Offer sheets on the rise? Devils GM Fitzgerald thinks so
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With the NHL salary cap on the rise, New Jersey Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald is expecting to see more offer sheets around the NHL.
Fitzgerald did not mention whether he intends to pursue one, but told reporters he expects offer sheets to be more prevalent league-wide.
"It's a tool to improve your team, but one, you have to have the cap space, two you probably have to strategically target a player or players to do it, knowing full well there's no way a team can match because they don't have the cap space," Fitzgerald explained during his season-ending news conference. "A lot of teams have a lot more cap space. I think teams will try to do it, I just don't know how successful they'll do it.
"And I think the most important part of offer sheets are the player has to want to move. He's gotta want to come to your team. That period where RFAs you can talk to them, they probably have to initiate it themselves."
The restricted free agent class this season is headlined by Edmonton Oilers defenceman Evan Bouchard, and forwards J.J. Peterka of the Buffalo Sabres, Gabriel Vilardi of the Winnipeg Jets, Marco Rossi of the Minnesota Wild and Matthew Knies of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Two offer sheets were signed last season, both by the St. Louis Blues targeting the Oilers. The Oilers elected not to match on the offers to defenceman Philip Broberg and forward Dylan Holloway, receiving second- and third-round picks in the 2025 draft by the Blues.
The dual offer sheets by the Blues were the first signed in the league since the Carolina Hurricanes pried Jesperi Kotkaniemi from the Montreal Canadiens with a one-year, $6.1 million offer. The Canadiens received first- and third-round picks from the Hurricanes, who matched the five-year, $42.27 million offer sheet the Canadiens signed Sebastian Aho to two years prior.
Those are the only four offer sheets signed since in the past decade.
The NHL salary cap is set to jump $7.5 million on July 1 to a total of $95.5 million. It is expected to increase to $104 million in 2026-27, and $113.5 million in 2027-28.
"Both clubs and players have sought a certain level of predictability with respect to payroll ranges from year to year and over time for advance planning capabilities," NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun of the projection in January. "In reviewing our numbers with the Players’ Association as part of our collective bargaining, we finally felt like we were in a position to give them that.
"It’s not 'absolute certainty,' but maybe it’s the next best thing.''
The salary cap for this season sits at $88 million after rising $4.5 million from the previous $83.5 million mark.