Offer Sheet

Offer sheet has various meanings in sports.

In the National Hockey League, an offer sheet is a contract offered to a restricted free agent by a team other than the one for which he played during the prior season. If the player signs the offer sheet, his current team has seven days to match the contract offer and keep the player or else he goes to the team that gave the offer sheet, with compensation going to his first team.

The National Basketball Association uses the term offer sheet to refer to an contract offered by another team to a restricted free agent of at least one year. His current team has three days to match the offer or loses the player to the new team. However, unlike NHL offer sheets, NBA offer sheets do not require a team to relinquish a draft pick.

The National Football League uses the term offer sheet to refer to an offer made by another team to a restricted free agent. If the restricted free agent accepts an offer sheet from a new club, his old club has "right of first refusal," a seven-day period in which it may match the offer and retain him, or choose not to match the offer, in which case it may receive one or more draft picks for the upcoming draft from the player's new club. If an offer sheet is not executed, the player's rights revert to his old club the day after negotiations must end.