The NHL has released the offer sheet compensation table for 2025, letting teams know just what they’ll have to cough up if they manage to steal a restricted free agent from another team.
Offer sheet comp levels for 2025:
— PuckPedia (@PuckPedia) May 13, 2025
<$1.54M no comp
$1.54M – 2.34M: 3rd
$2.34M – 4.68M: 2nd
4.68M – 7.02M: 1st, 3rd
7.02M – 9.36M: 1st, 2nd, 3rd
9.36M – 11.7M: 1st, 1st, 2nd, 3rd
11.7M+: 1st x 4@FriedgeHNIC had these 1st
Check out requirements:https://t.co/Cac7a5LRpE
As we saw from free agency in 2024, when the St. Louis Blues lured Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg away from the Edmonton Oilers, the offer sheet can be an effective tool for teams looking for talented young players.
Now, with the salary cap rising next season, fewer teams will be in the cap crunch that the Oilers were last season. That means that a team like the Sharks will need to offer more money if it wants to go the offer sheet route.
General Manager Mike Grier has made a habit of gobbling up draft picks in the past few seasons while rebuilding the team, without sending a lot of San Jose’s draft picks out. It’s an essential move if a team wants to offer sheet players because the league requires teams to use their own draft picks as compensation if an offer sheet is successful.
What kind of offer sheet could the Sharks hand out?
So, knowing that, if the Sharks wanted to issue an offer sheet this offseason, what could the team conceivably do?
As of May 14, the Sharks are missing one key piece necessary for making most of the offer sheets happen — the team’s third-round draft pick. That pick is currently held by the Pittsburgh Penguins, which acquired the 2026 third-round pick in the trade that sent Erik Karlsson to the Penguins. Unless Grier makes a trade with the Penguins to reacquire this pick, some of the deals can’t be completed.
So, without a third-round pick, the Sharks’ options are to hand out an offer sheet worth $2,340,037 to $4,680,076 or a deal over $11,700,192. That’s it. All other deals would require having the team’s own third-round pick.
The team could also issue an offer sheet below $1,544,424, but that’s because there’s no compensation required for offer sheets at that price.
What restricted free agents might the Sharks be able to target with an offer sheet?
Unfortunately for the Sharks, there aren’t a lot of quality players available in that price range, and the ones that are, the team doesn’t need, or the team holding the rights to that player would likely match the offer.
Evan Bouchard
One of the players the Sharks could target is the Edmonton Oilers’ Evan Bouchard. Bouchard made $3.9 million this past season and is due a raise. The trouble for the Sharks is that the offer could only go up to $4.68 million with the draft picks the team has available now.
$4.68 million likely isn’t enough to deter the Oilers. Edmonton has $9.41 million available in cap space, and most of the team’s players are signed already. The Sharks would have to offer a lot more if GM Grier wanted to lure Bouchard away.
Matthew Knies
The Toronto Maple Leafs need to re-sign Mitch Marner, so even though the team has $26.86 million in cap space next season, Marner is expected to take up a considerable chunk of that. What’s more, if Marner is signed north of $10 million, the remaining money will be needed to sign six more players. That may not leave enough room for the Maple Leafs to sign Matthew Knies, who AFP Analytics reports could make anywhere between $3.958 million and $6.625 million per season.
While the Sharks can’t afford to pay Knies the higher end of that (again, the team doesn’t have the draft picks to make that offer sheet work), it can pay $4.68 million and hope the Leafs can’t afford to match it. It’s unlikely, but a player like Knies playing alongside Macklin Celebrini or Will Smith would certainly be something to watch.
K’Andre Miller
The New York Rangers are in a cap crunch with just $8.42 million in cap space and four players to sign. That might make K’Andre Miller too expensive, especially considering that Miller isn’t everything that the Rangers have hoped for.
The Sharks could take a gamble and offer sheet Miller with a one-year, $4.68 million contract. After that, San Jose could decide whether to sign Miller to a longer deal and not have to pay more than a second-round pick for the defenseman.
Of course, it may never get to that point. Many league experts believe that the Rangers will trade Miller before there’s the risk of losing him to an offer sheet.
Noah Dobson
This is one of those cases where the Sharks could certainly offer sheet Noah Dobson, but the move would only be doing the New York Islanders a favor. Dobson is looking at a big contract next season, potentially north of $10 million per season. While the Sharks would love to have a young, right-shot, puck-moving defenseman and even have the cap room to make it happen, paying four first-round picks to get Dobson is not worth it.
If San Jose is truly targeting Dobson this offseason, the team would be better served working out a trade with the Islanders.
Bowen Byram
Bowen Byram is another player the Sharks might be better served trading for than offer sheeting. The defenseman is expected to make anywhere between $5.238 million and $7.274 million next season, according to AFP Analytics.
The Sharks don’t have the draft capital to make an offer sheet like that happen. Plus, with the Buffalo Sabres making decisions on defense, Byram might be had for a package of picks and prospects that the Sharks could afford to give up.
Fabian Zetterlund
This last one is a fun one, but also one that the Sharks might want to consider. Yes, Fabian Zetterlund is due a raise, but do the Ottawa Senators really want to pay $3 million to $4 million for a player on the team’s fourth line?
Now that the wound of being traded has had a chance to heal, Zetterlund might jump at the chance to return to play with his bestie, William Eklund. A two-year, $3.9 million per season deal would cost the Sharks a second-round pick and would bring in a player who has already shown he has chemistry with the current forward group.
Will it happen? Not likely, but it would be fun if it did.
Conclusion
What the Sharks need the most is help on the backend, and while there are some options among the restricted free agents, the deals are either impossible to do given the Sharks’ current draft picks available, or they’re just not worth it.
If the Sharks want to acquire a young defenseman, the team will either have to find one internally or make a trade to make it happen. At this point, there are no offer sheets that the Sharks should produce.
