What comes next after a pair of Blues offer sheets? Answering some frequently asked questions (2024)

The Blues shook the hockey world on Tuesday morning by signing a pair of Oilers restricted free agents (RFAs) to offer sheets, the first signed offer sheets in more than 10 years that didn’t include the Hurricanes or Canadiens.

St. Louis signed defenseman Philip Broberg to a two-year agreement with a $4,580,917 cap hit and forward Dylan Holloway to a two-year agreement with a $2,290,457 cap hit. Edmonton has a week to match either offer, and if it does not, that player would become a Blue.

Should the Oilers not match Broberg’s offer, they would receive a second-round pick in next year’s draft. If they do not match Holloway’s offer, they would receive a third-round pick in next year’s draft.

Because offer sheets are so rare in today’s NHL, let’s run down some potential questions that fans may have.

What is an offer sheet?

When a player reaches restricted free agency, he is eligible to negotiate contracts with other teams. While many RFAs simply stay with their current teams, they are allowed to work out deals around the league. Teams retain a player’s rights as an RFA by issuing them a qualifying offer before the start of free agency.

Once an offer sheet is signed, the current team has the “right of first refusal” to either match the deal and keep the player or not match the deal and accept draft pick compensation.

How is draft pick compensation determined?

The collective bargaining agreement broke up the draft pick compensation into seven tiers based on the average annual value of the offer sheet that was signed. Each year, the scale is increased at the same rate as the league’s average league salary.

This year, this is what the draft pick compensation looked like:

Holloway’s sheet was signed at the upper limit of the third-round pick compensation tier, while Broberg’s was at the upper limit of the second-round pick compensation tier.

How can Oilers match?

Even before the offer sheets, the Oilers were projected to be more than $300,000 over the salary cap with a 21-man roster. With Broberg and Holloway now costing a combined $6,871,374, Edmonton would have to clear more than $7 million in cap space in order to retain both players and become cap compliant by the start of the season.

According to a report from Oilers radio color commentator Bob Stauffer, forward Evander Kane is likely to begin the season on long-term injured reserve, potentially allowing Edmonton to exceed the cap by Kane’s $5.125 million cap hit. That would be enough to (at least temporarily until Kane is ready) keep one of the two players but not both.

The Oilers could also try to explore trades to clear Cody Ceci ($3.25 million cap hit) or Brett Kulak ($2.75 million) from their books.

Perhaps a bigger deal to the Oilers is that both Holloway and Broberg signed two-year offer sheets, meaning they will be under contract at those above-market value figures when Leon Draisaitl becomes an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2025. Broberg and Holloway will again be restricted free agents in 2026, when Connor McDavid is due a new contract.

Can Blues make this work under salary cap?

The Blues had more than $7 million in available cap space before the offer sheets, meaning they would still have a little bit of room leftover if both Broberg and Holloway are acquired.

St. Louis would face roster constraints, though, as it would have more bodies than the 23-man active roster would allow. That means they would have to create that space by moving players out to other teams, sending them down to AHL affiliate Springfield (Massachusetts) or placing them on injured reserve.

How would Broberg, Holloway fit long term?

Broberg (No. 8 in 2019) and Holloway (No. 14 in 2020) were both highly drafted players in their respective drafts and would fit the current age group that the Blues have tried to build around. The 23-year-old Broberg and 22-year-old Holloway would mesh with the core built around Jordan Kyrou (26), Robert Thomas (25), Jake Neighbours (22), Zack Bolduc (21) and Zach Dean (21), plus the recent draftees from the past two years.

St. Louis also acquired players like Alexandre Texier (24) and Pierre-Olivier Joseph (25) this summer in that same age bracket.

Broberg is a 6-foot-3, smooth-skating, left-handed defenseman who broke out in the playoffs for Edmonton when he played in the Oilers’ final 10 postseason games. Previously, he was a scratch. He would arrive in St. Louis before players like Adam Jiricek and Theo Lindstein, and he gives the Blues the upside of a former eighth overall selection.

Holloway is a speedy winger who played bottom-six minutes for the Oilers and played is all 25 postseason games for Edmonton. He has 18 points in 89 career NHL games but once put up 35 points in 23 games during his final season of college hockey at Wisconsin.

What about defensem*n Blues already have?

If the Blues land Broberg, it would give them 10 defensem*n on one-way contracts: Colton Parayko, Justin Faulk, Torey Krug, Nick Leddy, Scott Perunovich, Pierre-Olivier Joseph, Matthew Kessel, Tyler Tucker, Ryan Suter and Broberg.

Krug’s season is up in the air after he was diagnosed with pre-arthritic changes in his ankle. He is currently trying to rehabilitate the injury in an attempt to avoid surgery. If Krug does need surgery, he will miss the entire season.

As one of just three right-handed defensem*n, Kessel would appear to have an inside track on a job in St. Louis. Suter was signed to a league-minimum deal with $2.225 million in performance bonuses available to him and appeared to be destined for a role alongside Faulk.

Perunovich ($1.15 million), Joseph ($950,000) and Tucker ($800,000) would all need waivers in order to be sent to AHL affiliate Springfield, but all of their cap hits are small enough to be buried completely in the minors.

Leddy, Parayko, Krug and Faulk all have no-trade clauses.

Should Blues be worried about revenge?

One of the oft-cited reasons why there are not more offer sheets is that teams would then have to be worried about their top RFAs getting poached by the team they burned. Of course, Carolina acquiring Jesperi Kotkaniemi after the Canadiens tried to pry Sebastian Aho away did little to quell that fear.

So would the Oilers be eying Blues RFAs in the future?

Next summer, Jake Neighbours (who grew up an Oilers fan and played junior hockey in Edmonton) and Joel Hofer will both be restricted free agents. Acquiring Broberg and Holloway would eat into a lot of St. Louis’ cap cushion, but they could be looking at space created by the possible departures of Radek Faksa ($3.25 million) and Kasperi Kapanen ($1 million).

The Blues will also be one year closer to the expiry of the Krug, Faulk and Leddy deals, and those will all also become modified no-trade clauses next summer.

Why did Blues have to make that trade with Pittsburgh?

The footnote to Tuesday’s offer sheets was that the Blues made a trade with the Penguins to reacquire their own 2025 second-round pick that was originally traded to Pittsburgh in order to dump Kevin Hayes.

Teams must have their own draft picks in order to provide compensation for an offer sheet, but the CBA does allow for teams to reacquire a pick they previously traded away.

The Blues did pay a minor premium to order to get the 2025 second-rounder back in addition to Pittsburgh’s fifth-rounder in 2026. St. Louis sent its 2026 second-round pick and Ottawa’s 2025 third-round pick to the Penguins.

Ottawa’s third-rounder was picked up by the Blues as a sweetener in the Mathieu Joseph trade.

Do Blues have too many contracts signed?

According to PuckPedia, the Blues have 51 players currently under contract. RFA Nikita Alexandrov would be 52, while Broberg and Holloway would make 54.

The CBA only allows teams to have 50 players under contract, but 18- or 19-year-old players who have been returned to junior hockey or Europe are exempt from that count. For the Blues, that could apply to Jiricek, Lindstein, Otto Stenberg, Juraj Pekarcik and Jakub Stancl, dropping them back below 50 contracts.

Historically, how many offer sheets are successful?

Since 2000, there have been 10 offer sheets signed (not including Broberg and Holloway). Only two were successful: Edmonton getting Dustin Penner from Anaheim in 2007 and Carolina getting Jesperi Kotkaniemi from Montreal in 2021.

The Blues matched Vancouver’s offer sheet of David Backes in 2008, which resulted in St. Louis signing Vancouver’s Steve Bernier to an offer sheet. The Canucks matched the Bernier offer sheet.

The last successful offer sheet by the Blues was Shayne Corson in 1995.