Jets throw net over RFAs with qualifying offers

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/06/2016 (2859 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Jets announced Monday they have sent qualifying offers to eight of nine players eligible to receive them. Those nine have contracts that expire this week, making them restricted free agents.

Joel Armia, Brenden Kichton, J.C. Lipon, Adam Lowry, Julian Melchiori, Mark Scheifele, Brandon Tanev and Jacob Trouba received qualifying offers.

Austen Brassard, a fifth-round pick in 2011 who played with the Moose last season, did not get an offer and becomes and unrestricted free agent immediately.

Making qualifying offers is required in order for the Jets to retain the rights to the players in question. Once an NHL team makes a qualifying offer to an RFA, other clubs can advance an offer sheet to that player.

If a player signs an offer sheet, the Jets have one week to match its terms. If they chose not to match, the team signing the player would have to fork over a draft pick or picks as compensation. Those picks are regulated in the CBA on a sliding scale, according to the player’s new salary.

The offers had to have been extended by 4 p.m. Monday. They can’t be accepted until Friday and they expire on July 15.

A team’s rights to the player, however, don’t expire on July 15.

To be a proper qualifying offer, the NHL team must offer a player a one-year contract at 110 per cent of last season’s salary if he made $660,000 or less.

A player making between $660,000 and $1 million must receive an offer of 105 per cent of his salary, with a maximum offer of $1 million, and a player making more than $1 million must receive an offer of 100 per cent of his previous salary, according to the CBA.

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Business Weekly

Monday mornings

The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week.

Sign up for Business Weekly

Sign Up

I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

Among the Jets’ group receiving qualifying offers, only Melchiori is eligible to file for salary arbitration. That’s because he has played four years as a pro.

Brandon Tanev, who signed with the team late last season as a 24-year-old, played only three games with the Jets at the end of the campaign on a one-year entry-level contract.

In the case of high-profile RFAs Scheifele and Trouba, the qualifying offers are a mere formality in order to retain their rights. It’s expected the negotiations for new, longer term deals will continue irrespective of the numbers contained in their qualifying offers.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca