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Dallas Stars Daily Links: Don’t Even Think About Offer Sheets For Hintz And Gurianov

Posted on by Kathleen Tibbetts

If there’s one thing that could keep Dallas Stars fans awake at night, it’s the idea that restricted free agents Roope Hintz and Denis Gurianov might get snatched up during free agency. The vehicle for this nightmare: the offer sheet, which would take advantage of the static cap and COVID-related financial pressures to essentially buy the dynamic duo away.

The idea of offer sheets can make for interesting copy, and heaven knows they’re a good troll on Twitter, writes The Athletic’s Sean Shapiro. In the real world, where the sky is blue and gravity is a thing, they’re more or less a non-factor:

In the NHL’s salary cap era, since 2005, there have been nine offer sheets signed by NHL players. It’s only happened four times since 2010, and the Montreal Canadians’ offer sheet to Sebastian Aho in 2019 was the first signed offer sheet since 2013. And of the nine offer sheets in the cap era, only one hasn’t been matched by the player’s current team.

In the past decade, there have been more goals scored by goalies (four) than there have been offer sheets signed by players.

Sean takes a theoretical case for Hintz to demonstrate what would have to happen to make an offer sheet work, and suggests that the Stars are much more likely to lose a depth defender than be subjected to this:

If you need further proof offer sheets aren’t going to be an issue, let’s look at the situation around the league. Let’s say someone is going to offer-sheet Hintz with an annual value of $4,363,095, the highest a team can offer while only giving up a second-round pick. If a team wants to exceed that, the Stars would get back a first and third-round pick if they don’t match.

If Hintz signs the second-round offer sheet and the Stars do match, Dallas would be $1,393,459 above the salary cap assuming the above roster with Caamano and Hintz at his new contract. This would create some cap gymnastics, but it’s not the end of the world. It would require the Stars to send either Hanley or Fedun to the minors, and potentially find a way to move Andrew Cogliano or wave him and bury the allowed $1 million of his salary in the AHL.

There’s much more behind the paywall. [The Athletic DFW]

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