from Travis Yost of TSN,

With the 2020 NHL Entry Draft in the rear-view mirror, front offices are turning their attention to the growing talent pool available in unrestricted free agency.

We knew the league’s economic crisis, coupled with the flat salary cap growth, would force teams to make difficult roster decisions. A number of those difficult decisions started to manifest during the draft, particularly with restricted free agents and qualifying offers.

In normal years, qualifying offers are nothing more than accomplishing the bare minimum. These one-year offers, calculated at 100 to 120 per cent of the player’s base salary, allow for a team to retain the rights of first refusal or draft choice compensation should the player sign an offer sheet. Players frequently reject these qualifying offers and file for arbitration, generally because arbitration awards (or negotiated contracts down the road) deliver bigger paydays.

But this isn’t a normal year. A big arbitration award could be of concern to a cash-poor or cap-burdened team heading into 2020-21. Not surprisingly, this concern has displaced a number of quality players into free agency – most of whom are still on the right side of the aging curve and will likely be had inexpensively.

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