Hurricanes Threatened Offer Sheet for Oilers Star

On June 30, the Edmonton Oilers made Evan Bouchard a very wealthy man when they signed him to a four-year, $42 million contract ($10.5 million annual cap hit). Bouchard, 25, has quickly become one of the NHL's best offensive defensemen, and he now gets the raise he deserved.

It's a good thing the Oilers signed him to that contract when they did. Bouchard would've become a restricted free agent just one day later on July 1, and thus been eligible for an offer sheet. In fact, one team was reportedly prepared to make a major push for him.

According to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman, the Carolina Hurricanes threatened the Oilers with a massive offer sheet for Bouchard just days before he signed his extension.

“The Hurricanes made it very clear that they had a lot of cap room, as everybody knew, and they were going to use it,” Friedman said on his "32 Thoughts" podcast." “Mitch Marner obviously didn’t end up there, but going into free agency, if they got to a point that they could offer him a contract, there were a lot of people who believed the biggest number was going to come out of Raleigh.”

Friedman adds that the Hurricanes shifted their attention to Bouchard after Marner agreed to a sign-and-trade to join the Vegas Golden Knights.

“Carolina did a lot of things that are now coming to the surface to show that they were willing to be aggressive,” Friedman said. “The reason Evan Bouchard’s extension got done in Edmonton so quickly was because they threatened the Oilers with an offer sheet.”

The Hurricanes did ultimately get their big acquisition on the Blue Line, as they acquired K'Andre Miller from the New York Rangers and signed him to an eight year, $60 million contract ($7.5 million annual cap hit) on July 1. Had their offer sheet to Bouchard ended up anywhere close to what the Oilers signed him to, they would've had to give up significant draft capital to get him, and the Oilers could've simply matched and blocked their efforts.

A native of Oakville, Ontario, Bouchard has 55 goals and 238 points in 347 NHL games with Edmonton. He scored seven goals and 23 points for the Oilers this postseason.