Restricted Free Agent Deadline Day 6/27

Toronto's Sam Carrick is one of many who played in the AHL last season that requires a qualifying offer to be retained for the 2016-17 season. Photo: Amanda Statland

The day has come. NHL teams have until 5 p.m. ET Monday June 27th to submit qualifying offers to their respective restricted free agents (RFA) in order to retain their rights for the 2016-17 season.

The Minnesota Wild have already announced which RFA's they will tender offers to and they are as follows:

Goaltender Darcy Kuemper, defensemen Matt Dumba and Zach Palmquist and forwards Zac Dalpe, Tyler Graovac, Jordan Schroeder and Jason Zucker.

Goaltender Brody Hoffman and forwards Brett Bulmer, Raphael Bussieres, Jared Knight and Scott Sabourin weren't tendered qualifying offers by the Wild and are set to become unrestricted free agents (UFA) on July 1st.

After the jump, a look at all 30 teams' restricted free agents as well as further explanation on what the RFA process entails and understanding what a qualifying offer means.

Explaining RFA's and UFA's

‘Restricted’ and ‘Unrestricted’ are words put in front of impending free agents that put available players for the upcoming season in two very different categories.

A restricted free agent (RFA) is a typically younger player who has an expiring contract that was either his first professional contract (aka an entry-level deal) or a subsequent contract in which a team submitted a qualifying offer (see below) to the player from the previous year.

Teams have until 5 p.m. ET on June 27th to submit what is called a qualifying offer to their impending RFA’s to retain their rights for the upcoming season. If a team fails to ‘qualify’ one of their RFA’s by that date they will become unrestricted free agents (UFA’s) – making them free to sign with any team they choose when the NHL’s free agency begins on July 1st.

A qualifying offer is a raise of 110% the player’s salary from the previous season if he made under $660,000 (NHL-level) or a raise of at least 105% if he made up $1 million. Players making over a million must be offered 100% of their salary from the previous season.

The main difference between RFA’s and UFA’s is that RFA’s have almost no bargaining chips in their stack. If a team qualifies their RFA, they retain his rights through next season. It is only after June 29th and no qualifying offer, that an RFA becomes unrestricted and is free to sign with any team who is interested in him.

UFA’s, on the other hand, are only exclusive to the team they played on last season until NHL free agency begins. They are free to reject any contract offer their team presents and can instead opt to hit the free agent market on July 1st and field offers from other teams. Thus, it is a little more difficult to retain the services of a UFA than an RFA.

RFA's Around The AHL

* Please note these lists reflect RFA's that will more than likely be at the AHL level in 2016-17. Those understood to be full-time NHL players were kept off the following AHL team lists.

Albany Devils (New Jersey)

Qualified RFA's: defenseman Reece Scarlett and forward Reid Boucher

Will be UFA on 7/1: Defensemen Raman Hrabarenka

Bakersfield Condors (Edmonton)

Re-signed: Forward Iiro Pakarinen (one-year contract)
Qualified RFA'sDefenseman David Musil
Will be UFA on 7/1: Forwards Luke Gazdic, Kale Kessy

Binghamton Senators (Ottawa)

Defenseman Frederik Claesson and forwards Casey Bailey, Ryan Dzingel, Max McCormick and Matt Puempel
Will be UFA on 7/1: defensemen Jerome Leduc and Troy Rutkowski and forward Travis Ewanyk

Bridgeport Sound Tigers (NY Islanders)

Qualified RFA's: Goaltender Chrisopher Gibson, defensemen Scott Mayfield and forwards Kirill Petrov and Alan Quine
Will be UFA on 7/1: Justin Vaive and James Wright

Charlotte Checkers (Carolina)

Qualified RFA's: defensemen Keegan Lowe, Ryan Murphy and Dennis Roberston and forwards Patrick Brown, Brody Sutter and Brendan Woods
Will be UFA on 7/1: Goaltender Rasmus Tirronen, defensemen Danny Biega, Lowe and forwards Anthony Camara, Zach Boychuk,  Dane Fox, Carter Sandlak and Justin Shugg

Chicago Wolves (St. Louis)

Qualified RFA's: Goaltenders Jordan Binnington and Pheoix Copley and forwards Jordan Caron, Jacob Doty and Ty Rattie

Will be UFA on 7/1: defensemen Richard Nedomlel and forwards Cody Beach, Zack Phillips, Ryan Tesnik and Yannick Veilleux

Grand Rapids Griffins (Detroit)

Qualified RFA's: Goaltender Jared Coreau, defenseman Ryan Sproul and forwards Louis-Marc Aubry, Mitch Callahan and Colin Campbell

Hartford WolfPack (NY Rangers)

Qualified RFA's: Defensemen Mat Bodie, Tommy Hughes and forwards Marek Hrivik and Nicklas Jensen
Will be UFA on July 1st: Defensemen Samuel Noreau and Michael Kantor and forwards Luke Adam, Michael St Croix and Chris McCarthy

Hershey Bears (Washington)

Will be UFA on 7/1: Defenseman Ryan Stanton and forward Caleb Herbert

Lake Erie Monsters (Columbus)

Qualified RFA's: defensemen Scott Harrington and forwards Alex Broadhurst and T.J. Tynan

Will be UFA on 7/1: Defenseman Michael Paliotta and forward Michael Chaput

Lehigh Valley Phantoms (Philadelphia)

Qualified RFA's: Forwards Nick Cousins, Petr Straka and Jordan Weal
Will be UFA on 7/1: Forwards Brandon Alderson and Derek Mathers

Manitoba Moose (Winnipeg)

Qualified RFA's: Defensemen Brenden Kitchon and Julian Melchiori and forward J.C. Lipon

Will be UFA on 7/1: forward Austen Brassard

Milwaukee Admirals (Nashville)

Qualified RFA's: Defenseman Stefan Elliot
Will be UFA on 7/1: Defenseman Garrett Noonan and forward Cody Hodgson

Ontario Reign (Los Angeles)

Qualified RFA's: Goaltender Jack Campbell, defenseman Derek Forbort and forwards Andrew Crescenzi and Nic Dowd

Will be UFA's on 7/1: goaltender Patrik Bartosak, defenseman Alex Roach and forward Maxim Kitsyn

Providence Bruins (Boston)

Qualified RFA's: Defensemen Chris Casto and forward Brian Ferlin
Will be UFA on July 1st: Forward Ben Sexton

Rochester Americans (Buffalo)

Signed Overseas: Goaltender Andrey Makarov (signed overseas in KHL for 2016-17)
Qualified RFA's: Daniel Catenacci
Will be UFA on 7/1: Goaltender Nathan Lieuwen and forwards Alex Guptill, Colin Jacobs and Jack Nevins

****Rockford IceHogs (Chicago)

Defensemen Mathieu Brisebois and forwards Matt Fraser, Ryan Haggerty, Mark McNeill and Garret Ross

San Antonio Rampage (Colorado)

Qualified RFA's: Goaltender Calvin Pickard and defenseman Duncan Siemens
Will be UFA on 7/1:  defensemen Gabriel Beaupre, Brandon Gormley and forwards Taylor Beck, Trevor Cheek, Andreas Martinsen, Garrett Meurs and Borna Rendulic

San Diego Gulls (Anaheim)

Re-signed: Goaltender Dustin Tokarski (one-year) and forward Corey Tropp (two-year)
Qualified RFA's: defensemen Kevin Gagne and forward Stefan Noesen
Will be UFA on 7/1: forwards Matt Bailey and Charlie Sarault 

San Jose Barracuda (San Jose)

Qualified UFA's: forward Ryan Carpenter
Will be UFA on 7/1: Goaltender Joel Rumpel and forwards Christopher Crane, Jeremy Langlois and Jeremy Morin

Springfield Thunderbirds (Florida)

Qualified RFA's: Defenseman Jonathan Racine and forward Logan Shaw
Will be UFA on 7/1: Defenseman Dylan Olsen and forwards John McFarland and Greg McKegg

St. John's IceCaps (Montreal)

Will be UFA on 7/1: Defensemen Mac Bennett, Darren Dietz and Morgan Ellis and forwards Michael Bournival

Stockton Heat (Calgary)

Qualified RFA's: defenseman Tyler Wotherspoon and forward Freddie Hamilton
Will be UFA on 7/1: Goaltender Joni Ortio and Kevin Poulin and forwards Kenny Agostino, Bill Arnold, Turner Elson, Drew Shore and Bryce Van Brabant

Syracuse Crunch (Tampa Bay)

Qualified RFA's: Goaltender Kristers Gudlevskis and forwards Yanne Gourde and Tye McGinn
Will be UFA on July 1st: forward David Broll

Texas Stars (Dallas)

Qualified RFA's: Goaltender Maxime Legace and forward Matej Stransky
Will be UFA on 7/1: Defenseman Troy Vance

***Toronto Marlies (Toronto)

Goaltender Garret Sparks, defensemen Connor Carrick, Stuart Percy, forwards Sam Carrick, Josh Leivo, Kerby Rychel and Colin Smith

Tucson Roadrunners (Arizona)

Re-signed: Goaltender Louis Domingue (two-year contract)
Qualified RFA's: forwards Stefan Fournier and Tyler Gaudet
Will be UFA on 7/1: Goaltender Niklas Treutle, defenseman Philip Samuelsson and forwards Christian Thomas

Utica Comets (Vancouver)

Qualified RFA's: Defenseman Andrey Pedan and forwards Alexandre Grenier and Michael Zalewski

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (Pittsburgh)

Re-signed: D Tim Erixon (one-year, two-way deal for 2016-17
Qualified RFA: forward Dominik Uher (signed overseas in Czech Republic for 2016-17)
Will be UFA on July 1st: defensemen James Melindy and Harrison Ruopp and forwards Tyler Biggs, Dan O'Donaghue and Matthias Plachta