"Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman said he doesn't like using offer sheets to lure players from an opponent, and it has nothing to do with the idea fellow GMs would look unfavorably at the maneuver. Nope, the way Yzerman sees it, with offer sheets, "you're just screwing up your own pay structure." "The only way a team doesn't match the offer is if you grossly overpay the player," he said. "That's why I don't like it. If you do a contract for the right value of a player, chances are the other team is just going to match it." It is an interesting discussion given chatter last week that teams might go the offer-sheet route with Canucks goalie Cory Schneider. A report in Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper even singled out the Lightning as a possibility. Schneider, 26, who can be a restricted free agent July 1 and is considered a franchise player, certainly is an attractive target. And Tampa Bay is in desperate need of a goalie and likes Schneider. But offer sheets, if accepted, come with a price beyond what a team is willing to pay in salary. The team losing the player also must be compensated. The higher the offer sheet, the more draft picks, including first-rounders, go the other way. There also is this: Teams extending offer sheets cannot contact players until June 26, cannot sign players until July 1 and may have only a small window to do so if the player (by July 5) or his team (by July 6) files for salary arbitration, which stops the offer." Read more: http://www.tampabay.com/sports/hock...yzerman-not-a-fan-of-offer-sheets-for/1234598
