Three marquee RFAs pass on salary arbitration; is there an offer sheet coming?
With the deadline for filing for salary arbitration having passed at 5pm ET on Sunday and the deadline for players to accept their qualifying offers coming up on July 22nd, teams are busy working behind the scenes to try to get their RFAs extended.
For those who filed for arbitration, the next step will be setting a date for an arbitration hearing, where both team and player can build a case for themselves as to what the player should be paid and why. An arbitrator will decide from there what he award will be - often somewhere in between the team's ask and the player's ask.
For those who did not file for arbitration, now begins the grind to find common ground on a new deal. Below are lists of players who filed and players who did not. There are some very interesting names on both lists.
It's important to note that once an arbitrator rules on the hearing, teams cannot walk away from the reward (unless the value exceeds $4.5M) or trade the player without their consent.
For players who did not file for arbitration, if their qualifying offers expire, they lose the ability to accept their QO, and the team would then be free to negotiate a deal below the QO amount without the threat of a player simply accepting their QO to get the higher pay day.
The other possibility here is that the player chose not to file because they wish to maintain the flexibility of being able to pursue an offer sheet with another club.
Obviously, of the names mentioned above and in relation to possible offer sheets, the names Matthew Tkachuk, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Patrik Laine are the most intriguing.
Tkachuk just watched friend teammate Johnny Gaudreau depart in free agency. He holds a $9M qualifying offer that he is free to accept, which would enable him to walk away as a UFA next summer. There is a belief that the two sides are working to find a deal that works for both sides, but the Flames now have to decide which direction the club wishes to go after losing Gaudreau and missing out on all of the top UFAs in the process after having gone all-in to keep Gaudreau in Calgary. An offer sheet may or may not make sense for Tkachuk, based on whether or not the offer is high enough and the location of the team inquiring is desirable. Even then, the Flames would still have the opportunity to match, so if Tkachuk wants to go elsewhere, his best bet might be to do so as a UFA next summer.
Dubois feels like the most likely candidate to potentially sign an offer sheet. He has already stated his intentions of simply accepting his qualifying offers until he can become a UFA and go wherever he wants, but he has also openly declared his desire to play in Montreal. So if the Habs and Jets cannot strike a deal in good faith, perhaps we could see the Canadiens tender an offer sheet for the big center. They've done it before and while they have a new GM, the pressure from ownership may override what Kent Hughes is comfortable with.
Laine is probably the least likely to sign an offer sheet. He seems fairly content with his situation in Columbus and the team is expected to take a big leap forward this year after signing Johnny Gaudreau on Wednesday night. Laine seemed completely fine with accepting his QO last summer, so we may yet see him do that once again this summer. The possibility also exists that GM Jarmo Kekalainen and the Laine camp are close on an extension, given the fact that both sides, again, seem very content with one another.
| POLL | ||
JUILLET 17 | 324 ANSWERS Three marquee RFAs pass on salary arbitration; is there an offer sheet coming? Of these 3 names, who do you think is most likely to sign an offer sheet? | ||
| Matthew Tkachuk | 138 | 42.6 % |
| Patrik Laine | 63 | 19.4 % |
| Pierre-Luc Dubois | 123 | 38 % |
| List of polls | ||
