Very few teams offer contracts to restricted free agents. It has happened a handful of times over the past 10 years. Montreal offered one to Aho in Carolina that was accepted by Aho. Carolina matched it quickly and were 1/2 mad but also the contract was a fairly team friendly one so they weren’t that mad.
The offer sheets you have to watch for are the ones that pay big signing bonuses up front. Shea Weber was offered an offer sheet by Philly in 2012. It preloaded with a signing bonus of 13 million for the first 4 years. The goal here was to hope that Nashville didn’t have the upfront cash and couldn’t match the offer. They found the cash and signed him.
Very few teams offer contracts to restricted free agents. It has happened a handful of times over the past 10 years. Montreal offered one to Aho in Carolina that was accepted by Aho. Carolina matched it quickly and were 1/2 mad but also the contract was a fairly team friendly one so they weren’t that mad. The offer sheets you have to watch for are the ones that pay big signing bonuses up front. Shea Weber was offered an offer sheet by Philly in 2012. It preloaded with a signing bonus of 13 million for the first 4 years. The goal here was to hope that Nashville didn’t have the upfront cash and couldn’t match the offer. They found the cash and signed him.
That's stopped happening with the next CBA, what signing bonuses now become AAV spread over the life of the contract.