The Oilers Should Use Offer Sheets In Free Agency

Forget the draft, forget the competition of unrestricted free agency, it's all about offer sheets in restricted free agency, says frequent contributor curcro:

The Oilers, have Gagner, Paajarvi, Hartikainen and Peckham of note. But they currently have $20.8M to sign 6 players.

If Smid signs for $3.8M , Paajarvi for $1.8M, Hartikainen for $1.2M, that leaves $13.2M for 3 players including Gagner and possibly Fistric. Say $5M & 1.5M each.

That leaves $7.5 M for poaching & player/goalie. Without too much effort and not huge over payments either you maybe able to poach a decent player. Keep in mind the Rangers have already used 1 of their buyouts.

curcro isn't aiming high on his offer sheets and keeps the targets lower-end and mostly depth-type players. With a really weak pool of defensemen in unrestricted free agency, curcro might be on to something with offer sheets.

Given that the picks used in these offer sheets would come from the 2014 draft, the impact should be minimal to the current Oilers.