The Carolina Hurricanes sent shockwaves throughout the NHL last Saturday when Jesperi Kotkaniemi accepted their offer sheet for 1 year at $6.1M. No team has successfully acquired a player through an offer sheet since Dustin Penner in 2007, and there have only been two offers period since 2014; both involving the Hurricanes and Canadiens.
NHL GMs are incredibly risk-averse when it comes to the use of offer sheets, partially because the circumstances have to be perfect for it to be successful, but also because they are worried about payback. There’s a lot of chatter about big-name RFAs and the potential for some team to offer sheet them, but the fact that we’ve only seen 10 players accept them (with 9 being matched) in the 21st century means that we should virtually never expect it to happen.