The Canucks and the 2015 qualifying offer deadline

Photo Credit: Anne-Marie Sorvin/USA TODAY Sports

Monday, July 29 is the deadline for NHL teams to submit qualifying offers to their restricted players.

A qualifying offer is the equivalent of a one-year deal tendered to a potential restricted free agent. It’s not very often that a pending restricted player accepts their qualifying offer, though it happens, but teams have to submit the offers by the end of the business day on Monday if they hope to maintain their right of first refusal and the protection of draft pick compensation for any potential restricted player. The value of a qualifying offer is subject to arbitration if a player is eligible to file for it.

So what we can expect from the Canucks in terms of tendering qualifying offers to their potential restricted players on Monday? A brief rundown after the jump.

Here’s a full list of potential restricted players that the Canucks must tender on Monday if they hope to retain their right of first refusal in contract negotiations with said player. I’ve also included the value of those qualifying offers (Note: these are just based on what the CBA stipulates, and I haven’t made any effort to confirm those details). The players who have reportedly already received their qualifying offers appear in bold:

So far the Canucks have reportedly qualified the players – Markstrom, Baertschi, Clendening, Grenier and Corrado – that you absolutely knew they would. 

I’d expect the likes of Stanton and McMillan to receive offers as well. They’re cheap, credible NHL-level depth options and if you lose them on waivers in September, so be it. You could also understand if the team decided they weren’t worth one of their 50 contract slots for the 2015-16 league year though. 

I’d expect the team to qualify Yannick Weber also, but he could be this season’s Mathieu Perreault. Because of Weber’s high scoring output and eligibility to file for player elected arbitration, the Canucks could reasonably be worried about the possible cost of his ticket. I don’t think he’s likely to make more than about $2 million for the 2015-16 season, his last as a restricted player, so if I had to bet, I’d think he’ll be qualified. 

Vey is a slam dunk to be qualified in my view, even though he had an up and down first season as a full-time NHL player. I suppose you never know though and Jim Benning and company surprised me last summer by not qualifying Jordan Schroeder.

Cory Conacher has already reportedly signed in Europe, but teams sometimes qualify European-league bound players. The Canucks, for example, still own Anton Rodin and Bill Sweatt’s restricted rights. 

I’ll be curious to see what the club does with Mike Zalewski and Peter Andersson, but I’d think they’re somewhat unlikely to receive qualifying offers. The club has a big influx of professional level players coming into the organization next season – Joseph LaBate, Ben Hutton, Jordan Subban, Cole Cassels, Ashton Sautner etc. – and presumably will need to be judicious about how they use their 50 contract slots. 

Finally I didn’t list Joacim Eriksson here, because he’s already signed in Europe, and the team reportedly had no intention of tendering him a qualifying offer anyway.

Stay tuned to CanucksArmy as we’ll monitor any news that breaks throughout the day!

UPDATE: We had touched on this earlier this year on the blog, but Peter Andersson has signed to play in Orebro of the SHL next season. He may still be qualified, but it seems unlikely he’ll receive a contract.