Ryan Wilson: Best Restricted Free Agency Targets Best Restricted Free Agency Targets

Can the Pens afford Mike Hoffman?

Would love to see a offer sheet!

Pens best approach is to stay quiet.

The Bruins wouldnt have to sign Trouba for 9 per

It would be 7 years for 47+ million

Jim Rutherford once signed Sergei Fedorov to an offer sheet.

The Bruins wouldnt have to sign Trouba for 9 per

It would be 7 years for 47+ million
- YuenglingJagr

Yeah, but his AAV for compensation would be the total amount divided by 5 seasons, not the 7.

right....thats what im saying in response to this

"Even if you took the four first round picks as compensation away from the equation it still makes literally no sense to pay Jacob Trouba $9,388,080. "

I don't understand why cap floor teams with extra picks don't use offer sheets at all. Look at Carolina, they have likely 5 picks in the first 3 rounds, and cap space for days. Why not take a run at a player that could help you immediately?

Pens best approach is to stay quiet.
- MattStrat

"Sometimes the best trade is the one that isnt made"

I don't understand why cap floor teams with extra picks don't use offer sheets at all. Look at Carolina, they have likely 5 picks in the first 3 rounds, and cap space for days. Why not take a run at a player that could help you immediately?
- rival22

Because they build their teams with cheap, controllable players that they draft with those picks

I don't understand why cap floor teams with extra picks don't use offer sheets at all. Look at Carolina, they have likely 5 picks in the first 3 rounds, and cap space for days. Why not take a run at a player that could help you immediately?
- rival22

Francis reiterated yesterday he's committed to the long game. Will not spend extra to get help in the short term. Want to build from within and build up a talent base to fill roster spots year after year after year.

"Sometimes the best trade is the one that isnt made"
- YuenglingJagr

...you miss 100% of the trades you dont try to make...

Because they build their teams with cheap, controllable players that they draft with those picks
- YuenglingJagr

Exactly.

Identify talent early and lock it up long term on favourable contracts, stockpile picks as much as you can, pounce and acquire talent from teams who are in trouble at a bargain.

I think the only signing the Pens should make any serious attempt at is a third pairing defenseman to replace Lovejoy. Generally experienced defensemen get grossly overpaid the first day of free agency, especially top four defensemen. Hopefully they can find a bottom pairing guy at a decent price. I think Hoffman would be too expensive.

You have to use your own picks too. So if your a team like Carolina and a likely lottery team then you face a high risks of losing top 10 picks if it involves first round compensation.

Offer sheets really need to come from playoff contenders otherwise the risks of a lottery pick is too much.

Think what would have happened if Columbus offer sheeted Saad last year and lost a 1,2,3rd. Saad isn't worth Pujjavi or even Dubois.

The fear with doing offer sheets isn't making other GMs angry, it's in open the flood gates on a system that could also then lead to being forced into tough situations on our own players, right now everyone is staying away because they don't want to be that guy that opens the flood gates. With a player like Murray about to be an RFA next season the best thing for the Pens is to leave the flood gates closed, if the flood gates open it could/will lead to a scenario where they are either going to have to over pay to keep Murray or let him walk as Chicago had to do with Saad and Boston had to do with Hamilton last season, just the fear of an offer sheet being extended scared those teams into making moves that cost them good young talent, imagine how much worse it will get if offer sheets become common place. In theory it sounds great but it could really bite a team like the Pens in the ass, especially if they do end up moving Fleury at some point during the season.

exactly. the offer sheet system is more of a "(frank) your team system" than a "Oh a player I want. lets offer him money system"

The fear with doing offer sheets isn't making other GMs angry, it's in open the flood gates on a system that could also then lead to being forced into tough situations on our own players, right now everyone is staying away because they don't want to be that guy that opens the flood gates. With a player like Murray about to be an RFA next season the best thing for the Pens is to leave the flood gates closed, if the flood gates open it could/will lead to a scenario where they are either going to have to over pay to keep Murray or let him walk as Chicago had to do with Saad and Boston had to do with Hamilton last season, just the fear of an offer sheet being extended scared those teams into making moves that cost them good young talent, imagine how much worse it will get if offer sheets become common place. In theory it sounds great but it could really bite a team like the Pens in the ass, especially if they do end up moving Fleury at some point during the season.
- jaydogg1974

a player has to sign the offer sheet you know

Nice dig at Ek, RW

Anyways, as stated in the blog, we don't have the cap space to make an offersheet that has an outside shot of not getting matched. The max offersheet we can probably send out is 2.5 mil. That will get matched without hesitation.

All the same, I totally agree that its stupid that GMs don't utilize offersheets more.

The fear with doing offer sheets isn't making other GMs angry, it's in open the flood gates on a system that could also then lead to being forced into tough situations on our own players, right now everyone is staying away because they don't want to be that guy that opens the flood gates. With a player like Murray about to be an RFA next season the best thing for the Pens is to leave the flood gates closed, if the flood gates open it could/will lead to a scenario where they are either going to have to over pay to keep Murray or let him walk as Chicago had to do with Saad and Boston had to do with Hamilton last season, just the fear of an offer sheet being extended scared those teams into making moves that cost them good young talent, imagine how much worse it will get if offer sheets become common place. In theory it sounds great but it could really bite a team like the Pens in the ass, especially if they do end up moving Fleury at some point during the season.
- jaydogg1974

The Shea Weber behemoth offer sheet didn't open any flood gates. No one offer sheeted any of Philly's players in retaliation. I think attempting to make your team better by utilizing offer sheets is worth the risk of maybe one of your guys being offer sheeted down the road.

a player has to sign the offer sheet you know
- YuenglingJagr

Why wouldn't a player sign the offer sheet when a team is willing to pay them more than anyone else? If a team came at Murray next off season with a long term contract for 6.5M-6.75M(which isn't unrealistic if he has another big year) you think he'd not want to sign it? I'm sure the Pens aren't going to be offering that.

Why wouldn't a player sign the offer sheet when a team is willing to pay them more than anyone else? If a team came at Murray next off season with a long term contract for 6.5M-6.75M(which isn't unrealistic if he has another big year) you think he'd not want to sign it? I'm sure the Pens aren't going to be offering that.
- jaydogg1974

I am strictly saying there is a risk for a player to sign an offer sheet because it is signing a contract. There are two outcomes from it and they know that going in. So using it as a negotiation tactic is risky business. If a player wants to stay somewhere they will get a fair deal done. If they want the most money or something over what they are worth, the team will be compensated.

I would be thrilled at getting that return on Matt Murray if I were the Pens

The Shea Weber behemoth offer sheet didn't open any flood gates. No one offer sheeted any of Philly's players in retaliation. I think attempting to make your team better by utilizing offer sheets is worth the risk of maybe one of your guys being offer sheeted down the road.
- Victoro311

The compensation system and the value of draft picks has changed considerably since the Weber offer sheet, I don't think we'll ever see another offer sheet like that where 4-1st round picks are the compensation because of the increased value draft picks have seen over the last few years but now as RW pointed out, offering guys like Hoffman mid-range contracts in the 5M/year range is much more realistic than it was even a few years back.

There's no doubt I could be wrong about this but I think as soon as we see 1 or 2 of those mid-range offer sheets were going to start seeing them much more frequently. As far as the risk, there isn't an RFA available that is worth the risk of an offer sheet to Murray that we either can't match or we hurt the team by matching. It may have no effect on whether someone throws an offer sheet at Murray next year but I feel safer right now with offer sheets being uncommon than I would if they were commonly used.

I am strictly saying there is a risk for a player to sign an offer sheet because it is signing a contract. There are two outcomes from it and they know that going in. So using it as a negotiation tactic is risky business. If a player wants to stay somewhere they will get a fair deal done. If they want the most money or something over what they are worth, the team will be compensated.

I would be thrilled at getting that return on Matt Murray if I were the Pens
- YuenglingJagr

I would be thrilled with the return on Murray as well being that I'm not as high on him as most are but assuming Fleury is traded at some point during the season(which everyone believes is a forgone conclusion), no compensation(not even the 4-1st) help the Pens in the short term and having a 4-5year window of this core playing at a high level it would be a very dangerous game for the Pens to play thinking they could lose both Fleury & Murray and still be able to field a championship caliber team.