Bruins Still Not At Risk Of Losing Swayman With Signs Of Life On NHL RFA Market

There is a sign of life within the NHL offseason for the first time in weeks.

First reported by Frank Seravalli of Daily Face-Off, the St. Louis Blues submitted offer sheets to restricted free agents Phillip Broberg and Dylan Holloway, both of the Edmonton Oilers, on Tuesday morning.

#stlblues have tendered offer sheets to both #Oilers Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway.

Edmonton has 7 days to match the offers.

— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) August 13, 2024

A quick summation of offer sheets: if a player is a restricted free agent, they cannot negotiate with any team other than their current one. However, another team can make an offer to the player, which their current team has the right to match in order to retain the player.

If the player’s current team doesn’t match the offer sheet, the player can sign with the new team, and the former one receives draft pick compensation based on the average annual value of the player’s new contract.

Teams rarely use offer sheets as they can sometimes lead to future retribution. Look no further than the last time one was signed, when, in 2019, the Carolina Hurricanes signed Jesperi Kotkeniemi from the Montreal Canadiens after the Habs attempted to sign Carolina star forward Sebastian Aho as an RFA the year prior.

Those who follow the Boston Bruins may read the words ‘offer sheet’ and immediately have their ears perk up as the team is still trying to agree to terms with goalie Jeremy Swayman.

But even though the dreaded offer sheet has deployed into the field, the Bruins have little reason to worry about another team trying to land their prized netminder.

As previously mentioned, the compensation for an offer sheet is predicated on its average annual value.

By offering Broberg and Holloway $4,580,917 and $2,290,457, respectively, all that the Blues have to give to the Oilers as compensation are a second and third-round pick. Any team that attempts to sign Swayman will likely have to provide the Bruins much more.

Viewed as one of the best goaltenders in the league, Swayman is expected to sign a deal worth somewhere in the range of $7.75 million to as much as $10 million per season, based on what other top players at his position make.

At a minimum, any team that makes an offer to Swayman will need to be able to supply the Bruins with two first-round picks, a second-round pick, and a third-round pick, all of which must be their own selections. Based on that alone, the Bruins have little reason to worry, as only a few teams possess those assets. Even then, most have one issue or another standing in their way.

The Buffalo Sabres, Detroit Red Wings, and Seattle Kraken all have their own restricted free agents to worry about. The Nashville Predators don’t have a need in goal, and neither do the New York Islanders, who are out of cap space to begin with. The same could be said of the Philadelphia Flyers.

Only two teams have both the draft capital and salary cap space necessary to make a legitimate offer to Swayman.

The Utah Hockey Club has $9.92 million in cap space and a total of 13 picks across the first three rounds of the next three drafts.

Entering the inaugural season in its new home, Utah has been aggressive this offseason, taking on large contracts with the likes of Mikhail Sergachev and John Marino. Yet, bringing Swayman to the NHL’s newest city doesn’t seem to be on Utah’s itinerary.

The club already has an underrated, and not to mention cheap, tandem in goal that it seems content with, featuring Karel Vejmelka and Connor Ingram. If Utah wanted to add a goalie this offseason, then why wasn’t it among the teams interested in making a trade with the Bruins for Linus Ullmark at the beginning of the summer?

Then there is Montreal.

While that would certainly be one way to reignite the oldest rivalry in hockey, the Canadiens have already been burned once after trying to sign a star player to an offer sheet. They likely won’t want to suffer that same consequence again.

As already was the case, the Bruins and Swayman remain safe from all angles.

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