Quoting: BCAPP
Almost nobody ever offer sheets because there is essentially a gentleman's agreement not do it. It's treated like an a**hole move when a gm does it, which is silly as the NHLPA has specifically negotiated it as a way for their members to have some leverage as RFAs. It's honestly nearly collusion.
And while it protects organizations players (the near refusal to use them), so fans should appreciate that, it also decreases player movement in general which we like.
But look at what happened between Montreal and Carolina with offersheets. Or further back with Burke threatening to fight Edmonton's gm because of the Penner offersheet. It's all bs
I can’t say that I think the offer sheet rule is working well, but I believe it does help to ensure that teams give the player a fair contract and don’t drag out the negotiations unreasonably long. I’m sure some of the GMs are friends and don’t want to p*ss each other off, but I think the main reason it isn’t done more often is that it’s usually futile. The team who owns the player’s rights is almost always going to match it and keep the player. Sure, it might force them into a contract they didn’t really want, but no GM is going to do something just to hurt another team if it doesn’t help his own team. (Even though Carolina played up the Kotkaniemi offer sheet like it was payback for Aho’s, I believe the real reason they did it was because they really liked the player and Montreal wouldn’t trade him.)
Still, the threat of it is always there, so it keeps teams honest. I think it drives some of the trades we see for RFA signing rights too, because teams would rather work out the compensation themselves than have it dictated by the offer sheet rules, though in some cases I think they use the offer sheet compensation as a starting point for the trade negotiations. That’s why we see a lot of unsigned RFAs get traded for a 2nd or 3rd round pick when it seems like they should have been worth more.
There are some things I think they could do to improve the offer sheet rule. I’d like to see them allow teams to use other teams’ draft picks as compensation. Currently they can only use their own, which benefits the better teams, especially where the compensation involves a 1st-round draft pick. I’d also like to see them make more RFAs eligible for offer sheets. Why shouldn’t arbitration cases be allowed to sign an offer sheet before their hearing if they can sign a contract with the team that owns their rights during that time?