So the rumor out there today is that the Edmonton Oilers could be preparing an offer sheet for Bruins defensemen Dougie Hamilton. This rumor has been around for a while but has gained a lot of steam the last 24 hours or so.
When you ask people about this they all say the same thing, which is the same thing people have been saying about offer sheets since the beginning..." The Bruins will match any offer sheet."
The problem with this of course is for the Bruins to come out and say this it's essentially like saying they are willing to hurt their franchise if it means not losing a player. Think about it. When agents negotiate with teams about contracts those teams would never say, "We will pay any price that you ask for!" They can't say this of course because they have a budget...every team does.
But this definitely has the potential to become more of a cold war of sorts..where just the threat of offer sheets drives up prices. The system is broken and wide open to be abused, yet so far no one has really backed a team into a corner. Not yet at least.
Another important factor in offer sheets is the amount of work that goes into them and close to 100k in legal fees that in all likelihood will just be lost to no result.
Cup Update.
Oduya, Versteeg, and Timonen sound like they are in the lineup tonight. I am happy for Kimmo especially who needs to play to insure his name on the Cup should Chicago win it.
Bishop practiced like normal and in all likelihood will be back in net. This is such an amazing story right now.
We will discuss all this and more on today's HockeyBuzzcast Live at 3:30pm ET.