Bruins Still Not At Risk Of Losing Swayman With Signs Of Life On NHL RFA Market
There is a sign of life within the NHL offseason for the first time in weeks.
First reported by Frank Seravalli of Daily Face-Off, the St. Louis Blues submitted offer sheets to restricted free agents Phillip Broberg and Dylan Holloway, both of the Edmonton Oilers, on Tuesday morning.
A quick summation of offer sheets: if a player is a restricted free agent, they are barred from negotiating with any team other than their current one. However, another team can make an offer to the player, which their current team has the right to match in order to retain the player.
If the player’s current team doesn’t match the offer sheet, the player can sign with the new team, and while their old one receives draft pick compensation based on the average annual value of the player’s new contract.
Teams rarely use offer sheets as they can sometimes lead to future retribution. Look no further than the last instance one was signed, when, in 2019, the Carolina Hurricanes signed Jesperi Kotkeniemi from the Montreal Canadiens after the Habs attempted to sign Carolina star forward Sebastian Aho as an RFA the year prior.
Those who follow the Boston Bruins may read the words ‘offer sheet’ and immediately have their ears perk up as the team is still trying to agree to terms with goalie Jeremy Swayman.
But even though the dreaded offer sheet has been deployed into the field, the Bruins have little reason to worry about another team trying to land their prized netminder.
As previously mentioned, the compensation for an offer sheet is predicated on its average annual value.
By offering Broberg and Holloway $4,580,917 and $2,290,457, respectively, all that the Blues would have to give to the Oilers as compensation are a second and third-round pick. Any team that attempts to sign Swayman will have to give the Bruins much more.
Viewed as one of the best goaltenders in the league, Swayman is expected to sign a deal somewhere in the range of $7.75 million to as much as $10 million based on what other top players at his position make. In all likelihood, Swayman’s eventual deal will be closer to $8.6 million per season, which is the amount of cap space the Bruins have left aside, according to Puckpedia.
So, at a minimum, any team that makes an offer to Swayman will need to be able to supply the Bruins with two first-round picks, a second-round pick, and a third-round pick, all of which must be their own selections. Based on that alone, the Bruins have little reason to worry, as only a few teams are currently able to supply them with the proper compensation. But even then, most have one issue or another in their way.
The Buffalo Sabres, Detroit Red Wings, and Seattle Kraken all have their own restricted free agents to worry about. The Nashville Predators don’t have a need in goal, and neither do the New York Islanders, who are out of cap space to begin with. The same could be said of the Philadelphia Flyers as well.
The only team with both the draft capital and salary cap space available to make a legitimate offer to Swayman is Montreal. And while that would certainly be one way to reignite the oldest rivalry in hockey, the Canadiens have already been burned once after trying to sign a star player to an offer sheet and likely won’t want to suffer that same consequence again.
