Cashing In On Dual Offer Sheets

The words "offer sheet" combine for a horribly dirty phrase for some in the hockey world. It's considered dirty pool by many fans and major media personalities, while general managers like Darcy Regier and Brian Burke take it as a personal affront. Though it's not such a terrible sleight that it prevents them from later making moves that they deem right for the team, such as unloading Ales Kotalik on the evil guys that send out offer sheets.

Collectively, the authors here at The Copper & Blue are hockey's biggest (and quite possibly only) proponent of dual offer sheets. The concept of a dual offer sheet is simple: send offer sheets to two separate restricted free agents currently employed by the same team, especially when that team is in some amount of cap distress. Essentially, you are forcing a team to make a choice between their assets. I've been lauding them for a couple of years and wrote an article about them last season in which I detailed and predicted that Phil Kessel trade, thank you very much. Because the team making the offer sheet must surrender draft picks, it doesn't make sense for a team in the lottery to make an offer, unless the player being targeted is high-end, lottery-like talent. The strategy makes the most sense for teams in the bottom third of the draft that may have a difficult time finding talent to make an impact, or teams in the bottom two-thirds of the draft that may need an impact player but don't see that player in unrestricted free agency.

I've sorted the target teams by next year's contracted cap hit, so the teams at the top of the list are in the most cap distress.

Chicago Blackhawks

Andrew Ladd ($1,600,000)
Antti Niemi ($800,000)
Niklas Hjalmarsson ($600,000)

New York Rangers

Dan Girardi ($1,600,000)
Marc Staal ($800,000)

Montreal Canadiens

Carey Price ($2,200,000)
Jaroslav Halak ($800,000)

Washington Capitals

Eric Fehr ($800,000)
Jeff Schultz ($700,000)
Tomas Fleischmann ($700,000)

Edmonton Oilers

Sam Gagner ($1,600,000)
Andrew Cogliano ($1,100,00)

Dallas Stars

Nicklas Grossman ($1,000,000)
James Neal ($800,000)

Nashville Predators

Denis Grebeshkov ($3,100,000)
Patric Hornqvist ($700,000)

San Jose Sharks

Joe Pavelski ($1,600,000)
Devin Setoguchi ($1,200,000)

Colorado Avalanche

Chris Stewart ($800,000)
Kyle Quincey ($500,000)

Phoenix Coyotes

Wojtek Wolski ($2,800,000)
Martin Hanzal ($1,000,000)

http://www.coppernblue.com/2010/6/7/1481228/cashing-in-on-dual-offer-sheets