With goaltender Joel Hofer being rumoured as a potential offer sheet candidate this summer, St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said Monday that suitors can go ahead and try.

Armstrong vowed that the Blues will not be losing Hofer, who is a restricted free agent for the second time in his young career, against their will this summer. 

"We’ve taken the Boston-Detroit approach last year when they had RFAs. They made sure they left enough cap space that any offer could be matched," Armstrong told reporters, per The Athletic. "I’m very comfortable we can match any offer if we choose to match it. It won’t be we didn’t match it because we couldn’t afford it. It will be we didn’t match it because we thought the value we were getting back was better, and that value would have to start with a first-round pick or else we’ll just match it.

"I’m not saying we wouldn’t match it with a first either, but I guess this is my shot across the bow. You can go after him. You’re not going to get him."

Hofer, 24, had a 16-8-3 record last season with a 2.64 goals-against average and .904 save percentage with the St. Louis Blues while splitting time in net with Jordan Binnington. The 6-foot-5 netminder is coming off of a two-year, $1.55 million contract that carried an annual cap hit of $775,000. 

Drafted 107th overall by the Blues in 2018, Hofer has a 35-22-5 record with a 2.71 GAA and .908 save percentage. 

Armstrong was the lone general manager to execute not only one, but two offer sheets last summer, targeting the Edmonton Oilers to acquire defenceman Philip Broberg and winger Dylan Holloway. The Oilers elected not to match on either player, receiving second- and third-round picks in the 2025 draft from the Blues. 

The dual offer sheets by the Blues were the first signed in the league since the Carolina Hurricanes pried Jesperi Kotkaniemi from the Montreal Canadiens in 2021 with a one-year, $6.1 million offer. The Canadiens received first- and third-round picks from the Hurricanes, who matched the five-year, $42.27 million offer sheet the Canadiens signed Sebastian Aho to two years prior. 

Those are the only four offer sheets signed since in the past decade. 

The Blues enter this summer with only $5 million in cap space but already have 22 players under contract for next season, per PuckPedia. Hofer is the team's lone restricted free agent.