Agent: Tight cap situations open door for potential offer sheets for RFAs

NHL teams up against the salary cap take note: restricted free agents may be targeted this offseason.

At least, that's the assessment of player agent Steve Bartlett, who appeared on WGR 550 Radio in Buffalo on Wednesday and said general managers may take advantage of teams with little wiggle room by signing RFAs to offer sheets:

The reality is the tighter the cap, the tighter teams are against the cap, it does open up more and more opportunity for a player to get an offer sheet and the team, no matter how much they would like to keep him, will not be in a position to match.

So if I was guessing, I don’t think there’s going to be a huge explosion of them, but I think there may be more and more situations where a player with a team who can’t afford to even pay him what would be considered reasonable market value may have to turn to hoping he can get an offer sheet in order to get that because his own existing team can’t afford to match or meet the offer that he may get.

Notable restricted free agents at season's end include Braden Holtby of the Washington Capitals, Vladimir Tarasenko of the St. Louis Blues, Dougie Hamilton of the Boston Bruins, Tyler Toffoli of the Los Angeles Kings, Brandon Saad of the Chicago Blackhawks, plus Nazem Kadri and Jonathan Bernier of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

While offers sheets are quite rare, and choosing not to match even more so, it's likely the hockey world won't be shaken by a major poach.

But, after NHL commissioner Gary Bettman projected the salary cap to sit between $70-to-$71 million in 2015-16 and several teams already close to that ceiling, it's not out of the question that such a situation will present itself for cash-strapped clubs.

- With h/t to Today's Slapshot