NHL Trade Rumors: Top 5 offer sheet candidates this offseason
5. Brayden Point
Tampa Bay Lightning center Brayden Point is about to get paid. He’s coming off a career season, during which he emerged as one of Tampa’s most valuable and productive forwards. Brayden lived up to his last name by setting career-highs with 91 points and 41 goals.
The question is, which team is going to be paying him? Point is a restricted free agent and Tampa only has $6.86 million of cap space, as of June 18. This assumes the salary cap ceiling is $83 million. It could be lower than that.
The Lightning have options to create cap space, but they might have just lost their best one. Trading Ryan Callahan with a draft pick or prospect would save Tampa $5.8 million. His modified no-trade clause was already going to make moving him hard, but a recent back injury could make it even more difficult. It could also make him ineligible for a buyout, as you can’t buyout an injured skater.
Related Story. 3 Teams Who Should Sign Point To An Offer Sheet. light
A six-year deal worth $8.75 million annually would just barely fall under the compensation tier of two first-round picks, a second-round pick, and a third-round pick. Remember, to calculate the average annual value of an offer sheet that’s for more than five years, you take the total money involved and divide it by five.
8.75 times six is 52.5. $52.5 million divided by five is $10.5 million per year. The four first-round pick tier begins at $10,568,590 per year.
Two first rounders, a second rounder, and a third rounder is still a pretty hefty price to pay. But guys like Point are very hard to find. An added bonus of the offer sheet – the Lightning would have to part with someone like Tyler Johnson, Alex Killorn, J.T. Miller, or Callahan within a week of the offer sheet being signed.
Chances of an offer sheet: Slim to none. The Lightning are probably going to ensure Point is signed by July 1. Also, how many teams are going to offer Point a better chance of winning than Tampa does? Remember, the player has to sign the offer sheet too, and you don’t sign an offer sheet unless you are willing to leave your team.