Since the Chicago Blackhawks made the trade sending Seth Jones to Florida, there has been some talk that they might jump into the restricted free agent market this summer and sign someone to an offer sheet.
Offer sheets have been fairly rare in the NHL. The San Jose Sharks signed Niklas Hjalmarsson to an offer sheet after the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in 2010. This past summer, however, the St. Louis Blues signed two players on the Oilers’ roster — Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway — to separate offer sheets. In doing so, they had to re-acquire one of their own draft picks. And that raised the question of whether or not offer sheets could become more popular in the future.
As a reminder: a player needs to sign the offer sheet, and then the player’s original team has one week to decide if they want to match that offer sheet. They would then assume the terms negotiated by the offering team. If they don’t or can’t match the offer, the team losing the player would receive prescribed draft compensation. We have some rough estimates for what that compensation might be for this coming summer.
With the Blackhawks having roughly $40 million in cap space this summer — and plenty of draft picks to work with in coming years — they’re uniquely positioned to potentially jump into that market hard this summer. And there are some intriguing names for the Blackhawks’ front office to consider.
Here are the guys who would be on my radar if the Blackhawks do decide to go the offer sheet route this summer.
Matthew Knies, Maple Leafs
As a reminder: the Blackhawks were reportedly close to a deal in 2022 that would have landed Knies. That deal would have seen Brandon Hagel and Marc-Andre Fleury go to Toronto for Knies, current Blackhawks goaltender Petr Mrázek and first round picks (plural). That trade fell thru and the Blackhawks ended up sending Hagel to Tampa and Fleury to Minnesota in separate deals. I will also note that Kyle Davidson was the general manager of the Blackhawks at that time.
Knies, who will turn 23 in the first weeks of the coming NHL regular season, has emerged as a bona fide offensive threat with the Maple Leafs. He has good size, can skate and plays the kind of game the Blackhawks would likely target.
An offer sheet between approximately $4.81M and $7.2M would require the Blackhawks to give up their own first- and third-round picks in 2026 as compensation. And Chicago might be able to offer more term than other teams might feel comfortable. Because of the previous attempt of this front office to acquire him, he leads my list of intriguing names.
JJ Peterka, Sabres
Peterka, 23, is closing on his second straight 20-goal season. He isn’t a physically big forward, but he plays larger than his size would indicate.
The wild card here is whether or not the Sabres would match a deal on a young forward. They’ve locked up so many of their young players with term already that him possibly getting to RFA on July 1 makes his potential availability more interesting.
The question here: if Peterka is a $5M player this summer, is he worth a potential lottery pick in a deep 2026 NHL Draft?
Gabriel Vilardi, Jets
We’ve talked about the fact that players don’t like/want to play in Winnipeg, so convincing him to sign an offer sheet might not be hard. Vilardi is on the older side in this group; he turns 26 in mid-August. But with that age comes a more robust NHL resume — he’s scored at least 22 goals in each of the past three seasons.
Being inside the Blackhawks’ division might/should give the Blackhawks some pause in making an offer sheet here, depending on how the organization views their timeline. He is likely going to fall into that $4.81M — $7.2M window costing a first and third. And that cannot be a protected first-round pick. In a loaded 2026 draft, the possibility of Winnipeg getting a ticket in the lottery from the Blackhawks might be a deal-breaker for Vilardi.
Wyatt Johnston / Mavrik Bourque, Stars
Dallas could have either/both of these players available to sign an offer sheet this summer. It’s pretty clear that Johnston is their priority; he’s the more established NHL player at this point and, frankly, his next contract is likely what would have given Dallas pause when considering a trade for Seth Jones.
There have been rumors that Dallas may put Bourque out there as trade bait to help them before Friday’s trade deadline because of the possibility of an offer sheet. An offer sheet this summer between approximately $2.41 million and $4.8 million will require a second-round pick as compensation.
Which begs the question: with the Blackhawks currently owning three second-round picks next year… why not? If he can be an impact player who does something the front office believes other prospects who are relatively close to the NHL cannot (a good question), there’s value there with the Blackhawks’ surplus of picks in that specific round.
The same intra-division concern exists if the Blackhawks made a blockbuster offer to Johnston. He’s going to play in the big-money tier. An offer sheet between a projected $7.21M and $9.6M would cost a first-, second- and third-round picks. Offer sheets between $9.6M and $12 million would cost two firsts, a second and a third-round pick.
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