5 NHL Restricted Free Agents Teams Should Offer Sheet During the 2025 Offseason

Every year in the NHL, when the offseason starts to get close, there are a handful of questions that always get asked.

What sort of trades are on the horizon?

Where are the top UFA’s going to go, and how much are they going to get?

And will this be the year restricted free agency and offer sheets become a thing again?

To the latter question, the answer is almost always a resounding no. It takes a complex series of circumstances to successfully pull it off, and it rarely happens. You not only need to find an RFA that is attainable, but you need them to have an interest in signing your offer sheet, and it has to be a situation where the team originally holding that player’s rights does not want to match it. 

In the salary cap era (going back to the start of the 2005-06 season) there have only been 12 offer sheets actually signed.

Only four of them resulted in the offer sheets not being matched.

So it’s rare. 

But it is worth pointing out that each of the past three offer sheets to be signed was all successful, including the past two this offseason when the St. Louis Blues were able to get defenseman Philip Broberg and forward Dylan Holloway away from the Edmonton Oilers. They were wildly successful signings that have helped the Blues get back into playoff contention, and might show teams that the RFA market could be a great way to add young talent.

The trick is you can not aim too high.

If it is too good a player, the price will not only be outrageous in terms of salary and draft pick compensation, but the team controlling that player’s rights is most likely to match it.

Edmonton is going to match any offer sheet for Evan Bouchard.

The New York Islanders are going to match a Noah Dobson offer sheet. 

The Toronto Maple Leafs are going to match a Matthew Knies offer sheet. 

The Anaheim Ducks are going to match a Mason McTavish offer sheet.

So let’s take a look at some players that could – or perhaps should – be potential RFA targets this summer.

The Rangers could be an intriguing team to target in the RFA market, specifically as it relates to Cuylle and Miller.

For one, the Rangers are already going to be dealing with a bit of a salary cap crunch, entering the offseason with only $9.6 million in salary cap space (one of the lowest totals in the NHL). 

They also have several restricted free agents to deal with, while also needing to significantly fix a roster that went from the Presidents’ Trophy in 2023-24 to completely missing the playoffs during the 2024-25 season. 

They have a lot of areas to try and fix, they will have to figure out what they are going to do with veteran forward Chris Kreider, and they have to do all of that while juggling the salary cap. 

That will be a challenge. 

It might also be a welcome change of scenery for some players if offer sheet opportunities presented themselves. 

Miller still has a ton of talent and untapped potential, but it has not all come together for him in New York. Perhaps he would be interested in a fresh start somewhere else.  

Cuylle has been one of the few bright spots with the Rangers this season, putting together a breakout season offensively that, through Saturday, has seen him score 19 goals with 42 total points in 79 games. He should be due for a big raise

Even if the Rangers matched potential offer sheets here, a rival team could put some pressure on them with a dual offer sheet similar to the ones St. Louis signed Broberg and Holloway to this past offseason.

There are a lot of theories as to why offer sheets are so rare, and one of the more common ones is that teams are afraid of general managers getting revenge on them in future seasons. 

When Montreal attempted to sign Sebastian Aho away from Carolina a few years ago, the Hurricanes responded by signing away Jesperi Kotkaniemi two years later. 

When Vancouver attempted to sign David Backes away from St. Louis in 2008, the Blues responded a week later by trying to sign Steve Benier.

When Edmonton successfully signed Dustin Penner away from Anaheim, Brian Burke and Kevin Lowe nearly fought each other in a barn over it. 

Offer sheets create animosity. They also open the door for somebody to get a taste of their own medicine. 

With the Blues having signed two key players away from Edmonton this past summer, there is the potential for the Oilers to return the favor. 

The Blues’ big restricted free agent is goalie Joel Hofer. The Oilers are going to need goaltending help (again), while the unrestricted free agent and trade markets both look especially grim. 

This would be a great chance for the Oilers to not only get a potential goalie upgrade, but also get some revenge for this past offseason. 

Hofer is not an all-star or superstar by any means, but he has at least been an above-average player in his early career and could be a big upgrade for the Oilers.

The Panthers are one of the NHL’s best teams and have some big contracts on their roster and some big pending unrestricted free agents this summer, including Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad and Brad Marchand. Some of them might be re-signed. If they are not, some big-money players might be coming in to replace them. That salary cap space they have is going to disappear fast, no matter what path they decide to take here with the roster. 

The could create an opportunity for a team to make a run at Samoskevich.

He was a first-round pick by the Panthers in 2021, and the 2024-25 season has been his first full year in the NHL.

It has gone mostly well with 15 goals and 31 total points in his first 70 games, while also posting strong underlying possession numbers. 

This is the type of player rival teams should be looking at as an RFA. He is already a very good young player on a big-money team that has some big players to try and re-sign. Even if you have to overpay him a little bit in the short-term to convince him to sign the offer sheet, and to prevent Florida from matching, it very well might end up being worth it in the long run.

Bourque is a good enough young player that the Stars would almost certainly match any offer sheet thrown his way if it is reasonably possible. But it would be interesting to see a rival team put some pressure on the Stars to force them into a tough decision. 

The Stars have one of the best rosters in the NHL, and as a result, have one of the tightest salary cap situations.

They only have $4.5 million in salary cap space going into the summer (lowest in the NHL) with six roster spots to fill. That includes some significant unrestricted free agents. 

Could that make them vulnerable to an offer sheet involving one of their better young players? 

It should. 

Dallas’ farm system has been a non-stop pipeline of young, impact talent over the years, and Bourque has a chance to join that parade in the coming seasons. His first full season in the NHL in 2024-25 has produced 11 goals and 25 total points in 70 games. Hardly eye-popping numbers, but his talent and potential remain high. 

He is not really a player the Stars would be looking to trade, but if you could make an offer sheet that gets him for some draft picks it would be more than worth doing.