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NHL Offer Sheets Explained: Restricted Free Agency, Qualifying Offers and Compensation

How an NHL offer sheet works: who is a restricted free agent, the qualifying offer, salary arbitration, the seven-day right to match and pick compensation.

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Key takeaways

  • An offer sheet is only possible for a restricted free agent whose club made a qualifying offer, and it is the only way another club can sign him.
  • The player's club has seven days to match; if it does, it cannot trade him for a year, and if it does not, it receives draft picks from the club that made the offer.
  • Compensation is set by the offer's average value over the lesser of its term or five years, so a six-year offer costs more in picks than its cap hit suggests.
  • A club making an offer sheet must have its own required picks available and the cap room to absorb the offer, because the amount counts against its payroll from the moment it is issued.
  • Electing salary arbitration, by the player or the club, ends the player's ability to sign an offer sheet that summer, apart from the narrow exceptions in the CBA's arbitration article.

An NHL offer sheet is a contract offer from a new club that a restricted free agent has agreed to accept; his current club then has seven days to match it and keep him, or let him go and collect draft picks as compensation. It is the only way one club can sign another club's restricted free agent, and it sits at the end of a sequence that starts with the qualifying offer and runs through salary arbitration.

The rules here are from the collective bargaining agreement first signed in 2013, as amended in 2020 and by the memorandum the league and the NHL Players' Association signed in June 2025, which took effect on September 16, 2026. Three items in that published memorandum are available only to players, so anything they change is not reflected below. Dates are the ones written into the agreement's text.

Step one: is the player restricted?

When a contract expires, the player becomes one of several kinds of free agent. The two that matter here:

  • Unrestricted (Group 3). A player who is 27 or older as of June 30, or who has seven accrued seasons, can sign anywhere with no compensation owed.
  • Restricted (Group 2). A younger player can become a restricted free agent once he has enough professional experience, measured from the age at which he signed his first contract:
Age at first contract Professional experience needed
18 to 21 3 years
22 to 23 2 years
24 or older 1 year

An 18- or 19-year-old earns a year by playing 10 NHL games in a season; an older player by playing 10 professional games under contract. A player short of those thresholds cannot sign elsewhere if his club makes him a qualifying offer — only that club may negotiate with him — and becomes an unrestricted free agent if it does not.

Step two: the qualifying offer

To keep its rights to a restricted free agent, a club must make him a qualifying offer — a one-season contract — by 5 p.m. New York time on the later of June 25 or the first Monday after the entry draft. The minimum salary depends on what he earned the season before. Under the 2025 memorandum:

Prior-year NHL salary Minimum qualifying offer
$1,250,000 or less 110 per cent of it
Above $1,250,000 and below $1,750,000 105 per cent, but no more than $1,750,000
$1,750,000 or more 100 per cent

The 2020 memorandum adds a ceiling for contracts signed since then: the required salary never has to exceed 120 per cent of the old contract's average annual value. Its own illustration is a three-year deal paying $3 million, $6 million and $9 million: the average is $6 million, so the qualifying offer needs to be only $7.2 million, not $9 million.

Some details matter in practice:

  • The offer cannot be accepted before July 1, and it expires at 5 p.m. on July 15 unless the club extends it in writing.
  • It must be a one-way offer if the player has played 180 or more NHL games over the previous three seasons, at least 60 in the last one, and has not cleared waivers since just before the previous season began.
  • If the club makes no qualifying offer and does not elect arbitration, the player becomes an unrestricted free agent immediately.

Step three: salary arbitration

Arbitration is a second route to a contract, and choosing it closes the offer-sheet route. Eligibility depends on experience again:

Age at first contract Experience needed for arbitration
18 to 20 4 years
21 3 years
22 to 23 2 years
24 or older 1 year

A player must elect arbitration by 5 p.m. New York time on July 5. A club can elect it for a player who received a qualifying offer during the 24 hours after that deadline, and in some cases earlier — for a player whose previous salary and bonuses exceeded an indexed threshold, in place of a qualifying offer. Each club can elect arbitration no more than twice in a league year, and a player can be taken to arbitration by a club only once in his career.

The key consequence: once the player or the club elects arbitration, the player can no longer negotiate with other clubs or sign an offer sheet, apart from narrow exceptions written into the arbitration article.

Step four: the offer sheet

A restricted free agent who has not gone to arbitration can negotiate with any club. When he wants to accept another club's offer, he signs an offer sheet with that club and delivers it to his current club. The rules around it are strict:

  • The principal terms must be fixed. They are limited to the term, salary, signing bonus and reporting bonus, and must be fixed and readily determinable amounts — no conditions.
  • It is irrevocable once the player and the new club have signed it.
  • The picks must exist. The league checks immediately that the new club has the draft picks the compensation would require, and holds them in reserve. If they are not available, the offer sheet is void.
  • The money counts at once. The offer's salary and bonuses count against the new club's payroll from the moment it is issued until it is matched, so the club needs the cap room up front. A club can have several offer sheets outstanding only if it has the room and the picks for all of them at once.
  • The term is capped. Under the 2025 memorandum, contracts with a club that has not held the player's rights since the last trade deadline are limited to six years.

Step five: seven days to match

The player's current club has seven days from receiving the offer sheet to decide.

  • If it matches, the player and his club are bound to a contract on the offer sheet's principal terms, and the club cannot trade him for a year.
  • If it does not, the player and the new club are bound to the offer sheet's terms, and the old club receives draft-pick compensation from the new one.

During those seven days, the old club may not trade its right to match.

Step six: compensation

The compensation scale uses the offer's average value, calculated in a specific way: the total compensation in the principal terms divided by the lesser of the number of years or five.

That divisor matters. A six-year offer worth $48 million has a cap hit of $8 million, but for compensation it is $48 million ÷ 5 = $9.6 million. Long offers cost more picks than their cap hit suggests.

The 2013 agreement set out seven tiers. The dollar figures below are the original 2013 base amounts. The CBA raises them every year at the same percentage rate as the Average League Salary, starting with the 2014-15 season, so the thresholds in force today are not these figures — check the current year's numbers before you quote a tier:

Offer average (2013 base figures) Compensation
Up to $1,110,249 None
Above that, to $1,682,194 Third-round pick
To $3,364,391 Second-round pick
To $5,046,585 First- and third-round picks
To $6,728,781 First-, second- and third-round picks
To $8,410,976 Two firsts, a second and a third
Above $8,410,976 Four first-round picks

The picks must be the signing club's own (or its own picks that it traded away and reacquired). A club owing one pick, or picks in different rounds, must have them in the next draft; two picks in the same round must be available over the next three drafts, three in the same round over the next four.

One final deadline closes the restricted window: a restricted free agent's contract must be signed and filed by 5 p.m. New York time on December 1, or it is void for that season.

What this means for a GM

Every step is a decision with a cost attached:

  1. The qualifying offer is a commitment to a one-year salary floor, which can make letting a modest player walk cheaper than qualifying him.
  2. Arbitration gives certainty and blocks rivals, at the price of letting an arbitrator set the number.
  3. An offer sheet forces the old club to pay the market price or take picks, but the offering club must commit cap room, give up its own picks and accept that a match leaves it with nothing but a week of tied-up space.

The general logic of restricted and unrestricted free agency in GM games is covered in free agency explained, and salary cap basics for GM games explains why cap room is the currency behind all of it.

Contracts in our games

In 84-0 Hockey Draft & GM Manager, Franchise GM Mode carries a drafted club across seasons, organising forwards, defenders and goaltending and shoring up weak positions; its pool is built from real players' careers with the game's own ratings, and the hockey draft simulator guide covers the roster side. Hockey Career Sim 2026 looks at contracts from the player's chair, as one of the choices in a fictional career; the Hockey Career Sim 2026 guide explains how a career develops. Neither title is connected with the league or the players' association. The hockey hub collects our other hockey explainers, and the catalogue is under sports career and GM games.

Good to know

Frequently asked questions

What is an offer sheet in the NHL?
An offer sheet is a contract offer from another club that a restricted free agent has agreed to accept. He gives it to his current club, which then has seven days to match the principal terms and keep him. If it does not match, he joins the new club and his old club receives draft picks as compensation.
What is a qualifying offer?
It is a one-season contract offer that a club must make by the qualifying deadline to keep a restricted free agent's rights. Under the current agreement, a player whose prior-year salary was $1.25 million or less must be offered 110 per cent of it, one between $1.25 million and $1.75 million 105 per cent up to $1.75 million, and one at $1.75 million or more 100 per cent, and for contracts signed since 2020 it never has to exceed 120 per cent of the old contract's average value. Without a qualifying offer or a club-elected arbitration, the player becomes an unrestricted free agent.
How is offer sheet compensation calculated?
The collective bargaining agreement takes the total compensation in the offer's principal terms and divides it by the lesser of the number of years or five. That figure places the offer in one of seven tiers, from no compensation up to four first-round picks. The dollar thresholds rise every year in line with the average league salary, and the picks must be the signing club's own.
How does NHL salary arbitration work?
Eligible restricted free agents can ask an independent arbitrator to set their salary, and clubs can elect arbitration in some cases too. A player must elect by 5 p.m. New York time on July 5 under the CBA's text, and a club can respond with its own election in the following 24 hours for players who received qualifying offers. Once arbitration is elected, the player can no longer negotiate with other clubs or sign an offer sheet, apart from narrow exceptions in the CBA's arbitration article.
Who is a restricted free agent?
Broadly, a player whose contract has expired who is not yet 27 by June 30 and has fewer than seven accrued seasons, and who has the professional experience the CBA requires — three years for a player who first signed at 18 to 21, two years at 22 or 23, and one year at 24 or older. Players who do not meet the experience test have no right to sign with another club at all if they receive a qualifying offer.

Sources

  1. Collective Bargaining Agreement between National Hockey League and National Hockey League Players' Association (February 15, 2013): Articles 10, 11, 12 and 50 (opens in a new tab)NHL Players' Association — accessed
  2. National Hockey League/National Hockey League Players' Association Memorandum of Understanding (June 27, 2025) (opens in a new tab)National Hockey League and National Hockey League Players' Association — accessed
  3. NHL/NHLPA Memorandum of Understanding (July 2020) (opens in a new tab)NHL Players' Association — accessed
  4. Collective Bargaining Agreement (opens in a new tab)NHLPA.com — accessed

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