from Luke Fox of Sportsnet,

Qualifying offers for restricted free agents are due by Oct. 7 at 5 p.m. ET. Those offers can begin to be accepted on Oct. 9 and expire on Oct. 18.

Quick refresher: If an RFA is not qualified, he becomes an unrestricted free agent. Qualifying offers to players making a minimum of $1 million must be equal to their current salary.

It will be worth paying attention to see who does not get qualified this season, with teams pinching pennies to appease owners and fall in line with a flat salary cap.

The team might even like its player but not at his current salary and could try to strike a deal for less in advance.

We scanned the pending RFA crop for a few players that will at least raise questions before being handed a qualifying offer:

• Leafs GM Kyle Dubas likes the versatility of the recently acquired Evan Rodrigues. But does he like a single-digit-goal guy at $2 million in his bottom six?

• Columbus only dressed forward Devin Shore twice in the post-season. Does a fringe forward on an offence-starved franchise deserve $2.4 million?

• Calgary’s Mark Jankowski isn’t making a ton of money ($1.75 million), but that price point is getting harder to justify.

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