The NY Islanders have never been on either side of an offer sheet

We rarely see an offer sheet extended from one team to the restricted free agent of another team, but it does occasionally happen.

Yesterday, we saw the even more rare double offer sheet, as the St. Louis Blues tendered offer sheets to Phillip Broberg and Dylan Hollway of the Edmonton Oilers. Broberg agreed to a two-year $4.58M AAV contract, while Holloway has said yes to a two-year $2.29M AAV. The Oilers have one week to match the deals presented by St. Louis.

As compensation for the two, the Blues would need to part with a second-round pick for Broberg and a third for Holloway.

Why don't we see more signed offer sheets?

While in theory signing a young restricted free agent to an offer sheet makes sense, it's seldom used as most teams fear the future backlash of the organization they are looking to take players from.

In 1991 the St. Louis Blues tendered Dave Christian of the Boston Bruins, only to see the Bruins extend an offer sheet to Glen Featherstone and Dave Tomlinson of the Blues four days later.

In more recent memory, the Montreal Canadiens and Sebastian Aho came to terms on a 5-year $42.27M deal in 2019, which the Carolina Hurricanes matched. The following off-season, Jesperi Kotkaniemi of the Hurricanes signed an offer sheet with the Hurricanes, agreeing to a one-year deal worth $6.1M, which the Hurricanes could not match.

Since the first signed offer sheet in 1986, 23 franchises have been on either side of an offer sheet, yet in the 52-year history, the NY Islanders have never been on either side of the ledger.

Before the 2020-21 season, there was some fear that a team may try to come in and scoop Mat Barzal, but nothing ever came to fruition.

Even Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet believed that an offer sheet would come in on the Islanders' new face of the franchise.

"I do believe the offer sheets are coming," Friedman said on the Spittin Chiclets podcast in 2020. "And the reason I do is because it's so hard to find good players now."

It's hard to believe Lou Lamoriello, who is an old school GM, would use an offer sheet to his advantage, as he never has in his nearly five decades as an executive. It's also difficult to imagine another team using an offer sheet to sign an Islanders player, as GM's across the league would fear the repercussions from Lamoriello.