The 2025 offseason has begun for the Vancouver Canucks, and it already promises to be a doozy. In this ongoing series of Offseason Dreaming, we’re looking at the very best of what are a wide range of possible outcomes for the Canucks this summer. And today, specifically, we’re looking at the possibilities of the offer sheet route.

The last time we discussed offer sheets, we referred to them as “a mostly unrealistic option.” The reason behind that statement was the Canucks’ lack of a third round pick in 2026 – the year from which this summer’s round of offer sheets must draw their compensatory draft selections.

As of last season, the offer sheet compensation structure looked like this:

Those thresholds will rise as of Summer 2025, though not by the same proportion as the cap itself rises, as offer sheet numbers are tied to past salaries, not future cap limits. At most, each of these limits will be a few hundred thousand dollars higher.

Teams only need to give up these compensatory draft picks if they make an offer sheet to another team’s restricted free agent, have that offer sheet accepted, and then have the other team choose not to match said offer sheet. But to even make the offer in the first place, a team must already have the required picks in hand.

And without that 2026 third, the Canucks are severely limited in the offer sheets they can offer. They’re down to the zero-compensation “$1 – $1,511,701” tier, which is never used, the enormous four first-round pick “$11,452,294 or more” tier, which they can’t afford, and the second-round pick “$2,290,457 – $4,580,917” tier.

So, really, they’re down to the second round pick “$2,290,457 – $4,580,917” tier.

Now, the Canucks could re-open their offer sheet possibilities by re-acquiring their 2026 third rounder, but it’s currently held by the Calgary Flames as a result of the Nikita Zadorov trade, and we don’t imagine the Flames are keen on helping the Canucks out in this way.

So, for now, the question at hand is this: who could the Canucks most realistically land with an offer sheet that maxes out somewhere between that $4,580,917 amount (over a term of five years or fewer) and whatever slightly higher amount the threshold rises to this offseason.

Fortunately for our writing purposes, and unfortunately for the Canucks’ abundance of options, these restrictions really narrow down the field of RFAs.

Of the 94 pending RFAs in the NHL right now, the majority are not yet full-time NHLers, and thus would not be worthy of either the contract or the compensation we’re talking about here.

Then there’s the collection of players that, although the Canucks would love to add them, will cost far more than $4.5 million to steal from another NHL team. That group includes names like Matthew Kniews, JJ Peterka, Mason McTavish, Gabriel Vilardi, Marco Rossi, Ryan McLeod, Dmitri Voronkov, Will Cuylle,  and Kaapo Kakko.

But in between those groups, there are a select few players who would be worth both the $2,290,457 – $4,580,917 salary it would take to land them, and the second-round pick that would have to be given up in compensation.

We’d put names like Morgan Geekie, Morgan Frost, and Alex Laferriere in this category.

But even then, you’ve got to seek out an offer sheet candidate who is worth the money, worth the compensation, but who is also specifically not worth that same amount of money to the team that currently holds their rights. You’ve got to find a team that won’t just automatically match any offer sheet made in this tier. And that’s decidedly trickier.

In fact, it might leave the Canucks with just one realistic option: Mavrik Bourque of the Dallas Stars.

Bourque’s bona fides are obvious enough. He’s a 23-year-old right-handed centre with top-six potential, and that’s exactly what the Canucks are looking for right about now. He stands just 5’10” and weighs in at slightly below 200 pounds, which isn’t ideal, but what he lacks in size, he makes up for in ability.

Bourque has long been styled as a true playmaking centre. He carries the puck well, draws defenders in, and then distributes to scoring areas with aplomb. He was drafted at the tail-end of the 2020 first round at 30^th overall.

In his draft+1 season, which was shortened by the pandemic, Bourque put up 43 points in 28 games for Shawinigan of the QMJHL, while also serving as their captain. He then joined the Texas Stars of the AHL as a 19-year-old for the end of their regular season, managing five points in his first six professional games.

It was back to the QMJHL for 2021/22, where Captain Bourque dominated through injuries with 68 points in 31 regular season games and 25 more in 16 playoff games.

Then, as an AHL rookie in 2022/23 at the age of 21, Bourque scored 20 goals and 47 points in 70 games.

The 2023/24 campaign saw Bourque put up 26 goals and 77 points in 71 games for the Texas Stars, while wearing the ‘A,’ and add 11 more points in seven playoff games. That year also saw his first NHL game and NHL playoff game, which set Bourque up to make his full big league debut this year for 2024/25.

Heading into this year, The Athletic ranked Bourque as the 63rd-best prospect in all of hockey and the 22nd-best centre prospect overall. Bourque wound up with 11 goals and 14 assists through 73 games, good for 13^th place in rookie scoring. So, he didn’t exactly take the league by storm, but his playing history and skill-level suggest the numbers will follow – and soon.

So, why would the Dallas Stars ever consider not matching an offer sheet made to Bourque? It all comes down to the salary cap.

Whereas most of the league is suddenly flush in cap space heading into the 2025 offseason, the Stars are decidedly not. They’re already at some $89,626,683 in contract commitments with just 15 of 23 roster spots covered, which leaves them some $5,873,417 in space with which to add six to eight players.

That’s not enough under the best of circumstances, and the Stars have an abundance of free agents to attempt to retain, including UFAs Matt Duchene, Mikael Granlund, Jamie Benn, and Cody Ceci…and RFA Bourque.

One offer sheet in that $4.5 million range eats up almost all of that cap space. And, remember, it’s not as simple as matching the offer sheet and then flipping Bourque to some other team. When an offer sheet is matched, the team that matched it cannot trade that player for a full year.

Bourque will eventually become a good centre in this league, of that there is little doubt. But in the present moment, he’s got some growing to do. He was a minus-2 in the Stars’ playoff opener, which led to his being scratched for Games 2 and 3 – both games that the Stars won.

Who knows when Bourque will get back into the lineup at this point? Until then, he remains a healthy scratch. And, for a team in as much of a ‘win now’ mode as Dallas, is it really wise to blow up one’s own salary structure for a player who, future potential aside, is currently a playoff healthy scratch? Bourque is, in all honesty, not yet worth a $4.5 million salary, and even if he might be in the very near future, that doesn’t help the Stars out much in what still promises to be a very competitive 2025/26 season.

Thus, we can envision a scenario in which the Canucks offer Bourque a five-year, $4.5 million-ish offer sheet, he signs it, and the Dallas Stars do not match it, instead taking the Canucks’ 2026 second round pick back as compensation.

And we can envision that scenario clearly enough to state that it’s an offer that is probably worth the Canucks’ while to make.

The downside of all this is that if it’s worth the Canucks’ while, it’s probably worth another team’s while, too. And the Canucks are not the only team on the hunt for a talented centre. Plenty of other organizations have the salary space and picks on hand to make a similar offer, which might mean that Bourque would have to choose Vancouver over other suitors.

But, hey, that’s not something the Canucks can control. All they can do is make the offer and see how it is received. And with this clear-cut opportunity to steal away a centre with top-six potential for relatively little, there’s not all that much reason not to at least make the offer.