Every year, the NHL releases new thresholds for offer sheet compensation for eligible RFAs. The numbers are built around the league-average salary, which dropped in 2020-2021 from the prior year. Elliotte Friedman posted the figures in his 31 Thoughts today.

  • For AAVs below $1.35654 million, there is no compensation
  • From that number to $2.055364, the price is one 3rd-round pick
  • From that number to $4.110732, its one 2nd
  • From that number $6.166096 its one 1st and one 3rd
  • From that number to $8.221463, it’s one 1st, one 2nd and one 3rd
  • From that number to $10.276829, it is two 1sts, one 2nd and one 3rd
  • Over that number, it is four 1sts/

Some rules to remember:

  1. NHL teams cannot negotiate with a player in regards to an offer sheet until July 27.  The player cannot sign that offer sheet until July 28.
  2. If the player (but not the team) elects arbitration, he cannot sign an offer sheet.
  3. The team submitting the offer sheet has to have all of the required compensation picks, and they have to be their own picks. They have to be picks for the next draft (so 2021) unless they are required to have two picks of  the same round. Then they can have two of the next three year’s picks to offer.
  4. And now for the calculation of the AAV to determine the threshold:

The compensation limits are the AAV of the offer sheet averaged over the length of the contract to an upper limit of five years. Here is an example to explain this: If Patrik Laine signs an offer sheet for 7 years at 10 million, that seems at first look to require two first-round picks, one second and one third.

But that $70 million has to be divided by 5, so it’s actually an AAV of $14 million, and is a top-tier, four first-round picks compensation offer sheet.

Now, you’re ready to go make up offer sheet scenarios. Here’s a handy list of all the RFAs for you. Note: the list includes RFAs of the 10.2(c) variety, who are not eligible to receive an offer sheet.

Remember, it’s not a team “offer sheeting” a player, it’s a player signing a deal for a new SPC with another team. The player is the decision maker.