On Tuesday, something fairly rare occurred: the St. Louis Blues signed two restricted free agents to offer sheets. Both RFAs happened to be Edmonton Oilers players as well.
Any time an offer sheet is signed it is big news in the hockey world, as it sometimes seen as “no-no” within the GM fraternity. After all, there have been only 42 offer sheets signed in NHL, with the first being in 1986 when the Chicago Blackhawks signed Toronto Maple Leafs’ defenceman Gary Nylund.
Interestingly, eight of those 42 involved the Oilers, and 12 involved the St. Louis Blues (and now 10 and 14 of 44). Those are the most of any NHL teams, and so it shouldn’t actually come as a surprise that these two teams were involved yet again.
Here’s a look at the eight previous Oilers offer sheets and how they played out.
Geoff Courtnall, 1988
Oilers fans remember one really big transaction from the offseason in 1988, but did you know there was another player the Oilers lost?
Geoff Courtnall had been acquired at the deadline in 1988 along with Bill Ranford in exchange for Andy Moog. Courtnall had scored 32 goals and 58 points in 62 games with Boston and then scored eight points in 12 regular season games with the Oilers. However, he posted just three points in 19 playoff games.
Still, the potential was there, and the New York Rangers, perhaps hoping to take advantage of a distracted Oilers team, signed Courtnall to an offer sheet (the terms of which were never disclosed).
The Oilers did something interesting in the face of that: they traded Courtnall to the Washington Capitals in exchange for Greg Adams. Washington then obviously matched the offer sheet.
The Rangers protested the trade and it went all the way to arbitration, but ultimately the trade as allowed to stand.
Unfortunately for this year’s Oilers, teams are no longer allowed to trade players signed to an offer sheet.
Granted, the trade didn’t exactly do much for the Oilers. Adams played just one season with the team, scoring nine points in 49 games and was traded at the deadline to Vancouver for John LeBlanc and a fifth-round pick that became Peter White, neither of whom made much of an impact for the Oilers.
Adam Graves, 1991
Adam Graves was acquired by the Oilers in a massive deal with the Detroit Red Wings, that saw the Oilers send away Jimmy Carson for Graves, Petr Klima, and Joe Murphy.
In his two seasons with the Oilers, Graves scored 46 points in 139 regular season games, along with 17 points in 40 playoff games.
The Rangers were again the villain here, signing Graves to a five-year contract worth $2.44M. Because Graves was under 25-years-old with less than five years of experience, the Oilers were not able to match the offer sheet. Instead, teams were given a week to try to complete a deal for compensation failing which the two teams would present their offers before an arbitrator who would choose between the two.
The Oilers had asked for Steven Rice and Louie Debrusk as compensation, but the arbitrator awarded them Troy Mallette instead.
Mallette would play just 15 games for the Oilers, scoring four points, before being traded to New Jersey for David Maley. Maley would play 36 games over two seasons, scoring 11 points, before being claimed off waivers by the San Jose Sharks.
Graves, meanwhile, would go on to play 10 seasons with the Rangers, scoring 280 goals and 507 points in 772 games.
Interestingly, the Oilers ended up acquiring both DeBrusk and Rice just a month later, along with Bernie Nicholls, for Mark Messier.
Dave Manson, 1992
Dave Manson was the piece acquired by the Oilers when trading Steve Smith from the Blackhawks. He posted 15 goals and 47 points his first season, leading the team’s defence in both categories. He also scored 12 goals in 16 postseason games, fourth on the entire team.
So it’s not surprising that Manson would draw interest as a restricted free agent, and so on June 6, 1992 the Washington Capitals signed him to a three-year deal worth $3.4M. The Oilers ended up matching the deal, and Manson rewarded them with another good year, scoring 15 goals and 45 points.
Manson seemed to stumble a bit the next year, however, scoring just 16 points in 57 games. The Oilers traded him to Winnipeg in exchange for Mats Lindgren and Boris Mironov, so they still came out ahead, unlike the first two offer sheets.
Craig Simpson, 1993
For the third year in a row, the Oilers found themselves at the mercy of an offer sheet.
This time, the San Jose Sharks signed forward Craig Simpson to a three-year deal worth $3.09M.
However, the Oilers protested the deal, as the majority of the money was to be given as a signing bonus, meaning that the salary would be so low the Oilers wouldn’t be entitled to compensation. The NHL invalidated the offer sheet as a result.
However, the Oilers got wind that the Buffalo Sabres were then interested in signing Simpson to an offer sheet, and so the Oilers traded him there instead for Jozef Cierny, who would go on to play exactly one game for the Oilers.
Granted, Simpson would only play two more injury shortened seasons before retiring, so the Oilers didn’t necessarily lose out too much.
Steven Rice, 1994
The streak of offer sheets continued the next off season. This time, the Hartford Whalers signed Steven Rice to a one-year, $1.7M deal. Rice was coming off of his first full NHL season, scoring 17 goals and 32 points in 62 games.
When the Oilers didn’t match, the Hartford Whalers offered winger Robert Kron as compensation. Kron was coming off of a career season, scoring 24 goals and 50 points. However, the Oilers wanted defenceman Bryan Marchment instead, and the arbitrator sided with the Oilers.
Rice would go on to play four more NHL seasons, all with the Whalers/Hurricanes, only topping his 1993–94 totals once. Marchment would also spend the next four seasons with the Oilers, before being traded to Tampa Bay along with Jason Bonsignoire and Steve Kelly in exchange for Roman Hamrlik and Paul Comrie. Suffice to say the Oilers came out ahead on this one.
Shayne Corson, 1995
Another year, another offer sheet.
The St. Louis Blues made the first (but now apparently not the last) offer sheet to an Oiler when they signed the former Oilers captain (as in, at that time he was already a former captain despite still playing on the team after being stripped of it by Coach George Burnett) to a five-year deal worth $6.975M.
Corson had played three seasons with the Oilers, where he scored 47 points, 54 points (in only 64 games), and 36 points in the 48 game lockout shortened season.
But given the controversy surrounding Corson, it’s not surprising the Oilers let him walk. The Oilers got two first-round picks, but about a week later traded those picks back to St. Louis in exchange for forward Mike Grier and goalie Curtis Joseph.
Corson would play one full season with the Blues, scoring 18 goals and 46 points in 77, before being traded 11 games into the next season, and then being traded to Montreal for Craig Conroy, Pierre Turgeon and Rory Fitzpatrick.
Meanwhile, Edmonton got one of the best goalies in their history (and the league’s) in Joseph, and Grier played six seasons with the team, scoring 20 goals twice. Fun fact: over those six seasons, Corson only outscored Grier twice.
So perhaps Oilers fans can take some solace at the fact that the last time the Blues did this the Oilers came out pretty far ahead?
Thomas Vanek, 2007
After a 12 year respite, the Oilers were once again in an offer sheet situation. However, unlike the first six times, it was the Oilers who were the instigator (well, well, well, how the turntables).
This was the second offer sheet in the cap era (the first coming the previous season when the Flyers signed Ryan Keller to a one-year, $1.9M deal that the Canucks matched).
The Oilers were reeling after going from the Stanley Cup Final in 2006 to finishing fifth worst in 2007. To make matters worse, the team had just traded the face of the franchise and fan favourite Ryan Smyth at the trade deadline. They also thought they had come to a deal with free agent centre Michal Nylander until it turns out that while waiting for the paper work he decided to sign with the Washington Capitals instead.
Needless to say, the team was desperate to turn things around and wanted to make a big splash. Well what bigger splash is there then signing a player to the biggest offer sheet in NHL history?
The Oilers signed Buffalo Sabres forward Thomas Vanek to a seven-year, $50M deal. It literally was the biggest in every sense: the longest term, the highest AAV, and the highest total amount, with the previous record being the offer sheet Sergei Fedora signed with Carolina in 1998 for six years, $38M.
Vanek was coming off a career season in his sophomore year, scoring 43 goals and 84 points, almost doubling his rookie totals of 25 goals and 48 points. He also posted six goals and 10 points in 16 playoff games.
However, the Sabres had just lost their co-captains and top two centres in Daniel Briere and Chris Drury to free agency, and so there was basically no way they were going to let Vanek walk, even if the compensation was going to be four first round picks.
Vanek wouldn’t match his totals from 2006–07 again, although he would still score 40 goals one more time and score at least 20 goals each of his six full remaining seasons with Buffalo (with his lowest being 20 goals in just 38 games in 2012–13), leading them in goals in five of them. The Sabres would make the playoffs twice in that span, and although they were bounced in the first round of each, Vanek would lead them in goals in both and points in another.
Based on that, it would seem like a win for Buffalo and a loss for Edmonton.
The four first round picks for the Oilers though ended up being a 12th overall (Tyler Myers), 10th overall (Magnus Paajarvi) and two first overall picks (Taylor Hall and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins). Ironically, the Sabres did end up with that 12th overall pick anyway, through a variety of trades that starts with the next offer sheet to be discussed below.
Sure, you can certainly argue that if the Oilers had gotten Vanek, they would have been better, or at least would have never embraced a tank to get those first overall picks. But could you imagine if those were the picks that ended up going over? What a disaster of a move that would have ended up being; I mean, the Oilers could have then gone a whole decade without making the playoffs! Oh, wait.
But yes, regardless, if this offer sheet was successful, that means no Nuge for sure. So that right there makes this a win for the Oilers.
Dustin Penner, 2007
20 days after signing Vanek, the Oilers decided to try the offer sheet route again, signing Anaheim forward Dustin Penner to a five-year, $21.5M.
Penner was 23-years-old and coming off of his first full NHL season, scoring 29 goals (second on the Ducks) and 45 points. At 6’4″ and 243 pounds, he looked to be a prototypical power forward that could replace Smyth’s net front presence.
Clearly Lowe learned from his mistake of going after a player that a team would keep at all costs, as he instead targeted a player further down the depth chart of a cap-strapped team (sound familiar?).
At the time of the offer sheet, the Ducks were at approximately $48M in terms of cap, meaning that the $4.25M cap hit would put them over the ceiling.
While the Sabres were certainly peeved off by the Vanek offer sheet, that was nothing compared to the fallout of this one.
Ducks GM Brian Burke took issue with the offer sheet, leading to a war of words between him and Lowe through media interviews, including Lowe calling Burke a “moron” and Burke responding with a challenge to a barn fight.
At the end of the day, no fight ended up occurring because NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman threatened to suspend both Burke and Lowe if they did. The Ducks did not match, and received a first-, second-, and third-round pick in return.
Penner would play 304 games over four seasons with the Oilers, scoring 93 goals and 186 points. He scored career highs in 2009–10, with 32 goals, 31 assists and 63 points, leading the team in each category.
However the Oilers never made the playoffs during his time, and in fact finished dead last in 2009–10.
The Oilers traded Penner to the Los Angeles Kings on the deadline in the fourth year of his deal in exchange for Colton Teubert, a first-round pick and a third-round pick.
While Teubert would play just 24 games with the Oilers (and in his NHL career) and the third-round pick was used on Daniil Kharkov who would never play in the league, the first-round pick ended up being the now recently retired Oscar Klefbom, who was the Oilers number one dman while healthy.
The Ducks ended up trading the first round pick, the 12th overall pick that became Tyler Myers, to Los Angeles for the 17th and 28th overall picks. Interestingly, L.A. traded that pick to Buffalo for the 13th overall pick, which they used on…Colton Teubert.
Anaheim ended up using the 17th overall pick on Jake Gardiner, and traded the 28th overall pick for two second round picks, which they used to draft Nicolas Deschamps and Eric O’Dell.
The second round pick Anaheim got for the Penner offer sheet they used on defenceman Justin Schultz, who would end up not signing in Anaheim but instead signing in Edmonton.
As if all the above isn’t wacky enough, the third-round pick make it even more insane and incestuous.
The Oilers had previously traded that pick to the New York Islanders along with Marc-Andre Bergeron for Denis Grebeshkov.
The Oilers then re-acquired it from the Islanders, along with defence-man Allan Rourke, by trading away the second-round pick in 2008 they got from Anaheim in the Chris Pronger trade.
The Oilers had made that trade for the purposes of making an offer sheet, since you have to use your own picks for one.
The Ducks then used that third-round pick in a trade. With the New York Islanders. For Marc-Andre Bergeron.
So who won this offer sheet? Well, the Oilers ended up with two of the four pieces involved in Penner and Schultz, both of whom were bona fide NHLers, plus got Klefbom from trading away Penner later.
They also got a player who was drafted with a pick acquired for the original first rounder included, so Anaheim ended up using the picks they got for Schultz, who never played for them as discussed above; Gardiner, who they ended up trading to Toronto without ever having him play a game for them; along with Joffrey Lupul for Francois Beauchemin, and then O’Dell and Deschamps, who also never played for the Ducks.
The only player involved that did play for Anaheim was Bergeron, who played a grand total of nine games and posting one assist before being traded for Brandon McMillan, who at least did play 91 games over three seasons for them.
So yeah, I would say the Oilers won this one in a landslide.
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Time will tell if the Oilers come out ahead on the Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway offer sheets, whether they match or not, but it would appear that the Oilers tend to come out ahead in the majority of the times they have been involved in one, so hopefully that trend continues here.
Photo by Brett Holmes/Icon Sportswire
