First offer sheet candidate lands in rumour mill

In what turned out to be the New York Rangers’ last game of the 2021-22 season, forward Kaapo Kakko was made a surprising healthy scratch. And he could have played his last game with the Blue Shirts… The whole ordeal quickly prompted Larry Brooks of the New York Post to wonder if being scratched from that crucial Game 6 could lead Kakko to entertain offer sheets from rival clubs. He did so by examining an interesting parallel between Kakko and another Finnish forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi, who hit the RFA market last summer with the Canadiens. He would sign a one-year, $6.1MM offer-sheet with Carolina which Montreal declined to match, ultimately costing the Hurricanes a first and third round draft pick.

The parallel is also made by the fact that when Kotkaniemi played with the Canadiens in the Stanley Cup final last summer: he was a healthy scratch in Games Four and Five…

Nothing has yet to happen, however, if Kakko was interested in a change of scenery and would choose to shop his talents when free agency opens on July 13th, the Rangers would be placed in a tough position if Kakko were presented a offer sheet like the one Kotkaniemi from Carolina. Per Cap Friendly, the Rangers have $13.5 million in cap space for 2022-23 and 14 players under contract. Kakko is completing his entry-level contract and lacks arbitration rights this summer. Larry Brooks’ colleague Mollie Walker suggested a two-year deal between $2 million and $2.5 million, but who knows if Kakko could instead become the first offer sheet candidate of the summer?!

We don’t see offer sheets often, and a few weeks ago, the NHL raised the salary thresholds that will determine the draft-pick compensation owed in the 2022 offer-sheet process.

“The lowest AAV triggering the need for a draft pick to change hands has been raised to $1,386,490 (an increase of $29,950). Each lower and upper limit of the salary tiers has been raised in turn, with the highest tier — requiring teams to pay four first-round draft picks — now sitting at $10,503,720 and above (an increase of $226,891).”

This one will be interesting to keep an eye on…