A Look at RFA Rules, Offer Sheets and UFA Status Before 2024 Free Agency Begins

Okay, here's a look at offer sheets; RFA and UFA status before the market goes crazy on July 1st.
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[@Improbi]

I love it when Professor Skanes' class is in session.

[@JBTriple8]

I feel i like im A PE Class but with a sport I enjoy

[@oldhab7890]

Always can use the refresher.

[@shhhhip52]

No movement clauses should be renamed “Stan Bowman Specials” for his willingness to give them to half the Chicago roster back in the day

[@brandonbuerger9267]

One correction, it would be the 2025 NHL draft. Since Free agency is after the draft it is just the next draft to occur.

[@evancrites1787]

Came here to correct this. Good catch!

[@jared4walsh]

@TheHockeyGuy BREAKING Arizona Land Department cancels June 27 auction for land sought by former owner of Arizona Coyotes. they lost the land.

[@kgroves17]

I can hear THG groaning right now at the thought of having to make a video on a land auction

[@Indybone]

The coyotes are a cursed franchise

[@Kachina.]

Looked it up cause I thought you were joking but it’s real. It’s so over coyote sisters.

[@Krakenfan0117]

Is that definitely confirmed? Poor sods 😂

[@kgroves17]

In all seriousness though, I’m gutted for the hockey fans in AZ. This whole situation is unbelievable.

[@exeter1985]

I would absolutely love to see Montreal 'offer sheet' Kotkaniemi to get him back now that he's been with Carolina for a few years. I don't know that he would be a great addition for Montreal, but it would certainly liven things up, especially if they could do it on draft day. (I'm sure that there are things that would make it impossible for Montreal to pull it off. I would love to see it just to make the draft a little bit more interesting!

[@todddavis5433]

He's under contract so that's not how it works

[@kurtwpg]

Necas is sitting right there, worth around $7,082,082 per year.

[@ianspottiswood2419]

Offer sheets are only for when an RFA needs a contract, so Kotkaniemi could not be offer sheeted.

[@exeter1985]

@ianspottiswood2419 that's why I prefaced my remark by saying, "I'm sure that there are things that would make it impossible to do." It's just my wishful thinking to actually see some excitement at the draft. Like a few years ago when an NFL Team was late making their pick and when the clock ran out on them and the next team was on the clock, there was literally a race to the podium to hand in the next pick. One of these years, we'll have some excitement at the draft. So far, the best one was when Eric Lindros told the Quebec Nordiques not to draft him and they did anyway! He refused to put their jersey on... can you say 'awkward moment'?

[@ianspottiswood2419]

@@exeter1985 I mean, the 2022 draft was pretty nuts. The “consensus” #1 pick dropped to #4. Plus a couple other juicy trades. Cooley going over Wright. Interesting drafts are subjective. I will say, outside of Carlsson going ahead of Fantilli, 2023 was pretty standard.

[@jasonpaul4308]

genuine question about NMCs...and i know this is an older video and you may not see it...but if someone on the Coyotes had a full NMC....would they have had the option to NOT move to Utah? I ask 'cause i always saw NMC as there was no situation where you could be moved without players consent...trade, waivers, expansion etc...

[@FranTheb]

how do you give your 4 first draft pick of the current draft?

[@stephenphillips6245]

Those picks happen over 4yrs.

[@dylanfallon9374]

You would actually have to give up your own next 4 first round draft picks. For an example, if Montreal puts in an offer sheet on an RFA that is worth $11,452,295+ AAV on a player, they would have to give up their 2025, 2026, 2027, and 2028 first round picks. It also has to be their first round picks. Say they had say Boston's first rounder in 2025, they can't give them that pick, it has to be theirs. Sorry if I wrote too much, I did it to the best of my ability.

[@busorenkin55]

It’s not in one draft they just have to be your own your draft picks when they ask for 2 plus or 4 plus picks

[@chucklawus]

From CapFriendly: "The draft picks must available in the nearest entry draft, unless the compensation requires two or more draft picks in the same round: an extra year can be used to for compensation for these picks (if two 1st round picks are required, the club must have two 1st round picks available in the next three drafts.)"

[@aralornwolf3140]

It would be consecutive years.

[@iliaponomarev1624]

I am a bit surprised by lack of low value offer sheets. Like, one could have offer-sheeted Shane Pinto with some 4M deal. Compensation is just a 2nd, Sens were absolutely unable to match because they didn't have the cap space.

[@pyrielrising4338]

I have to ask because the curiosity will gnaw at me. Regarding the the 4 first round picks compensation, does the rule specifically state "consecutive"?

[@joseph7696]

I heard that the Nichuskin contract could be voided if he plays in Russia. Is that true? Can you play for two different countries organizations? Go Avs Go

[@ronodowd5724]

What is the value of Steven Stamkos

[@kurtwpg]

At his age, less than his stats. I'd say $7m, maybe $7.5m. He is at an interesting age though, just under where he'd have to sign a 35+ contract. Don't be surprised if he signs a 7-8 year deal that's structured like no one expects him to play the final few years.

[@kurtwpg]

This is a sample of the kind of deal I expect Stamkos to sign and fans around the league to scream about. $6.5m annual cap hit, but he makes $9.5m a year if he retires after 4 years or $8.3m a year if he retires after 5. There's a cap recapture penalty if that happens but Tampa will be in a rebuild. 24-25 $7 million signing bonus, 4 million base salary 25-26 $7 million signing bonus, 4 million base salary 26-27 $5 million signing bonus, 4 million base salary 27-28 $3 million signing bonus, 4 million base salary 28-29 $3.5 million base salary 29-30 $2 million base salary 30-31 $2 million base salary

[@timojarvinen5795]

ANTON LUNDEL

[@vipeholmskolan6052]

Offer sheets should be used more!

[@kurtwpg]

It's a gentleman's agreement, not collusion (lol). Any player in his early 20s worth 4.5 million is easily worth a second round pick and more.

[@kurtwpg]

But seriously though, this should be a way to rebuild weaker teams at the expense of the cap-strapped. Someone decides they want to pay Anton Lundell $4.5m, you either accept the 2nd round pick or let Sam Reinhart walk.

[@Statsy10]

The Kotkaniemi offer sheet was a retribution for the Aho one (albeit a terrible mistake in the end), but GM's are very wary of having that come back to bite them.

[@justinrogers1807]

I can only see 1 maybe 2 player worth 4 1st rd picks .... McDavid and maybe Mathews

[@mtgbrewery7239]

Bedard?

[@bjornjonsson7037]

I hope the cheap skates in Carolina gets a player offer sheeted again and wants to take revenge again...

[@kurtwpg]

In terms of Montreal,, though this is not Kent Hughes fight, and it's a losing battle so long as Carolina is doing compensation from late in the rounds and Montreal is doing compensation from early in the rounds. He also happens to be the #1 GM right now in terms of trying to be everyone's friend and problem solver.

[@kurtwpg]

I've always said Offer Sheets are fake, because otherwise everyone under $4.58m would be signing them.

[@thepiratecats801]

We like you too Shannon. #cymruambyth

[@steveaustin16]

59th

[@aralornwolf3140]

845th.

[@steveaustin16]

@@aralornwolf3140 Nice!

[@christopherkuzek9816]

these deep dives are so important brother thx for this.

[@jonmendelson1104]

Minor correction. At 1:04 you say the compensation is based on the cap hit but that's not entirely accurate. It's based off the total amount of money in the contract divided by either the number of years (which would be the cap hit), or 5 years, whichever is a shorter amount of time. Essentially if you offer sheet someone to a 9.1Mx7 deal the total amount of money is 63.7M and the compensation would be based off 63.7/5 which is 12.74M. Instead of being in the first, second, and third tier it goes up to the four firsts tier.

[@kurtwpg]

Yes, this. It's easy to forget because teams don't generally do offer sheets more than 5 years. I could see if you think a guy is only worth $5.7 million or you're mainly trying to make a division rival pay up, you could add that 6th year without changing tiers.

[@jonmendelson1104]

@@kurtwpg You added more than needed in your second sentence. "It's easy to forget because teams don't generally do offer sheets" would've been sufficient. =D

[@InsignificantNick]

In retrospect, that Kotkaniemi offersheet is not good.

[@pablobarosa27]

A good ole Prince of Wales conference jersey. Solid play, Shannon.

[@jceggert7163]

didnt the flyers offersheet shea weber and nashville matched

[@peterhoagg4348]

One question I'd have and it might be difficult to research with the available sites...which teams still have enough of their own draft picks and the cap space to even be a threat to submit offer sheets? I imagine Utah could try to make a splash but who else?

[@KeyserSoze-1995]

Thanks THG :)

[@jasonchecinski9741]

It could be a good idea to explain how a player goes through the nhl. What and how they become rfas and ufas, bridge deals, ect

[@CoolHandRobb]

History and/or Financials video? Sign me up.

[@kevinwhite9919]

has a team ever owned 4 first round draft picks in a single draft?

[@thefish560]

Imagine if habs offer sheet Necas

[@billmurphy9921]

Kudos on the thumbnail Shannon!

[@WolverineIncognito]

This was a great video! Thank you for the clarification! Has anyone ever extended an offer without having picks in the appropriate years? What would happen?

[@chrismdb5686]

Yes, I believe it was the St. Louis Blues that sent out an offer sheet for Scott Stevens. Long story short their owner at the time tried to play every game he could to get one up on the league and he wasn't allowed to get him, Stevens ended up going to the Devil's and being their captain for some odd years.

[@THE_bchat]

Regarding Capfriendly: It's not the NHL that bought the website, but the owner of the Capitals. 31 other NHL teams just lost access to Capfriendly's software (from what I've read online). It appears to me that Washington's owner decided to hurt 31 other teams' ability to track contracts by taking a resource away from them. I don't think the NHL cares if we know all the details about contracts. If they didn't want the public to know about these things, they wouldn't release that information to the public when a player signs a contract or a trade gets made. The NHL is not obligated to tell the media or fans anything regarding contracts that they don't want us to know.

[@joshmajka4980]

The NHL and NHLPA definitely don't want player contracts public. Bettman has even said so on record. But you are right in the sense that the NHL wasn't who bought out Capfriendly.

[@PasswordCrapOh]

It should be noted that the dollar amount is not always just the raw AAV. If the contract is longer than five years (6 or 7 years because you can't do 8 in an offer sheet), then they take the total money in the contract and divide it by 5. If for example you offer sheet Necas 8 million for 7 years and expect to only compensate a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, the total value 8*7 = 56 million will be divided by 5 equating to 11.2 million when gauging compensation forcing you to throw in an extra first round pick.

[@rickyaz8640]

Teams overvalue the draft picks. If you’re a playoff team and signing a good player like Necas a 1/2/3 for 8$ m is probably worth it. The draft picks are unlikely to help you for 4 years anyway

[@Alexirongatewelding]

Hopefully Panarin waives his NMC and heads back home let’s GO Hawks!!

[@Kotten84]

This is probably asking for too much, but could you make a video about when and maybe why some of these things (RFA, NTC etc.) was brought into the game? Was it common sense or did a team and/or player find a way to do things that made the league go "woah, wait a minute, we didn't think of this, so please stop"?

[@joshmajka4980]

Fun fact. Players with one-way contracts technically make more money if they get sent down to the minors because they don't have to pay escrow while down there. On top of that if they get sent down to a state with no income tax that's even more savings.

[@purgedome2386]

Hehe.. an OF would make for interesting news so long not from the habs..

[@hockey582004]

It's going to be a wild Free Agency this year...

[@clydeblair9622]

Offer sheets. Like it or lump it. Go do roofs in FL if you're not rich enough.

[@SverigeiSverige]

We don't know about offer sheets that isn't singed.

[@mercywilliams2698]

I still think a quality entity is going to emerge to bring hockey to Arizona. It’s a good scenario to develop..and Gary Bettman just hasn’t been adept at finding the right folks. . Going down the wrong path. For all his hockey I don’t think he’s much of a people person not good at social networking in sports business community.

[@chrisalfano589]

Ouch

[@mercywilliams2698]

@@chrisalfano589 He has done a lot to move NHL into a much more prosperous place. I admire that. But having worked in hockey in the 90’s..I know hockey is a great sort of small world community. People network around and I just don’t think that is Gary’s strong suit. He sees opportunity. But I don’t think the personal dimension comes readily to him..