Blues' Armstrong on how NHL GMs view offer sheets: 'There is no code'

For the first time since 2021, and just the second time in the past decade, an NHL club has successfully snagged young talent away from a cash-strapped rival by way of an offer sheet. This iteration saw a double bill: the St. Louis Blues landing both defender Philip Broberg and forward Dylan Holloway via a pair of offer sheets handed to the former Edmonton Oilers at the same time.

After bolstering their own roster with some veteran signings early in free agency, leaving them with little room to operate financially, the Oilers were forced to let the two depth pieces walk. In the wake of the split, the 2024 Stanley Cup finalists find themselves a little thinner on the blue line, and a little older overall, while the Blues add a couple more promising pieces to their rebuilding project.

Despite the potential for this type of successful coup, the offer sheet has remained a rarely used method of roster-building among NHL GMs. In the past two decades, only 10 players had signed offer sheets before the two newest Blues put pen to paper on theirs last week. Of course, only two of those 10 were left unmatched by the player’s original club, prompting a move to a new organization.

Still, asked about the discussion and intrigue that tends to swirl around the use of offer sheets — particularly the idea that GMs refrain from using them in order to avoid ruffling feathers among their fellow managers — Blues GM Doug Armstrong poured cold water on the notion.

“I’ve read what people are writing — if there is a GM code not to do offer sheets, nobody emailed it to me,” he said with a chuckle Tuesday while speaking with the media about his club’s two newest acquisitions. “This is a tool that I think everyone uses, and should use.

“You know, I think it was reported that I wouldn’t have done this to [former Oilers GM] Kenny Holland — that’s the furthest thing from the truth. Honestly, I’d do it to my mother if she was managing the Oilers.”

Recent history suggests there has perhaps been some animosity between managers when it comes to the offer-sheet game. The last two instances involved the Montreal Canadiens inking star Carolina Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho to a five-year offer (which was matched by the Canes) before Carolina returned the favour two years later with an offer sheet for 2018 third-overall pick Jesperi Kotkaniemi (which was not matched).

That rivalry aside, Armstrong stressed that he views offer sheets as simply another means of adding talent to a roster.

“My job is to take care of St. Louis Blues fans and the St. Louis Blues organization, and we saw an opportunity to do that,” he continued. “There is no code. I think offer sheets are there if you think you’re going to get the player. I don’t believe in offer sheets to harm an organization — meaning, you know, put an offer sheet out because you know they’re going to match but it’s going to put them in a bad spot. At least for me, I wouldn’t do that — I don’t see the purpose in that. I think the purpose of an offer sheet is, if you look at a franchise and you think you have an opportunity to get a player, you do it. And that’s the way we looked at this one.

“This wasn’t anything against an organization — this was an attempt for us to get better, and that’s the only reason we did it. And it was successful. And we’d do it again if we think it would be successful. Again, that code that I’ve been hearing about — it’s not true. Managers do what they have to do for their franchises.

“And if they don’t, they shouldn’t be doing their job.”

A key reason GMs around the league don’t draw up offer sheets for talented RFAs more often, Armstrong explained, is simply because teams don’t feel they’ll get the player in the end. The Blues manager pointed to the situation in Detroit this summer, where the Red Wings have a few key RFAs still unsigned — most notably Mo Seider and Lucas Raymond — but have also retained enough cap space to match any offer sheet that might come their way.

“It’s a double-edged sword for a player, also,” Armstrong said. “You know, you can hold out to get an offer sheet, and if you get it, you’re the winner. You win, if the team doesn’t have the space. But there also becomes a point, from a manager, where he says, ‘I’ve had enough of this, and you’re going to come back on a two- or three-year deal at exactly what I offer you, or else you can sit the year out. That’s fine too.’ So, everyone has to play ball to get these deals done.”

For his part, the GM’s own swing connected and seemed to turn out swimmingly, his club landing two talented players at prices that won’t hurt much given the Blues’ cap space and the rising cap overall. Asked about the pair whose potential prompted his dive into the offer-sheet chaos, Armstrong said he sees both Broberg and Holloway as important depth pieces for St. Louis moving forward.

“We view Dylan as a top-nine forward. … Great skater, with size. There’s going to be real great competition, I think, with our forward group this year — I see him touching a lot of areas of that group,” he said of the 22-year-old Holloway, a 14th-overall pick from 2020 who played each of the past two seasons in Edmonton, and every game of the club’s Stanley Cup Final run.

Broberg, 23, a 2019 eighth-overall pick, has played parts of three campaigns in Edmonton, and skated in all seven games of the Oilers’ Cup Final series.

“Broberg, we see as a top-four, left-handed defenceman," Armstrong said.

“I’m not going to say they’re going to be, right off the bat, key pieces that our team is going to run through, but they’re going to have a bigger role for us than they’ve had before.”