George Walker IV-Imagn Images

The Unexpected Real Reason NHL GM's Aren't Making Offer Sheets Emerges

Originally posted on House of Hockey | By Tom Banks | Last updated Aug 1, 2025 3:59 PM ET

Fans came into the NHL off-season expecting plenty of trades and offer sheets, but there's been little movement, with a report now revealing the shock reason why.

The 2024/25 NHL season was a monumental success for the league, and coming into the off-season, many Insiders and reporters touted this as potentially being one of the 'craziest' in NHL history.

While there were a flurry of moves early with a few surprising deals, as of yet there's not been the amount of movement that was expected, especially on the front of offer sheets.

Last off-season, we saw the Blues send not one, but two offer sheets to the Edmonton Oilers for Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway, and after opening up that process again, the expectation was that this off-season would see offer sheets being thrown around significantly.

Now, a report has revealed that it's the owners holding up potential offer sheets, as a player agent has noted that owners don't want to be the people responsible for driving up the market on players around the league, thus very little movement on the offer sheet front.

After the reaction to Doug Armstrong's move a year ago, this isn't surprising at all, as NHL GM's and front offices around the league want to work together to get deals done, but with a move like this not only forcing their hand but also driving up the price on players, it makes sense that they may not want to be handing offer sheets out often.

Ultimately, from a business perspective, this makes perfect sense, but given the excitement around the dual offer sheets a year ago and the speculation coming into this off-season, it's easy to see why fans are frustrated and somewhat disappointed at the lack of movement.

This article first appeared on House of Hockey and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: