NHL Free Agency: 2 More Players Named as Prime Offer Sheet Targets

After the success that the St. Louis Blues had last summer with their offer sheets to Edmonton Oilers RFAs Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway, and with the cap going up significantly for next season, it's only reasonable to expect more offer sheets coming this offseason. Chris Johnston in The Athletic has named two more players that will be prime offer sheet targets.

Johnston suggested that, like with Broberg & Holloway, contending teams without a lot of cap room with players on the verge of a breakthrough are who we should be focusing on. "Mid-tier or emerging players may actually produce the biggest vulnerabilities because contending teams are most worried about not overpaying for that area of the roster".

With that, he names the two following RFAs as prime for an offer sheet poaching:

Mavrik Bourque, Dallas Stars

The 23-year-old Bourque, the team's No. 2 prospect entering this season, has gone on to solidify himself a role on the fourth line as a solid two-way center. He's reached double-digits in goals, with 10, through 60 games while registering a solid +7 rating. But in only 12:32 ice time per night, he could be able to do so much more on a team that isn't as deep as the Cup-contending Stars. He is an ideal candidate to be scooped up, as the Stars can only find room under their cap to pay a 4th-line center so much.

Mackie Samoskevich, Florida Panthers

This is another team that, pending the outcome of their negotiations with UFAs Aaron Ekblad, Sam Bennett and Brad Marchand, might not have a lot of room left over to pay their impressive rookie Samoskevich, who's up to 13 goals and 25 points in 59 games. He, too, is only averaging 12:35 ice time per night.

A bit of an overpay on an offer sheet could be a real challenge for either of these teams to match, and could easily convince these recent first-rounders to sign.

We also looked recently at a couple of potential offer sheet candidates on the New York Rangers.