Nine offer sheet candidates to watch in 2026 NHL offseason
Offer sheets are no longer the impossible unicorn of offseason NHL transactions. The St. Louis Blues changed that two years ago when they pushed their chips in to snag Dyllan Holloway and Philip Broberg from the Edmonton Oilers.
Nevertheless, offer sheets remain extremely rare in the salary-cap era, and the reasons why are pretty obvious. On the intangible side, they bring risk in that they can damage relationships between GMs. Don’t believe me? Ask Brian Burke and Kevin Lowe or Don Waddell and Marc Bergevin about that.
On the tangible side, the thresholds for compensation are pretty restrictive, especially when it comes to poaching top-tier restricted free agents. Here’s a quick refresher on the compensation scale for offer sheets in the collective bargaining agreement, courtesy of our partners at PuckPedia:
The sport favors sprightly legs. The Montreal Canadiens just became the youngest team by average age to reach the Eastern Conference Final in 33 years. The San Jose Sharks’ Macklin Celebrini just exploded for 115 points as a teenager in his sophomore season. In other words: first-round picks are worth a lot these days given what they can become for their teams – on entry-level AAVs for three years to boot. Few if any RFAs are worth the gargantuan offer-sheet compensation required in the top couple tiers. And if they are, they’re unlikely to go unsigned; the Chicago Blackhawks will match any offer for Connor Bedard, for instance. And if you’re willing to overpay for them, you’ll have to table an AAV so high that it would be crippling on your cap and slap you with a brutal compensation penalty. The system is designed to deter the theft of elite players.
So the highest-end RFAs are not typically the targets for offer sheets. Which types of players are? A quick refresher of offer sheets in the cap era gives us a hint.
| Year | Player | Offer sheet |
| 2006 | Ryan Kesler, VAN | 1 x $1.9M, PHI (matched) |
| 2007 | Thomas Vanek, BUF | 7 x $7.14M, EDM (matched) |
| 2007 | Dustin Penner, ANA | 5 x $4.3M, EDM (2008 1st/2nd/3rd Rd picks to ANA) |
| 2008 | David Backes, STL | 3 x $2.5M, VAN (matched) |
| 2008 | Steve Bernier, VAN | 1 x $2.5M, STL (matched) |
| 2010 | Niklas Hjalmarsson, CHI | 4 x $3.5M, SJ (matched) |
| 2012 | Shea Weber, NSH | 14 x $7.86M, PHI (matched) |
| 2013 | Ryan O’Reilly, COL | 2 x $5M, CGY (matched) |
| 2019 | Sebastian Aho, CAR | 5 x $8.45M, MTL (matched) |
| 2021 | Jesperi Kotkaniemi, MTL | 1 x $6.1M, CAR (2022 1st/3rd Rd picks to MTL |
| 2024 | Philip Broberg, EDM | 2 x $4.58M, STL (2025 2nd Rd pick to EDM) |
| 2024 | Dylan Holloway, EDM | 2 x $2.29M, STL (2025 3rd Rd pick to EDM) |
Setting aside the obvious idea that it’s easiest to target teams in cap trouble, the common threads of the players inking offer sheets, particularly those in the past half decade are:
(a) The poaching team valued the player higher than his existing team. Broberg and Holloway, for instance, struggled to earn the Oilers’ trust and weren’t given large roles. The Blues were likely confident the Oilers wouldn’t agree on the value enough to match those AAVs.
(b) The player involved had legitimate motivation to sign the offer sheet, in most of these recent cases because of an opportunity for increased playing time.
(c) The player’s overall value and developmental standing is still modest enough for an AAV that falls in a not-too-scary compensation threshold. It’s mindboggling in hindsight to remember that Holloway and Broberg combined didn’t even cost St. Louis a single first-round pick.
With those parameters in mind, here are some realistic offer-sheet candidates to watch in the 2026 NHL offseason. For the reasons outlined above, you won’t find the likes of Bedard, Jason Robertson or Leo Carlsson on this list. No one is crazy enough to give up four first-round picks for any of them.
Zachary Bolduc, RW, Montreal Canadiens
Bolduc showed a lot of promise as a two-way player in his rookie campaign with the Blues last season. He was an exciting offseason addition for the Habs. But he spent most of this season as a bottom-six forward or at least playing bottom-six minutes, averaging only 13:18 of ice time, his goal total slipping from 18 to 12, and he played just 11:23 nightly during Montreal’s playoff run. The Habs have only $10.98 million in cap space, with additional RFAs to re-sign in Kirby Dach, playoff hero Alex Newhook and Arber Xhekaj, and they badly need to devote some money in a push for a No. 2 center, particularly with prospect Michael Hage opting for another year in the NCAA. Bolduc has the blend of (a) established upside, (b) a small role that might make him curious about a better opportunity and (c) a modest 2025-26 campaign that would keep his AAV in the range to make the pick compensation worth it. The Habs are vulnerable here.
Mavrik Bourque, RW, Dallas Stars
Dallas needs to sort out its Robertson problem, pronto, whether that means re-signing him, trading him and/or moving out Ilya Lyubushkin’s contract to clear space. Bourque, the 2023-24 AHL scoring champion and MVP, went off for 13 goals and 26 points over his final 34 regular-season games. He has shown enough upside to be worth a solid mid-range commitment on a medium-term deal – something Dallas can’t presently afford given it has just $10.14 million in cap space, which isn’t enough to cover Robertson’s next AAV alone. Can they sell Bourque on a bridge deal knowing it’ll cost them a lot on his next deal, a.k.a. ‘The Evan Bouchard’? If not, Bourque, 24, could be an offer-sheet target given the ceiling he’s teased.
Pavel Dorofeyev, RW, Vegas Golden Knights
The good news for Vegas: Dorofeyev has played so well the past couple seasons that he’s worked his way into the higher end of the offer-sheet compensation scale. He’s one of 12 players to score 35 or more goals each of the past two seasons, and his 12 goals this postseason placed him second in the league. No matter what, Dorofeyev’s next contract will require at least a first- and third-rounder in compensation, and the next tier up of a first, second and third seems realistic too. (For a full list of which teams have the assets to meet which offer-sheet thresholds, PuckPedia has you covered here).
The bad news for Vegas: Dorofeyev has earned a hefty AAV and has proven to clearly be worth it. That means a rival might be willing to eat the compensation cost to target him – he’s pretty obviously worth a first-rounder as a 25-year-old, multi-time 35-goal guy – plus it means Vegas will have a hard time making room for him under its cap even before an offer sheet comes into play. The Golden Knights have just $4.625 million in cap space right now, with top-four blueliner Rasmus Andersson going to market as a UFA. They will have to jettison impact players if they want to retain even one of them, let alone both. No team is riper to be offer sheeted than the Golden Knights right now and, given the way they’ve handled the Bruce Cassidy situation, not to mention being heavily penalized for skipping a media availability, they don’t feel like a team other GMs would feel guilty about antagonizing.
Jack Drury, C, Colorado Avalanche
Drury was one of the best defensive centers in the league this season shift for shift, albeit he wasn’t playing the toughest minutes. Still, he’s a pretty handy bottom-sixer – and one the Avs might not be able to afford. They’re sitting on a piddly $2.98 million in cap space and are in the true win-now period of their contention window, needing to chase some serious roster upgrades after shockingly getting swept in the Western Conference Final. Should another team simply value Drury a bit higher than the Avs, GM Joe Sakic might have to tip his cap and accept two things he really needs right now: draft picks and cap space.
Peyton Krebs, LW, Buffalo Sabres
Let’s use our deductive reasoning here. The Sabres have $11.95 million in cap space. They’d love to re-sign top UFA and first-line right winger Alex Tuch, but he’ll cost pretty much all of that. Even if they don’t bring him back: breakout left winger Zach Benson has established himself as quite a priority. Evolving into a Brad Marchand Lite agitator/playmaker hybrid, Benson is a huge part of Buffalo’s future. He isn’t my offer-sheet pick for this list as Buffalo will surely match whatever he’d sign. Defenseman Michael Kesselring, also an RFA, feels more like a trade candidate than an offer-sheet target given he struggled to crack Buffalo’s lineup this season and thus might be gettable for a cost lower than the pick compensation of an offer sheet given Buffalo’s cap crunch. That leaves Krebs, a post-hype mini breakout player who had his moments as a first-liner in the playoffs but is clearly below Benson (and Tuch) in the long-term pecking order. Given Krebs’ first-round pedigree, however, he’s the type of player who might earn a higher valuation in the eyes of another team and, with very little cap space to play with, GM Jarmo Kekalainen might have to shrug his shoulders and let Krebs go if the AAV is too rich.
Pavel Mintyukov & Olen Zellweger, D, Anaheim Ducks
The Ducks have a busy offseason ahead. They have two monster-ticket RFAs to take care of in budding superstar forwards Cutter Gauthier and Carlsson, while the whole right side of their veteran D-man brigade goes UFA in John Carlson, Jacob Trouba and Radko Gudas. Mintyukov already asked for a trade earlier this season, so he’d be as likely as anyone to sign an offer sheet, while Zellweger only dressed for three playoff games. Both players have immense potential as puck-movers in their early 20s, and they seem like ideal offer-sheet targets given GM Pat Verbeek may take his eye off the ball while focusing on all his other free agents.
Cole Perfetti, RW, Winnipeg Jets
Perfetti is more of a fringe offer-sheet candidate compared to the “Oh man it might be happening” vibes around some of the other names on my list. The Jets have the cap space to extend him. But they also are a veteran team who missed the playoffs a season after winning the Presidents’ Trophy and might need to pursue some high-profile additions in order to appease their core, particularly goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, and perhaps for GM Kevin Cheveldayoff to remain secure in his job. Perfetti is a gifted and intelligent playmaker but hasn’t made the jump into reliable top-six forward status. The one scenario that could pry him away from the Jets would be one similar to Broberg’s, in which another team projected a long-awaited breakout and Oilers essentially said, “You think he’s worth that much? Fine then, take him.”
Mackie Samoskevich, RW, Florida Panthers
The Panthers, like the Golden Knights, always have ambitious goals. What they do this offseason may depend on whether they re-sign goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, but we just know Bill Zito, as aggressive as any GM in the game, will do whatever it takes to load up his roster for 2026-27. Whether that means pursuing Dylan Larkin or Hellebuyck or someone else, the Panthers will prioritize options that help them dominate in the present. Samoskevich is progressing nicely but, even on a Panthers team that was riddled with injuries this season, he couldn’t get his TOI even into the 15-minute range. But he’s a talented 23-year-old who sat in the 85th percentile in shots per 60 and the 77th percentile in hits per 60 at 5-on-5 this season among all NHL forwards while possessing 82nd percentile max shot power and 89th percentile max skating speed. There’s potential for growth here, maybe a scoring-line role on a team that could feature him more prominently in the present. Could a sweet-spot AAV on an offer sheet price him out of Florida?
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