image courtesy of TSN

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The NHL has released its compensation numbers for the 2019-20 season. For all we hear about the potential of offer sheets stealing away top young talents like Marner, Point, Rantanen, Connor, Kapanen, Johnsson, and so on, pundits tend to avoid the conversation of the real cost of doing business. In the most basic sense, there are 3 requirements for an offer sheet to be tabled to the organization:

1. The player must be eligible (RFA)*
2. The player has to accept the salary offer from the offering team
3. The offering team has to have the assets to compensate the player’s team

*This seems obvious, but Calgary fans may remember the O’Reilly ordeal where he would have actual had to pass through waivers despite signing the offer sheet…bullet dodged

As a partner to point #3 above, here are the 2019-20 compensation ranges. These are the assets that the offering team must pay the losing team should they choose not to match the offer sheet:

$0 – $1,395,053: No compensation

$1,395,054 – $2,113,716: 1x 3rd-round-pick

$2,113,717 – $4,227,437: 1x 2nd-round-pick

$4,227,438 – $6,341,152: 1x 1st-round, 1x 3rd-round-pick

$6,341,153 – $8,454,871: 1x 1st, 1x 2nd, 1x 3rd-round-pick

$8,454,872 – $10,568,589: 2x 1st , 1x 2nd, 1x 3rd-round pick

>$10,568,590: 4x 1st-round-pick

What makes this compensation (even more) difficult for teams to muster is the fact that all picks must be those originally belonging to a team. For example, if Team A owns their own 1st round pick, but their only second-rounder is from a trade with Team B, then Team A cannot make an offer sheet within the $2,113,717-$4,227,437 range.

So, which teams can afford to make which offers? Here’s the list (assembled myself using CapFriendly tools):

$0 – $1,395,053: 

All teams

$1,395,054 – $2,113,716: 

All teams except OTT, NJD, EDM, ANH, CHI, FLA, DAL, WPG, PIT, NSH, WAS, NYI

$2,113,717 – $4,227,437:

All teams except BUF, NYR, FLA, DAL, CBJ, PIT, NSH, CGY, TBL, SJS, NYI, BOS

$4,227,438 – $6,341,152:

NYR, COL, LAK, DET, BUF, VAN, PHI, MIN, ARI, MTL, VGK, CGY, TBL, CAR, BOS

$6,341,153 – $8,454,871:

COL, LAK, DET, VAN, PHI, MIN, ARI, MTL, VGK, CAR 

$8,454,872 – $10,568,589:

COL, LAK, DET, VAN, PHI, MIN, ARI, MTL, VGK, CAR 

>$10,568,590: 

NJD, NYR, COL, LAK, DET, BUF, EDM, ANH, VAN, PHI, MIN, FLA, ARI, MTL, VGK, DAL*, CAR, NSH, WAS, CGY, TBL, NYI, BOS

*DAL may lose 2020 1st-rounder based on conditions of progressing in the playoffs and/or re-signing Zuccarello

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So, next time you hear radio experts ranting about the threat of offer sheets, keep in mind which teams actually have the capacity to do so. The price can get steep, so don’t believe it’s as easy as handing over big bags of money.

Thanks for reading!

Hayden Soboleski

@soboleskih