It’s a risky move, but this is one way the Utah Mammoth could add star talent this summer

Much of the talk during the NHL offseason is about free agency — what big, shiny numbers the league’s top players could sign for and the new places they may end up.

Beyond landing an unrestricted free agent or building through trades, though, there is another avenue teams can take to add to their roster.

Offer sheets.

They are not common. Offer sheets are rarely used, partially because of the politics of the practice. Putting a team in a tough situation by either stripping it of young talent or hurting its cap space is not the tamest of moves by a general manager. Plus, picks are given up in return.

But when done well, evidenced by the St. Louis Blues this season, offer sheets can be a sneaky way to bolster a lineup. Let’s dive into that.

What is an offer sheet in the NHL?

An offer sheet is an NHL contract presented to a restricted free agent by a team other than the one that owns that player’s rights. If the player chooses to sign the offer sheet with another NHL organization, their current team has two options: match the offer or let the athlete walk. If the latter is picked, the original team gets compensation in the form of draft picks from the franchise that made the offer sheet; the type and number of draft picks depend on the average annual value of the new contract.

Teams are allowed to start talking to restricted free agents (RFAs) on June 30 — the night before the NHL free agency market opens — but deals cannot be signed until it officially begins at noon ET on July 1. As a reminder, RFAs can only sign a standard player contract with the team that owns their rights — the only way they leave is through an offer sheet or trade.

Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported the compensation thresholds for offer sheets this week:

When have offer sheets worked?

The St. Louis Blues surprised a lot of people last summer when they used offer sheets on two of the Edmonton Oilers’ young, promising players.

Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway (who were RFAs at the time) were both offered contracts by the Blues. The Oilers, dealing with the cap-space gymnastics to keep the bulk of their team together, decided not to match. And so, Broberg and Holloway turned into Blues — and it might’ve been the best thing for their careers.

St. Louis signed Broberg to a two-year, $9.16 million deal ($4.58 million AAV) and Holloway to a two-year, $4.58 million deal ($2.290 million AAV). In return, the Blues gave up a second- and third-round pick as compensation to Edmonton.

Broberg and Holloway became key pieces of a St. Louis team that made a last-minute push into the playoffs — winning 12 consecutive games at the end of the season — before taking the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Winnipeg Jets to Game 7 in the first round.

Holloway dominated in the regular season, posting 63 points (26 goals, 37 assists) in 77 games. Before landing with the Blues, the most games Holloway had played with Edmonton were 51 in 2022-23; the most points he had were nine, and the most goals were six.

Broberg also had career numbers. The defenseman had 29 points (eight goals, 21 assists) in 68 games. The most he played with the Oilers was 46 games in 2022-2023, and the most points he ever tallied was eight that year.

Doug Armstrong, the general manager of the Blues, went forth with a risky move, and it paid off.

It should be noted, too, that Utah general manager Bill Armstrong (no relation) learned how to handle an NHL front office from Doug (who has been with the Blues organization since 2008). Before taking over for the Arizona Coyotes in 2020, Bill spent 16 years with the Blues — first as an amateur scout, then director of amateur scouting, and finally the assistant general manager to Doug. They built the 2019 Stanley Cup-winning Blues team together.

So, it could be questioned, would Bill follow Doug’s lead on this?

Would the Mammoth ever use this method?

Armstrong showed a bit of hesitancy when discussing the possibility of a Mammoth offer sheet during exit-day interviews in April.

“We’ll see what happens, right? The offer sheet has always been there,” Armstrong said. “People have to realize that when you put an offer sheet in, it has to work, it has to make sense. It just can’t aggravate the other team because they’re going to come after you at some point in time and run up your salaries.”

If Utah were to explore the offer-sheet world, there are a few names that quickly rise to the surface — the first being Matthew Knies of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

There is not a team in the league that wouldn’t gleefully welcome Knies to its roster. The 22-year-old power forward — who stands at 6-foot-3, 227 pounds — had 58 points (29 goals, 29 assists) in 78 regular-season games. Knies posted seven points (five goals, two assists) in 13 playoff games; he had three more goals than Mitch Marner and two more than Auston Matthews.

The Phoenix native finished his three-year, $2.775 million entry-level contract and will be an RFA come July 1.

Toronto, after losing in the second round of the playoffs to the Florida Panthers, is set to face big changes to its core this summer. Knies, however, is someone the organization will probably do anything to hold onto.

That means, Utah — or any team — would likely have to overpay the market value on an offer sheet to get Knies’ attention and stop the Maple Leafs from matching. That could mean somewhere near a $9 million AAV, which, according to this year’s compensation thresholds, would cost first, second and third-round picks.

If the Mammoth go for it and Toronto matches the contract, it could put Armstrong in hot water with the Original Six franchise.

“In this particular case, the St. Louis Blues, it worked for them. We’ll see how the new NHL adjusts to that and if it’s a new thing that happens every summer. Was it just the perfect storm that it happened one time?” Armstrong said. “I know in the past when it’s been done to my team I was with in the past, all we did there was return the favor later on.”

A Knies and Logan Cooley reunion would be something to see, though. The two played on arguably the best line in college hockey together during the 2022-23 season at the University of Minnesota with the Blues’ Jimmy Snuggerud. The trio combined for 152 points in 40 games.

“It’s been fantastic to watch him. He’s done incredible this year,” Knies said of Cooley when the Maple Leafs were in Utah in March. “Phenomenal skater, hockey IQ, he’s very deceptive with the puck. It’s hard to play against. Obviously, I got to play against him in practice a lot — he’s not fun to chase around the ice.”

Who else could Utah offer sheet?

While Knies may be the most high-profile RFA, there are others Utah could look at — and get at a lower price point.

If the Mammoth do not want to go the offer-sheet route, they could acquire these players through trades, too. The team that holds an RFAs rights can trade them to another NHL organization that can then negotiate a contract with the player.