According to PuckPedia’s Steve Werier, there is a way in which the Red Wings could still lose Simon Edvinsson’s services to an offer sheet:
On July 1, Simon Edvinsson became a restricted free agent.
As of Sept. 30, the 23-year-old defenceman hasn’t signed a new contract with Detroit. He also hasn’t signed an offer sheet from a rival club, even though he’s eligibleto receive one.
Let’s talk about that last part.
Offer sheets have almost always been signed during the offseason months, including the two most recent examples (Leo Carlsson and Barrett Hayton). That makes sense, as teams like to set their roster and cap as early as possible, and they prefer to act on offer sheets before another club or the player’s existing team signs the player.
And so you might ask: “Well, if anyone was going to sign Edvinsson to an offer sheet, why haven’t they done it already?”
There’s at least one good reason.
By waiting, a rival team can weaponize the calendar against the Red Wings and structure an offer sheet around a never-before-leveraged pressure point.