Unless he signs it they are meaningless and in no way should have put any pressure on Dubas
There is very little difference between an unsigned offer sheet and toilet paper. You can flush both as meaningless.
Marner was a restricted free agent coming out of his 3-year entry level contract and Leafs owned his rights for the
next 4 years, where the player as per CBA has 3 valid options.
1)
Sit out and withhold service but unpaid. (like Nylander did).
2)
Take what the team is offering as seen as fair market value based on other RFA player comparables in the industry.
3)
Sign a valid offer sheet that must be
approved by the NHL, as there are rules both for Salary Cap compliance to fit that player under your Cap, and draft pick compensation (ie the draft picks must be your own teams, not acquired ones), as well as meeting a valid player contract rules as per CBA.
How gullible and naive must a greenhorn GM be if another GM simply says "I'm thinking about a offer sheet for Marner" and his current GM panics and overpays Marner, and it blows up Leafs salary simply by making a meaningless throwaway comment in the media?
You knew clever experienced player agents were going to abuse a Clueless Dubas in contract talks even with no leverage to their own advantage, and say we'll take option #4)
Pretend we will sign an OS even if its just the rumour of one or not, and have the GM capitualte to all our demands and get Marner a
Restricted FA at
Unrestrited FA contract prices.
PS. A valid signed offer sheet (at that time) for
$10.4 mil AAV or above would have required the signing team to manditorily surrender 4 X 1st round draft picks over the course of the next 5 years,