Two offer sheet candidates for the Calgary Flames

Offer sheets are the most underrated and underutilized tool an NHL team has to acquire talented, young players who are restricted free agents.

Unfortunately, teams rarely use them. The main reason why is because they’re too afraid to upset other organizations around the NHL.

The last player to be acquired via an offer sheet was Jesperi Kotkaniemi, who signed a one year, 6.1 million dollar offer sheet from the Carolina Hurricanes in 2021.

Here are the offer sheet compensation numbers for the 2023 offseason.

(All offer sheet information is courtesy of CapFriendly)

Signing players to large offer sheets can cost your organization a lot of valuable draft capital. But signing depth players does not cost much, or anything at all.

I find it mind boggling that more teams don’t use offer sheets on lower cost players and take advantage of their competitors who have salary cap problems. An example of that was last summer when both Nic Roy and Nick Hague were RFA’s with the Vegas Golden Knights. Vegas was right up against the cap and were vulnerable to offer sheets. But no one took advantage of that opportunity, and Vegas ended up winning the Stanley Cup with Roy and Hauge being huge parts of their team.

The Flames have a condition on their 2024 first round pick from the Sean Monahan trade. Because of that, they will not be able to offer sheet any player with an AAV over $4,290,126.

Also keep in mind that players have to accept an incoming offer sheet.

With all that out of the way, here are two low-cost offer sheet options for the Flames.

Hoglander is a skilled, talented, hard working winger with upside that can play in your bottom six right now.  Although Hoglander has a smaller frame, he makes up for it with incredible lower body strength and a high-end motor that makes him a board battle winning machine and a pain to play against.

Just look at him take out 6’7, 220 pound Radim Zahorna last season.

Hoglander has potentially fallen out of favour with the Canucks as he spent the majority of the 2022-23 season in the AHL. The Vancouver Canucks have a surplus of wingers at the moment, and it will be difficult for Hoglander to get an everyday spot next season.

I can’t see a world where the Canucks would match a one- or two-year, $1,415,740 offer sheet from the Flames to keep Hoglander in the fold. The Canucks don’t have a lot of cap space as is, and they’re likely going to spend it all on July 1.

Hoglander could be a very effective third line winger who you could teach to kill penalties and put on a second power play unit. He could go in the shootout and maybe even play a little 3 on 3 overtime.

The LA Kings have entered their window to win a Stanley Cup. They are a deep team with a lot of good young players in their prospect system who might end up being on the outside looking in. Jaret Anderson-Dolan might end up being one of those players.

The Calgary native has split time in the NHL and AHL last season. He put up 47 points in 54 games in the AHL and 12 points in 46 games with the Kings in the NHL.

He is a feisty bottom six forward that can also put up some points. He is someone who could play in the Flames bottom six and kill penalties. He is only 23 years old and still has some time to develop into a potential top six forward one day. He may never get that chance in a deep LA Kings organization.

The fact he is from Calgary also might help with the sales pitch to get him to sign an offer sheet with the Flames.

Overall, the offer sheet is a great way to acquire all types of players from capped out teams. In the Flames case, it makes sense to add depth to their organization in the 21-23 year old range, especially if you’re not giving up any compensation. Hoglander and Anderson-Dolan would be smart, low risk signings that could turn into long time Calgary Flames if they reach their potential.