Pens Extend Qualifying Offers To RFA's

Today was the deadline to submit qualifying offers to restricted free agents (RFA's) to keep their rights for next season. Any RFA who didn't receive a qualifying offer by 5 p.m EDT will become an unrestricted free agent (UFA) and be free to sign with other teams when free agency begins on Friday.

That being said, Ray Shero and company have extended qualifying offers to all of the Penguins RFA's except for forward Keven Veilleux. There hasn't been an official release on the Penguins RFA's from the team, but Dave Molinari from the Pittsburgh post gazette first reported the qualifying offers just after the 5 p.m. deadline.

Those extended qualifying offers are:

Forwards - Dustin Jeffrey, Harry Zolnierzyk, Brian Gibbons, Riley Holzapfel, Paul Thompson and Zach Sill

Defensemen: Robert Bortuzzo and Goaltenders: Eric Hartzell

Those above mentioned players can now sign their qualifying offer (110% of their previous year salary) and be retained for next season. Their only other option is to "hold out" and hope that another team tries to make an offer sheet on them or that they can try holding out to push their original team to re-negotiate a new contract.

Once another team makes an offer on a team's qualified RFA, the team who owns the player's rights has two options. Either match the offer made by the other team or receive compensation from them in the form of a draft pick and allow the other team to sign the RFA.

Offer sheets are rare in the NHL, but with a shortened season this past year all bets are off. I wouldn't be surprised to see maybe one or two this summer, but they don't happen often.