Pause on that for a second.
On July 3, Philadelphia tendered Leo Carlsson a five-year, $90 million offer sheet: an $18 million AAV that would cost the Flyers four first-round picks if Anaheim declines to match. It was reported that the day before, Anaheim had offered $12.5 million, while Carlsson's camp countered with $15 million. Now it's going to cost Anaheim $18M/yr with an unfavourable salary structure.
Quick offer sheet primer: if a team signs another club's restricted free agent, the original team gets seven days to match. If it does, it keeps the player but can't trade him for that first season. If it doesn't match, it receives draft-pick compensation based on the contract's AAV. There are no trade restrictions when this happens.
Offer sheets have typically been a hostile move. But here at CapWages, we're Canadian. So we've been thinking - can we turn the offer sheet into a collaborative tool? Could it work like a sign-and-trade?
Imagine this. Anaheim and Carlsson can't bridge the gap during negotiations. To get the player signed and avoid a hostile offer sheet, they engage a third team - say Columbus. Columbus signs Carlsson to a 5 x $15M offer sheet. The Ducks don't match. Columbus then trades Carlsson back to Anaheim while retaining $3M/year, gets its picks plus an additional draft pick.
Of course, this is where risk comes in. What if Columbus decides it would rather just keep Carlsson? Once Anaheim declines to match, the player belongs to Columbus. Can the contract be structured in a way to block this? And even if all parties are aligned, would the league actually allow it? That is where this shifts from cap creativity to CBA knife-fighting.
But if the structure is possible, the question becomes valuation. How much does Anaheim have to pay Columbus to retain $3 million per year and use a retention slot for five years? How much is it worth to have Carlsson at 5 x $12M instead of 5 x $18M? Would you trade a first-round pick?
On Twitter, about 90% would - though it's unclear how many of you are current or former NHL GMs.
This is a thought experiment, not a confirmed permissible structure under the CBA. Nothing here has been tested with the league, and its anti-circumvention rules give it wide latitude to reject arrangements like this one.