Hostile offer sheet: keep an eye on Mavrik Bourque as a possible target this summer

For the past few weeks, there’s been a lot of talk about the possibility of the upcoming summer being “the summer of offer sheets” in the NHL. After all, it paid off handsomely for the Blues (twice over) last summer… and with the salary cap set to rise significantly over the next few years, there are some teams who might take a chance.

That said, the cap is also rising for the teams that hold the rights to these restricted free agents… and that means that, in order to make a successful offer sheet, you’ll have to target a team with little room to manoeuvre, and put them in a tricky position.

In the Stars’ case, the club will have just under $5M under the cap… and guys like Jamie Benn, Matt Duchene and Evgenii Dadonov still don’t have a deal in place for next season.

And that’s not counting Mikael Granlund and Cody Ceci… but in their case, they’re expected to leave.

This means that the Stars will have little room to manoeuvre… and that a Jesperi Kotkaniemi-style offer for Bourque, who may want a change of scenery after spending the majority of the current playoffs in the stands, would put the Stars in an unenviable position.

Let’s see if it happens… because he’s a logical target.

Overtime

– I’m thinking the same thing. I don’t think it’s going to happen, though.

– That wouldn’t help the Stars’ case, would it.

– Scott Gomez could take the helm of the Chicago Steel in the USHL. This is Sean Farrell’s former team.

– Indeed.