DK: Fire off those offer sheets, Kyle Dubas! And now!
Throughout the Penguins' first day-plus of NHL free agency, I'm plagued by one thought above all others, regardless of how unrelated it might feel: What about the salary cap?
And no, not in the way we're used to fretting over that in these parts.
See, if accounting for all of Kyle Dubas' offseason transactions, up to and including the ones yesterday that sent Alex Nedeljković to San Jose, the retention of Phil Tomasino and Connor Dewar, plus the signings of three of the most mid free-agent acquisitions in hockey history ... the payroll's cap hit has increased by only around $2.5 million.
With around $17.5 million in remaining cap space.
With no one necessarily left to sign.
And, above all, with Dubas having made above-and-beyond clear over the weekend that he won't be pursuing anyone who's either pricy or over 30.
OK, so, where will it go?
This ain't the NFL. Unused cap space in the NHL can't be rolled over to the subsequent season. It's use it or ... well, not lose it, but pocket it.
Would Fenway Sports Group, which has pledged to spend up to the cap, want to make itself even less popular in Pittsburgh than it's been by reneging on a keystone commitment like that?
Honestly, I don't think so. It's not really how they roll with any of the teams they own and operate.
Can it be diverted to one of those Pirates-style, we're-putting-all-the-profit-into-baseball things like facilities, academies, development and so forth?
Well, no. Because the NHL isn't Major League Baseball, either. An NHL team can't just invest virtually limitless funding into amateur anything. And unless I'm missing something, there's nothing significantly amiss with PPG Paints Arena or the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, the only two facilities they've got.
I'll ask again, then: Where will it go?
Here's one thought: Annihilate teams with offer sheets.
For anyone who doesn't know what that means, that's understandable because, one, it's complex and, two, it doesn't happen all that much. But it's both relevant and worthwhile this summer.
Put in simplest terms, an offer sheet is a contract proposal from one team to another team's restricted free agent, a player whose rights are still held by another team because that team tendered that player a qualifying offer. If the RFA signs the offer sheet, the original team has a week to decide whether to match the offer and keep the player, or let the player go to the new team and receive draft pick compensation.
Seems like something we'd hear about more often, yeah?
Nope. Since their introduction in 1986, only 44 offer sheets have been accepted by RFAs. And in a dozen years under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, there've been only six. Part of the reason was flagrant collusion among the teams to not try to poach each others' players this way -- the NHLPA's forever complained about this, and with cause -- and the other part is that the post-COVID cap stayed so stagnant that few teams had this kind of free space, anyway.
Not anymore. The cap's soaring over the next three seasons -- $95.5 million this coming season, $104 million in 2026-27, $113.5 million in 2027-28—and GMs are now openly discussing this once-untouchable topic.
Dubas, too. He acknowledged over the weekend that one way the Penguins could add to their early-20s talent is to put out offer sheets. That way, they don't have to wait until a player's old enough for unrestricted free agency. They can go out and get 'em young.
Care for an example?
Here are several: Marco Rossi. Mason McTavish. Gabe Vilardi. Kaapo Kakko. Bowen Byram. Dmitri Voronkov. Cam York.
Uh-huh. So go hunt. That's the system. They're the prey.
One catch to all this: If the Penguins were to succeed in luring away someone's RFA, they're required to compensate that team with a designated draft pick that's based upon the amount paid. Here's a full chart of those figures, but the main one's $4,680,076, because anything over that requires compensation of a first-round and third-round pick, and it's the first tier at which a first-rounder's in that equation. That's a chancy proposition with a possible mega-talent available in next year's class in Gavin McKenna.
OK, so offer a penny less.
Plunder, baby. And don't wait. Nothing at all prevents this from being the present.
Think a Rossi or three would pick up the pace of the rebuild here?
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THE ASYLUM
Dejan Kovacevic
6:54 am - 07.02.2025DowntownDK: Fire off those offer sheets, Kyle Dubas! And now!
Throughout the Penguins' first day-plus of NHL free agency, I'm plagued by one thought above all others, regardless of how unrelated it might feel: What about the salary cap?
And no, not in the way we're used to fretting over that in these parts.
See, if accounting for all of Kyle Dubas' offseason transactions, up to and including the ones yesterday that sent Alex Nedeljković to San Jose, the retention of Phil Tomasino and Connor Dewar, plus the signings of three of the most mid free-agent acquisitions in hockey history ... the payroll's cap hit has increased by only around $2.5 million.
With around $17.5 million in remaining cap space.
With no one necessarily left to sign.
And, above all, with Dubas having made above-and-beyond clear over the weekend that he won't be pursuing anyone who's either pricy or over 30.
OK, so, where will it go?
This ain't the NFL. Unused cap space in the NHL can't be rolled over to the subsequent season. It's use it or ... well, not lose it, but pocket it.
Would Fenway Sports Group, which has pledged to spend up to the cap, want to make itself even less popular in Pittsburgh than it's been by reneging on a keystone commitment like that?
Honestly, I don't think so. It's not really how they roll with any of the teams they own and operate.
Can it be diverted to one of those Pirates-style, we're-putting-all-the-profit-into-baseball things like facilities, academies, development and so forth?
Well, no. Because the NHL isn't Major League Baseball, either. An NHL team can't just invest virtually limitless funding into amateur anything. And unless I'm missing something, there's nothing significantly amiss with PPG Paints Arena or the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, the only two facilities they've got.
I'll ask again, then: Where will it go?
Here's one thought: Annihilate teams with offer sheets.
For anyone who doesn't know what that means, that's understandable because, one, it's complex and, two, it doesn't happen all that much. But it's both relevant and worthwhile this summer.
Put in simplest terms, an offer sheet is a contract proposal from one team to another team's restricted free agent, a player whose rights are still held by another team because that team tendered that player a qualifying offer. If the RFA signs the offer sheet, the original team has a week to decide whether to match the offer and keep the player, or let the player go to the new team and receive draft pick compensation.
Seems like something we'd hear about more often, yeah?
Nope. Since their introduction in 1986, only 44 offer sheets have been accepted by RFAs. And in a dozen years under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, there've been only six. Part of the reason was flagrant collusion among the teams to not try to poach each others' players this way -- the NHLPA's forever complained about this, and with cause -- and the other part is that the post-COVID cap stayed so stagnant that few teams had this kind of free space, anyway.
Not anymore. The cap's soaring over the next three seasons -- $95.5 million this coming season, $104 million in 2026-27, $113.5 million in 2027-28—and GMs are now openly discussing this once-untouchable topic.
Dubas, too. He acknowledged over the weekend that one way the Penguins could add to their early-20s talent is to put out offer sheets. That way, they don't have to wait until a player's old enough for unrestricted free agency. They can go out and get 'em young.
Care for an example?
Here are several: Marco Rossi. Mason McTavish. Gabe Vilardi. Kaapo Kakko. Bowen Byram. Dmitri Voronkov. Cam York.
Uh-huh. So go hunt. That's the system. They're the prey.
One catch to all this: If the Penguins were to succeed in luring away someone's RFA, they're required to compensate that team with a designated draft pick that's based upon the amount paid. Here's a full chart of those figures, but the main one's $4,680,076, because anything over that requires compensation of a first-round and third-round pick, and it's the first tier at which a first-rounder's in that equation. That's a chancy proposition with a possible mega-talent available in next year's class in Gavin McKenna.
OK, so offer a penny less.
Plunder, baby. And don't wait. Nothing at all prevents this from being the present.
Think a Rossi or three would pick up the pace of the rebuild here?
Want to participate in our comments?
Want an ad-free experience?
Become a member, and enjoy premium benefits! Make your voice heard on the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates, and hear right back from tens of thousands of fellow Pittsburgh sports fans worldwide! Plus, access all our premium content, including Dejan Kovacevic columns, Friday Insider, daily Live Qs with the staff, more! And yeah, that's right, no ads at all!
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