Changes In NHL Offer Sheet Compensations for 2022-2023 Season

The NHL will be modifying their Offer Sheet compensation guidelines for next season due to the Salary Cap increasing to $82.5M next season.

As per CapFriendly, the increase of $1M of the NHL Salary Cap will make the compensation windows a little bit more interesting for teams this summer, as they receive a slight boost in the salary thresholds for Offer Sheets. Restricted Free Agents (RFA) will be eligible to receive Offer Sheets as of the opening of free agency on July 13.

Some RFA Exemptions For Offer Sheets

RFAs that are not signed as of July 13 of this year will be eligible to receive Offer Sheets from rival clubs, but there are some exceptions. RFAs with salary arbitration eligibility are exempt from receiving Offer Sheets once they apply for arbitration and notify the league by July 17th at 5 pm, but remain eligible to receive them prior to notifying the league of their intention.

Furthermore, there are some RFAs that cannot receive offer sheets at all, which we refer to as 10.2(c) RFAs, like Montreal Canadiens defenceman Alexander Romanov. Romanov is classified as a 10.2(c) RFA because he has not accrued three “professional seasons” of hockey under his belt, according to the NHL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. That’s due to the following clause:

“Any Player with fewer than the required years of professional experience set forth in Section 10.2 shall have no right to Free Agency except as provided in this section. Upon expiration of such a Player’s SPC, the Club to whom the Player was last under SPC shall be entitled to make that Player a Qualifying Offer under the terms and conditions set forth in Section 10.2(a)(ii) above. A Club which makes this Qualifying Offer will have the exclusive right to negotiate with any such Player.”

New NHL Offer Sheet Compensation

Below is the new compensation threshold for Offer Sheets.

NOTE: The AAV calculated for the purposes of an offer sheet is calculated in the following two ways:

• If the contract length is five years or less: Total Salary/Number of Years = AAV
• If the contract length is longer than five years: Total Salary/5 years = AAV