not worth over 10 million. He's a winger. He could be the best goal scorer in hockey, although I think there are a few guys who'll argue they can score more. Matthews would have scored more than 40 again had he played a full season. If I was Winnipeg, I wouldn't match a contract that paid over 11 million for Laine. He won't ever be worth that much, he's a one dimensional winger. Only centres or top 4 (League wide) defencemen are worth that much money.

Ya I suppose, but I don't think there is that big of a value drop-off between wingers and centers, especially in the game today where players are alternating positions frequently on the fly in their own zone and where wingers have to be skilled in face-offs in case of a center getting tossed. Agree that lines generally run their offense through their center, but wingers who are elite scorers still have massive value - look at P. Kane, Ovechkin, Kucherov, etc. I think he will probably get $10 mill long term, which won't look like all that much about 5 years down the road when the cap works its way up to the high $80's - just like how Crosby's $8.7 million dollar contract once looked massive and now is a bargain.

I can't really argue with any of that, although I think Kane is horribly over priced, he is a one dimensional player who can get worked over bad when up against fast skilled guys.