Offer sheet threats shouldn't worry Islanders

With the Cup won, the NHL public's attention is now focused on the offseason. And with that, the geenral chatter about what RFA's to offer sheet has begun. If you're a New York Islanders fan, any threat of offer-sheeting one of our players shouldn't worry you.

You're going to hear plenty of talk about offer sheets. Specifically for Noah Dobson. We've already seen Jack Han muse about it on his blog. It's obvious to see why Dobson would be a coveted offer sheet target.

New York Islanders: Don't worry about offer sheets

He's young, put up 51 points for a team that doesn't score a lot of goals, his underlying numbers at 5on5 and on the PP are solid, and he's a right shot. He's also projected to be a number one guy as soon as...well...he's arguably one already.

Every team that doesn't already have a player like Dobson would love to get him. And now that Dobson's ELC has expired it's easy to see why he's being tagged as an offer sheet target.

But look, we're dealing with the New York Islanders here, and specifically Lou Lamoriello. They've been in this position before.

After Mathew Barzal's ELC expired in 2020 we were told the offer sheets were coming. They didn't. Last offseason we were warned offer sheets might come for Ilya Sorokin. They didn't.

Not only because no GM dares offer sheet a Lou Lamoriello player, but because Lou Lamoriello positions himself in such a way that an offer sheet doesn't make sense. We've seen it for years now. Lou Lamoriello doesn't tip his hand by revealing his contracts until it's absolutely necessary. Other GMs have no idea how much (or how little) cap space Lou has.

A successful offer sheet is one that signs a player to a number that the original team just can't match. The Islanders have $12 million in cap space right now with only a few players that need to be signed. And Dobson will be the most expensive. Han (and guest writer Idriss Bouhmouch) suggest an offer sheet for Dobson would

That still leaves the Isles with ~$5.7 million in space for another top-4 guy and a third-pair defenseman (probably Salo). And that's without considering Josh Bailey could be moved to give them another $5 million in space. The Islanders can and will easily match that offer sheet.

Which defeats the purpose of even putting out the offer sheet in the first place. So, as offer sheet talk picks up. I wouldn't worry about it. The Islanders have the room to sign Dobson. And look, the Islanders don't want to lose Dobson so they'll do everything they can to keep him.