We\u2019ve scoured the NHL for Winnipeg Jets upgrades through unrestricted free agency, the trade market, and the Jets\u2019 options at No. 8 in the draft. It was difficult.<\/p>\n
But do not give up hope.\u00a0There is another way. A dark way. A perfectly legal, though seldom used, often unsuccessful but sometimes brilliant way of signing top, young players.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re talking about offer sheets.<\/p>\n
There is an exciting crop of restricted free agents this summer, including but not limited to Jason Robertson, Leo Carlsson, and Connor Bedard. These players\u2019 rights are owned by their current teams, but they\u2019re eligible to sign contracts with anyone else in the NHL, including Winnipeg.<\/p>\n
Look at the 2024 St. Louis Blues, who signed Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg \u2014 two Edmonton Oilers RFAs \u2014 away from the cap-crunched Oilers. Holloway and Broberg have become key players for St. Louis, with Holloway scoring 51 points in 59 games and Broberg leading Blues defencemen in icetime and points, but the Blues paid Edmonton just a second and a third-round pick to get them. It\u2019s the same mechanism by which Carolina signed Jesperi Kotkaniemi from Montreal in 2021 and Edmonton took Dustin Penner from Anaheim in 2007, but that\u2019s the entire list of successful offer sheets in the cap era.<\/p>\n
Why discuss such rare transactions? Why mention Bedard, Carlsson, Gauthier, Pavel Dorofeyev, Adam Fantilli, Brandt Clarke, Trevor Zegras, Simon Edvinsson, Simon Nemec, Jamie Drysdale, or Jet Greaves at all when even the great summer of offer sheets<\/a> didn\u2019t come to pass in 2025, with a lower salary cap?<\/p>\n It would add talent to the Jets, without sending Winnipeg\u2019s own talent back via trade. Here\u2019s the PuckPedia<\/a> explanation:\u00a0An offer sheet is a contract offered to a restricted free agent (RFA) by a team other than the player\u2019s current team. If the player signs the offer sheet, their original team has the right to match the terms or receive compensation in the form of draft picks if they choose not to match.<\/p>\n The amount of compensation depends on the size of the contract:<\/p>\n Offer sheet AAVDraft compensation<\/p>\n Above $11,700,193<\/p>\n Four first-round picks<\/p>\n $9,360,154 – $11,700,192<\/p>\n Two first-round picks, one second-round pick, one third-round pick<\/p>\n $7,020,114 – $9,360,153<\/p>\n One first-round pick, second-round pick, one third-round pick<\/p>\n $4,680,077 – $7,020,113<\/p>\n One first-round pick, one third-round pick<\/p>\n $2,340,038 – $4,680,076<\/p>\n One second-round pick<\/p>\n $1,544,425 – $2,340,037<\/p>\n One third-round pick<\/p>\n Below $1,544,424<\/p>\n None<\/p>\n Some tiers are shown in red because a team must have its own draft picks available as compensation. Winnipeg does not have its 2027 second-round pick, via its Brandon Tanev acquisition, and would need to re-acquire it from Seattle to make those tiers work. Finally, a technicality: The AAV, for offer sheet compensation purposes, is the total cost of the contract divided by its length to a maximum of five years.<\/p>\n How do we make this work for Winnipeg?<\/p>\n How to make offer sheets successful<\/p>\n One of the reasons successful offer sheets are so rare is that they need several factors to align.<\/p>\n First and foremost, they take a restricted free agent who\u2019s open to the idea of signing with another NHL team. Holloway and Broberg had to want to sign contracts with St. Louis for the whole thing to work \u2014 something made clear in the inside story of St. Louis\u2019 successful offer sheets<\/a>.\u00a0There also needs to be incentive for teams to let players go. The reason St. Louis\u2019 offer sheets were successful was that the Oilers had worked themselves into an untenable cap position. They couldn\u2019t afford to match the contracts Holloway or Broberg had signed without roster surgery. Their GM, Stan Bowman, didn\u2019t see a way to perform that surgery.<\/p>\n Easy, right? Winnipeg needs to find a good, young player who has reasons to want a fresh start. It needs to offer that player money and opportunity, in some combination, such that they\u2019re willing to leave their current team and choose Winnipeg\u2019s offer sheet over any others that come their way. And Winnipeg needs their target\u2019s team to be in a cap crunch, lest that team match whatever contract the Jets offered.<\/p>\n Top RFA players, regardless of their team\u2019s cap space<\/p>\n Here are 35 of the top offer-sheet eligible players for 2026:<\/p>\n Some of these players are well beyond reasonable discussion. Even if the Jets tried to give Connor Bedard or Leo Carlsson the richest contract in NHL history, Chicago or Anaheim wouldn\u2019t let them go. The maximum contract, $20.8 million, would be easy for the Ducks and Blackhawks to match. (It would also use up all the rest of Winnipeg\u2019s cap space, though the Jets could presumably make follow-up moves if the world goes crazy and Carlsson jumps on board.)<\/p>\n Winnipeg\u2019s best play would be to target players whose teams are closer to the cap.<\/p>\n Teams that could be facing a cap crunch<\/p>\n The NHL\u2019s $104 million cap ceiling drastically reduces the number of teams facing cap crises heading into next season, but some challenges do exist.<\/p>\n
\nThat talent would be much further along in its development \u2014 with known, higher ceilings \u2014 than any draft picks sent back as compensation.
\nIt\u2019s fun.
\nHow offer sheets work<\/p>\n