The NHL’s salary cap is rising but many teams still find themselves in various degrees of uncomfortableness when it comes to the salary structure. The Pittsburgh Penguins are not one such team.
Offer sheets have been a seldom used venture by NHL general managers, there have only been four in the last decade. Montreal signed Carolina’s Sebastian Aho in 2019, the Hurricanes matched and retaliated two years later by giving Jesper Kotkaniemi what looks like a regrettable amount of money that the Canadiens did not match. Then in 2024 St. Louis fired shots across the bow by targeting Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg from Edmonton, which the cap-strapped Oilers opted not to match.
Going back to the entire NHL salary cap era from 2006-present, there have only been 12 total completed offer sheets. Only four of those 12 were successful to acquire a player from a team unwilling or unable to match the compensation.
The St. Louis moves showed the potential is not gone to take the aggressive action, so let’s check on this year’s crop via Sportsnet.
The important information to know is the different levels of compensation required, which for 2026 is as follows:
Based on these splits, it’s a challenge to anticipate signing a mega-star like RFA Jason Robertson to an offer sheet. It would easily require first round picks from 2027-30, which is a cost too far to support making such a move.
However, as STL showed, targeting rising players who could play into a higher cost than they’ve shown in the past can pay off handsomely for the price of a second or third round pick as a sweet spot for trying offer sheets. This could be the key area of opportunity.
Zach Benson, Buffalo Sabres
As previously mentioned, if Buffalo re-signs Tuch, it would immediately be tight to next year’s salary cap. Meantime, 21-year-old Zach Benson became a core piece of the Sabres this season with a breakout 43-point campaign (in 65 games) and an even better showing in the playoffs. It might be fair to ask: Should Benson actually be Buffalo’s priority here?
Benson, drafted 13th overall in 2023, is a player who whispers say was of much interest to the Penguins had he just slipped one more pick in the draft to where they were at. (Pittsburgh ended up selecting Brayden Yager, who was traded not long after).
Sportsnet also notes that Buffalo has center Peyton Krebs and defenseman Michael Kesselring as potential restricted free agents. The Sabres currently have $17.6 million in cap space, though it stands to reason over half of that amount would be taken away if they end up re-signing star forward Alex Tuch.
Granted, if the Sabres don’t re-sign Tuch, there wouldn’t be much of a point in trying to fish away Benson via offer sheet. They’ll be in good enough shape to match in that situation. Assuming they did sign Tuch, would the Penguins be so bold as to transfer an unprotected 2027 first round pick (plus a third, which they have an extra selection in that round already) to get Benson on an offer of $7 million?
Benson scored 43 points in just 65 games this year and was a great playoff performer with nine points in 13 games and a very active, physical presence. He also just turned 21-years old and could be worth an investment to be a part of the core for a while.
It would take some faith that Benson could get a glow up like Holloway did, who went all the way up to 63 points in his first season with the Blues and was worth his contract plus the second round pick to give up. This isn’t a surefire risk-free proposition, but it could be something to think about considering the Pens were rumored to have really liked Benson in the pre-draft process. After three seasons in the NHL, there’s even more to like.
Mavrik Bourque, Dallas
The Stars’ top priority is to get Robertson under contract, which would be a big ticket, certainly in the $12 million range, that would put them over the cap. Meantime, the 24-year-old Bourque would be offer sheet eligible after his first 20-goal season. Perhaps a quiet playoff showing may cool interest in going the offer sheet route, and GM Jim Nill may be looking at trade options instead.
Pittsburgh and Dallas have been a good trade fit with one another recently. The two worked together last year to send Matt Dumba plus a second round pick to the Pens last year to ease some Stars cap woes. Those problems are back again for them, which means the Pens might not even need to offer sheet Bourque to acquire him. Volunteer to take the salary of Ilya Lybushskin ($3.25m for one more year) and then it could see what other particulars would need to be done to get Bourque as a part of the deal could be a workable gambit.
If dangling that carrot via a trade ended up not working out, the Pens could always turn to using the stick of the offer sheet for Bourque. It looks like the Stars have about $13 million of cap space for next year, of which Robertson would require almost all of it. Should a team come in with a $4.7 million offer for Bourque, that might put a lot of strain on the Stars’ structure – depending on what further moves they could make to get around that. Something’s got to give in Dallas, if a team adds a little more pressure to the situation they might be able to get Bourque out of it, via whatever means it might take via trade or offer sheet.
Olen Zellweger/Pavel Mintyukov, Anaheim
Carlsson and Gauthier grab most of the attention in regards to Anaheim’s RFAs, but it also has two young defencemen who are offer sheet eligible. Zellweger and Mintyukov, two 21-year-olds, both finished with 22 points this season, while Mintyukov averaged about a minute-and-a-half more of ice time, mostly because of his shorthanded minutes.
Of the two, Zellweger may be the one to watch more closely on the offer sheet front. His average ice time dropped by nearly two minutes from 2024-25 to 2025-26 and he only played three playoff games for the Ducks.
These two have been oft-talked about, with little more new ground to tread. Anaheim having to give new contracts to breakout stars Leo Carlsson and Cutter Gauthier makes them a very interesting team to watch this offseason. They also have a total of two NHL defensemen currently signed for next season according to CapWages. A lot is going to go on out there. Maybe the Pens can get involved, maybe not, but watching the Ducks navigate this summer will be worth watching.
Zack Bolduc, Montreal
One of Montreal’s four RFAs, Bolduc scored 12 goals for the Canadiens this season but got to 19 with St. Louis the year before that. If he stays in Montreal, a new contract might come in the range of $3 million, but is there a team out there that values his potential higher than that?
When Montreal traded for Bolduc last summer, our scout Jason Bukala wrote that it had “acquired at worst a middle-six forward. He’s more likely a top-six winger.” That didn’t come to fruition right away, but Bolduc is still just 23 years old. If a team still sees him as a player who could score 20-25 a season and have top-six upside, might they take a shot on a short- or medium-term contract worth around $4.5 million — a rate that might make Montreal a little uncomfortable and require only a second-round pick as compensation?
A team like the Pens could pay a little more for a player in salary, assuming they really liked the player or thought he could take off to justify the move. Whether or not they would actually want to do that is of course the unknown $64,000 question. Bolduc, 23, has yet to really take off, does Pittsburgh (or anyone else) think he could have that Holloway-esque type of increase in the future? If so, $4 million and giving up a second round pick would be a small price to pay. If not, onto the next.
More often than not the offer sheet goes unused, though the increased amount of second+third round picks that Pittsburgh has in the next few years makes them decent candidates to use if the right situation was out there. The Pens have used that to acquire Egor Chinakhov and Elmer Soderblom in trades, straying outside the lane to attempt an offer sheet coup would be unexpected but a bold, risky move at attempting to bolster the team’s talent level.