For the last five years, the Carolina Hurricanes have held the crown as the league’s offer sheet kings.
In 2019, they laughed in the face of the Montreal Canadiens who had offer sheeted Sebastian Aho with a five year, $42.27 million deal thinking new owner Tom Dundon couldn’t possibly match the signing bonus heavy contract.
But Carolina matched it without a second thought and were quite happy with the value they got out of their star player for the length of that deal.
Im surprised someone would have thought this would work, Dundon told the Raleigh News and Observer at the time.
“Im actually surprised it wasnt more,” said former general manager Don Waddell when the team matched.
Then in 2021, the Canes flipped the script and offer sheeted Montreal center Jesperi Kotkaniemi with a one year, $6 million contract which the Habs did not match.
And all it cost Carolina was a first and third round pick.
The Hurricanes have held the distinction as the offer sheet team for a bit now, but after news broke this morning, they may have to hand the crown off.
The St. Louis Blues have made an offer sheet to two Edmonton Oilers players: forward Dylan Holloway and defenseman Philip Broberg, both first-round picks.
The offer to Broberg, 23, is a two-year, $4,580,917 AAV deal, the max offer St. Louis could make with the compensation just being a second-round pick, and the offer to Holloway, 22, is a two-year, $2,290,457 AAV deal, the max offer the Blues could make with the compensation being just a third-round pick.
The Oilers are also in salary cap hell right now with the team currently projected to already be over the cap, so these are deals that could very well go unmatched.
It was funny because minutes before the big news dropped, the Blues had done a pick swap with the Pittsburgh Penguins that seemed so mundane, but all of a sudden, it made perfect sense why they reacquired their second-round draft pick.
Carolina was the offer sheet kings, but it seems like St. Louis is gearing up to take the crown.