New compensation thresholds for NHL offer sheets revealed

May 13, 2025 - 11:29am

Canadiens executive vice president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton discusses how the rising salary cap could lead to more teams using offer sheets to acquire talent, and whether Montreal might explore that option.

Here’s what we don’t know: if there will be more offer sheets this summer.

Here’s what we do know: the compensation thresholds. Here are the tiers, ranging from zero compensation to four first-rounders:

OFFER SHEET AAV	COMPENSATION
$1,544,424 or less	None
Over $1,544,424 to $2,340,037	Third-round pick
Over $2,340,037 to $4,680,076	Second-round pick
Over $4,680,076 to $7,020,113	First- and third-round picks
Over $7,020,113 to $9,360,153	First-, second-, and third-round picks
Over $9,360,153 to $11,700,192	Two firsts, one second and one third
Over $11,700,192	Four first-round picks

Teams can start talking to RFAs on the night of June 30, but nothing can be signed until free agency officially begins at 12:01 pm (ET) on July 1.

And remember that, in determining the AAV of an offer sheet, you divide the salary by term length or five — whichever is lower.

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