According to sources close to the situation, the Flyers are still seriously considering putting in an offer sheet, which could not even be accepted until tomorrow at the earliest.
How serious? The sources said the Flyers' brass spent a significant amount of time running the idea by team chairman Ed Snider on Tuesday night but decided to sleep on the decision.
Snider, 78, was the man behind the Flyers' charge to bring in star goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov, which ultimately led to deals in which Mike Richards and Jeff Carter were shipped out of town.
Sources said it would "not be a hard sell" for Snider to buy in on Stamkos, as Snider has always been a "chips in the center of the table" kind of guy.
The Flyers continued to deliberate internally - with some in the hierarchy split as to whether putting in the right offer sheet would be enough to pry Stamkos out of Yzerman's tightly clenched fist.
Team sources told the Daily News yesterday that if an offer sheet were to come, it would be for around 12 years, $115 million, which would produce an annual cap hit of approximately $9.58 million. The deal also would include a no-movement clause that would kick in before the 2016-17 season.
An offer sheet of that size could pave the way for the second-richest deal in NHL history, just short of Alex Ovechkin's 13-year, $124 million deal signed with Washington in 2008. Neither Ovechkin nor Pittsburgh star Sidney Crosby, though, has come this close to becoming a restricted free agent.
Whether a deal of that magnitude is enough to force a low-budget team like Tampa Bay to walk away and accept the compensation of four first-round draft picks remains to be seen.
