The pending free-agency period once again opens doors for one of the league's most rare and exciting of transactions: the offer sheet.

This season's crop of restricted free agents is strong and with that, the idea of forcing a team's hand and plucking a player from another team's roster once again arises.

Related: Gaudreau, MacKinnon headline top 10 restricted free-agent forwards​

Here are the five candidates teams should consider signing to an offer sheet:

Nikita Kucherov

The Tampa Bay Lightning find themselves in contract hell, therefore teams should be flooding the club with offer sheets for Nikita Kucherov.

The Lightning enter this offseason with Alex Killorn, J.T. Brown, Vladislav Namestnikov, Cedric Paquette, and Nikita Nesterov hitting restricted free agency, meanwhile - as everyone is well-aware - captain Steven Stamkos is an unrestricted free agent.

Now if that wasn't bad enough, next season Victor Hedman and Ben Bishop will become UFAs, while Jonathan Drouin, Tyler Johnson, Andrei Vasilevskiy, and Ondrej Palat will be RFAs.

It appears almost impossible that the team will be able to reel in all of these players. A decent-sized contract might either force the Lightning to let Kucherov go or agree to a deal, which in turn could free up one of their many RFAs or UFAs.

Seth Jones

Seth Jones is coming off his entry-level contract and is due for a raise.

The Columbus Blue Jackets have just over $3 million in cap space, according to GeneralFanager.com, and have restricted free agent William Karlsson to deal with along with Jones. On top of that, if the draft goes as expected, the Blue Jackets will also need to sign their first-round pick (likely forward Jesse Puljujarvi).

Forward Scott Hartnell has reportedly given the club a list of teams in which he's willing to waive his no movement clause - which could free up some money - but if not, the club could be in tough to ink Jones to a contract.

Chris Kreider

Sportsnet's John Shannon surprised many at this weekend's draft by suggesting the New York Rangers could be among many NHL clubs vying for Steven Stamkos in the coming week.

In order to make a run at the Lightning captain, the Rangers must shed salary.

Given such a predicament and with that possibility in mind, a team could use that as a prime time to offer sheet pending restricted forward Chris Kreider.

Kreider is one of four restricted free-agents alongside J.T. Miller, Kevin Hayes, and Dylan McIlrath that the team must contend with. The Rangers currently have just seven forwards under contract from last season's roster and will need to fill out positions.

Kreider - at just 25 years of age - has hit back-to-back 21-goal campaigns and at the right price could be too costly for the Rangers, if they are indeed serious about Stamkos.

Tomas Hertl

Tomas Hertl is coming off his most productive season since his impressive, yet injury-plagued rookie campaign.

The 22-year-old hit the 20-goal mark for the first time and added 25 assists for 46 points. While his production was not as high as some have come to expect since he stepped into the league, he has proven to be more than just a one-trick pony, playing a strong all-around game.

As for the Sharks, the club has roughly $12 million in cap space, with Matt Nieto hitting restricted free agency, while Nick Spaling, Roman Polak, Dainius Zubrus, Micheal Haley, and James Reimer will all become UFAs and all - next to Nieto - are unlikely to return.

With many roster spots to be filled and only so much cap to do so, an offer sheet could be too much juggling for Doug Wilson.

However, interested teams must act fast as TSN's Bob McKenzie reported this week, the Sharks have begun preliminary talks with Hertl on a team deal.

Mike Hoffman

While the Ottawa Senators boast a lot of cap room to get a deal done with Mike Hoffman, it could be the club's ownership that creates the biggest hurtle.

The Senators have roughly $17.5 million in cap space with Cody Ceci as the only other restricted free agent who could attract a sizable contract.

However, Hoffman's last contract showed that management is wary of committing to the 26-year-old despite his goal-scoring prowess. Ownership has also made it clear that it's not willing to spend to the cap and a decent-sized contract could do that.

So, depending on how strict ownership sticks to that, Hoffman might be worth offer sheeting.

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