An Invalid Offer Sheet?

The image to the left is one that I mocked up, that picture shows longtime Edmonton Oilers forward Craig Simpson as a San Jose Shark. You migh be wondering why I would spend any time doing that, but I was looking up some info on Oilers of the 1980s and Simpson's Wikipedia page had a whole paragraph about the San Jose Sharks giving him an offer sheet in 1993. Of course, Simpson ended up playing in Buffalo in 1993 after the Oilers traded him there, but it was San Jose who kicked off the war for the rights to Craig Simpson only to have the NHL - specifically Gary Bettman - declare that the offer sheet was invalid due to how it was structured. With all the weirdly-structured deals we see now, how much crazy was San Jose's offer that Simpson accepted?

Simpson's Wikipedia article has incorrect information on how Simpson became a free agent. The Oilers were required to offer him a 15% raise on his previous contract's salary of $690,000 in order to keep his rights and they refused to do so. Because they didn't honour the contract's required raise, Simpson declared himself a free agent and would listen to any offer from any team. The NHL and Edmonton weren't convinced that Simpson was a legitimate free agent, but San Jose stepped in with an offer sheet for $3.09 million over three years on July 15, 1993, leaving Edmonton to match their offer.

Being the savvy GM that he was, Glen Sather demanded compensation for San Jose signing away one of the Oilers' better forwards, but San Jose basically told him to kick rocks because Simpson was being paid the league's minimum salary amount of $130,000 for each of the years he would play for the Sharks. The vast majority of the money of the $3.09 million was to be paid as a signing bonus as he'd receive $2.7 million just for wearing the jersey. As Sather dug into San Jose's contract offer to Simpson, he became incensed at losing Simpson for nothing.

Sather's next step was to file a complaint with the NHL about how this signing bonus basically made the contract worthless which went outside the spirit of the offer sheet rules. The NHL began an investigation into the contract that pitted the Sharks, Simpson, and the NHLPA on one side as they all felt the contract was valid as per the CBA rules while the NHL and the other 23 GMs and teams argued that the Sharks purposely structured the contract so that Edmonton would receive no compensation.

The Sharks even drew ire from one NHL GM who decided to call out the Sharks for their offer sheet. New York Rangers general manager Neil Smith sent an open letter that was copied to every other NHL GM about the offer sheet which only added more gasoline to the fire. As The Hockey News reported, Sharks' director of player personnel Chuck Grillo "said Smith 'needs a good kick in the ass' while kindly offering to fulfill that need personally". Clearly, the NHL needed a resolution on this matter before things got worse, and, after eleven days, the investigation finally concluded.

We go to Tuesday, July 27, 1993's edition of the Medicine Hat News.

As per NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, the Sharks' offer sheet needed to include the signing bonus as part of the total AAV when it came to compensation. Therefore, the offer sheet is invalid as per the Commissioner, and Craig Simpson still remained somewhat tied to the Edmonton Oilers despite his claims of being a free agent.

Obviously, Craig Simpson wasn't on Glen Sather's Christmas card list any longer, and there were rumours that the Buffalo Sabres were going to follow San Jose's lead by offer sheeting Simpson after Bettman's ruling. Not wanting to risk another offer sheet fiasco, Sather just pulled the trigger on a trade with Buffalo, sending Simpson to the Sabres in exchange for Slovakian forward Jozef Cierny and future considerations. Those future considerations eventually became a 1994 fourth-round pick which Edmonton used to select Finnish forward Jussi Tarvainen at 95th-overall.

Just for fun, the Sharks were busy with offer sheets in the summer of 1993 as the day after offering a contract to Simpson, the Sharks went ahead and offer-sheeted Kelly Miller of the Washington Capitals. Wisely, "San Jose would not disclose the dollar amount or the length of time of the offer, other than to confirm that it was a multi-year bid", but it The Washington Post was certain he was going to more-than-double his $450,000 contract in 1992.

There was far less drama in this battle over Miller as the Washington Capitals would match San Jose's offer sheet and re-sign Miller. From The Washington Post's reporting, "According to the Capitals, San Jose offered Miller a $1 million signing bonus, an $800,000 salary for the first season and $850,000 for the second season," so Miller got a sizable raise from his $450,000 salary. Needless to say, the Sharks missed on both players they aimed to sign in the summer of 1993.

I hadn't seen an "invalid offer sheet" before, but there's a little history on one as Craig Simpson was almost a San Jose Sharks forward before that offer sheet was killed and he was traded to Buffalo. Would that have made a difference in their season?

Well, they did add some considerable talent as Sergei Makarov, Todd Elik, Igor Larionov, Ulf Dahlen, and Jimmy Waite all donned the teal while Arturs Irbe became the starter for the Sharks. They had one of the biggest upsets in the playoffs when they knocked off the Detroit Red Wings in seven games that spring, but would Simpson and Miller have helped them get past the Toronto Maple Leafs?

Maybe in an alternate universe, they did. But not in this one.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!