New York Rangers: Why the team can’t make an offer sheet
NHL general managers rarely break the offer sheet out of their toolbox because of the archaic rules that apply. The New York Rangers can’t make an offer sheet this summer for two separate reasons.
On the laundry list of player rights issues in the NHL, restricted free agency is near the top. It’s patently absurd that a player cannot command fair market value for their services until they’ve either played eight years in the league or reached age 27. These rules inherently tip the wage scale in favor of ownership and the franchises for no real reason.
In the NBA, restricted free agency does exist, but it does not restrict player earning power or freedom as drastically as the NHL’s version. In the NBA, other teams can make a contract to an RFA and the team who owns the player’s rights has the right to match the offer. There is no additional compensation required from the team that makes the offer.
This is a stark contrast to the NHL in which teams must give considerable draft compensation to a team if they poach an RFA. For the type of impact players that an offer sheet would be worth, it’d be in the form of four first-round picks. In addition, all NHL offer sheet compensation must be owned by the signing team.
So, a team couldn’t trade for other team’s first round picks to use as compensation.
There are a pair of elite restricted free agents this summer, Brayden Point of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Mitch Marner of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Any of the other teams around the league would be chomping at the bit to make an offer to either player because of their combination of talent and youth.
But, the regressive offer sheet compensation rules put the ball in the court of both the Lightning and Maple Leafs to get something done. Unless one G.M. is willing to risk a large chunk of the future, both will likely remain with their current organization.
Why the Rangers are out
It’s pretty commonplace for all of us at one point or another to think about breaking the draft pick piggy bank for one of these elite talents. Adding Point or Marner to the New York Rangers’ top six would be a dramatic and league altering shift. With the prospect pool that New York is developing, a franchise-altering player could speed things up dramatically.
However, when it comes to offer sheet compensation, the Rangers don’t meet the necessary requirements for either parameter it would take to sign someone of Point or Marner’s caliber.
For a player signed to an average annual value of $8,118,642-$10,148,302, the necessary compensation is two firsts, a second and third-round pick. Of course, the Rangers dealt their own second round pick for this year to the Carolina Hurricanes in the Adam Fox trade, so that knocks them out of this tier.
The only range above $10,148,302, calls for the aforementioned four first round pick compensation. However, logic would rule this price range of RFAs out for the simple fact that there are comparable unrestricted free agents this summer that won’t require draft capital to sign.
Inking Artemi Panarin to a deal in that same range without draft compensation attached is a far more logical decision. Sure, the Russian is soon to be 28-years-old and Marner is only 22, but the point still remains.
The Rangers’ front office has turned around the team’s future in a relatively short 24 months. Since the second round exit against the Ottawa Senators in 2017, Jeff Gorton and company have valued the draft above all else and moved heaven and earth to acquire as many selections as possible to restock the barren cupboard.
Simply put, there isn’t a path forward for the Rangers to court either Marner or Point as a restricted free agent this summer. If the team could clear up more space off the books there’s a minuscule chance of an offer north of $10,148,302, but there’s a reason these types of offers never happen.
Next. Report card: Brendan Smith. dark
No executive wants to burn four first round picks for a single player, no matter how elite of a talent they may be. High draft picks are the life’s blood of an organization and buy an executive time, clearing them out for one player is a high stakes gamble.