Given the added pressure applied by the flat salary cap, restricted free agent negotiations will take on even greater importance this off-season. That process is set to begin in just over four weeks, as TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reports that the deadline for teams to submit qualifying offers to their restricted free agents has been set for 4pm CT on Wednesday, October 7.
In order for any team to retain their rights to a restricted free agent, the team must submit a qualifying offer. This value is based on the RFA’s expiring contract; a base salary greater than or equal to $1MM is only owed a matching offer, while a base salary less than $1MM is owed a qualifying offer of 105% of the base (a base salary less than $660K is owed 110%). New this year is also a rule pertaining to those contracts signed after July 10 for the purpose of burning an entry-level contract. Those players may receive a qualifying offer up to 120% of their base salary. A qualifying offer must also be a one-way contract if the player has played in at least 171 NHL games over the past three seasons combined and at least 51 NHL games in 2019-20, and did not clear waivers this season.
Those RFA’s who do receive qualifying offers are then able to sign those offers when the new league year begins at 11am CT on Friday, October 9. Those offers expire on Sunday, October 18 at 4pm CT. Even if a player does not sign their QO, the issuing team maintains the player’s rights simply by making the offer. A restricted free agent can only be signed to a new team by way of an offer sheet.
As for those RFA’s who do not receive qualifying offers, they become unrestricted free agents and join the open market on October 9. Given the cap crunch that many teams are facing, this has a chance to be an unprecedented year when it comes to the RFA market. Teams will have to seriously think about the opportunity cost of extending or in some cases increasing the salaries of some of their current young players. It will be interesting to see what happens when the deadline approaches on October 7.
Flat cap, there should be a lot of Salary dumps
I still think they should have 2 unpenalized buyouts per club this offseason as the cap is flattened and any past salaries for recapture or previous buyouts should be paid but not count against the cap. Past salaries are paid and future commitments are met.
Said it for decades,each side put each other in the cap jail and gave the other the key.
I don’t think it really matters, teams just don’t have the money to pay. There’s only a couple of teams that will even be able to afford to be a cap team this year, so I doubt many teams were going to pay players not to be on their team.
i still dont get why the cap is flat when it seems to hurt more teams then it helps.
I agree with Dave. At least a buyout to help those cash-strapped teams, as well as relief from what was promised a steady increase in cap space. With owners creating internal salary caps, it’s going to be rather brutal to be a UFA like Hall or Petrelangelo when you are about to get your one major UFA contract and instead there are 5 teams offering you lower than you expected, and all 5 are non-playoff teams like the Sens, Sabres, Wings, and Devils (all except Colorado!)
During The Pause, compliance buyouts get discussed, then seem to gain momentum, until it is disclosed that “the owners don’t have the appetite for it.” It was as though it wasn’t properly explained to them, or they determined that is more advantageous, tax-wise, to pay out the contracts the hard way. It would definitely make for a more entertaining off-season of musical chairs with the UFAs if the “get-out-of-hell-free” buyouts were allowed.