Would Owners Rather Keep Their Own Players or Offer Sheet Other Teams Players?
Dennis Bernstein of The Fourth Period was on TSN Radio in Montreal and was asked about why there have not been that many offer sheets this off-season. Bernstein believes that owners are spending more to keep their players than to overpay for players on other teams.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
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Host: “So it’s summer, but as you know, in Montreal, we’re talking hockey every show. We’ve been doing it at three o’clock specifically because we have been getting into the football and baseball talk as well. But a lot of people were expecting Dennis this summer to see offer sheets, especially with the salary cap going up, and what some of those numbers are going to look like.
And now, apparently, there’s some reports that owners have stepped in and told General Managers not to extend offer sheets because they’re worried about inflating salaries.”
Dennis Bernstein: “Yeah, well, they’re always going to be worried about inflating salaries. How do you make money? You keep costs down. And what’s one of the ways to keep costs down? Not paying big time salary. Plus, here’s the thing, you may not pay that money on that side of the business, you’re going to pay on the other side of this is because the numbers are going to keep going up, right?
Like Adrian Kempe, right? He’s in the walk year of his deal. He’s probably gonna get $10 million a year, right? Five, six years ago, he’s getting, what, six, six and a half. So the fact that this is the cap, everybody thought, oh, free agency is going to be great. You know what’s happening, there’s enough cap space for everybody to keep their own guys. So I think it’s going back to the old school thought of, okay, well, we don’t have to pay exorbitant prices or give up draft picks, we can develop our guys, pay them, and keep them in town.
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That’s why, like, you look at the goaltending situation like Edmonton. The best goaltender that was gonna hit the free agent market would have been Jake Allen. Jake Allen is a good goaltender, not great. He’s not gonna make a difference. So I think Gallo with respect to that, I’m not shocked. And let’s be real here, it wasn’t a weapon that was highly used, right?
How many, like you could count on one hand, over the last five years, the effect of offer sheets, and it was because of what you know, (Doug) Armstrong did with the with two Oilers players, that changed everything. So I understand it. I understand why it wouldn’t be a tool to keep salaries down, but it’s not that prevalent in this league right now. If I told you, oh yeah, every team was going to do an offer sheet every offseason. That’s 32 off sheets, then it’s an issue.
So I understand that side of the business, but the flip side is you’re paying more to keep your really elite players.”
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