NHL. In the National Hockey League, an offer sheet is a contract offered to a restricted free agent by a team other than the one for which he played during the prior season.

Players who earned less than $660,000 in the previous season must be offered 110 percent of last season’s salary. Players making up to $1 million must be offered 105 percent. Players making over $1 million must be offered 100 percent. If the qualifying offer is not made, the player becomes an unrestricted free agent.

An offer sheet is a binding NHL contract that is offered to an eligible RFA whose rights are owned by a different NHL club. The rules of the offer sheet are the restrictions in the RFA designation. Any player who is a Group 1 RFA, 10.2. c RFA, or a UFA cannot be tendered an offer sheet.

In the NHL, players who are restricted free agents can be, after being qualified by their current team, signed by another team to an offer sheet with salary greater than the qualifying offer….Signed offer sheets.

All players whose contracts have expired, but who do not qualify as Group 3 or Group 6 free agents become restricted free agents (Group 2) on July 1 of a calendar year, provided that a team has tendered a qualifying offer by June 25 or the first Monday after the NHL Entry Draft, whichever is later.

A contract is considered a 35+ contract if a player is 35 or older (as of June 30) when the contract takes effect, regardless of when it was signed. If a player’s contract takes effect before the player turns 35 but he turns 35 during the contract, it’s still not a 35+ contract.

The average NHL player salary is $2,554,463 USD for the 2020-21 season. This value is based on 906 player signings, including all buried and two-way contracts. The highest paid player is Auston Matthews at $15,910,000 USD, while 161 players are paid the league minimum of $700,000 USD.

UFA refers to Unrestricted Free Agent, and RFA refers to Restricted Free Agent. UFA is basically a player that doesn’t belong to any team. RFA basically means that a player is free to seek potential teams that may offer a new contract.

Group 3 UFA A player becomes an Unrestricted Free Agent (UFA) if their current contract ends after either 7 Accrued Seasons or they are 27 or older as of June 30. An Accrued Season is defined as a year in which a skater is on an NHL roster for at least 40 games (30 games for Goalies).

NHL teams cannot negotiate with a player in regards to an offer sheet until July 27. The player cannot sign that offer sheet until July 28. If the player (but not the team) elects arbitration, he cannot sign an offer sheet.

6 million USD (2015)
Jordan Staal/Salary
Current Contract Jordan Staal signed a 10 year / $60,000,000 contract with the Carolina Hurricanes, including $60,000,000 guaranteed, and an annual average salary of $6,000,000. In 2021-22, Staal will earn a base salary of $6,000,000, while carrying a cap hit of $6,000,000.

Every year, the NHL releases new thresholds for offer sheet compensation for eligible RFAs. The numbers are built around the league-average salary, which dropped in 2020-2021 from the prior year. Elliotte Friedman posted the figures in his 31 Thoughts today. For AAVs below $1.35654 million, there is no compensation

Here’s a handy chart that outlines the draft choice compensation scale: Average annual value Compensation Less than $1,205,377 Nothing $1,205,377-to-$1,826,328 Third-round pick $1,826,328-to-$3,652,659 Second-round pick

The compensation limits are the AAV of the offer sheet averaged over the length of the contract to an upper limit of five years. Here is an example to explain this: If Patrik Laine signs an offer sheet for 7 years at 10 million, that seems at first look to require two first-round picks, one second and one third.