Shortly after 4 pm, the Washington Capitals announced which restricted free agents they are giving qualifying offers to before Tuesday’s 5 pm deadline. We already knew Andre Burakovsky would be getting an offer as well as star forward Jakub Vrana.
The others being extended offers are Capitals skaters Christian Djoos and Chandler Stephenson as well as Hershey Bears players Vitek Vanecek and Colby Williams.
Dmitrij Jaskin was not given an offer and will become an unrestricted free agent in July unless the two parties work out a deal before then.
#Caps extend qualifying offers to:
(F) Jakub Vrana, (G) Vitek Vanecek, (D) Colby Williams, (F) Andre Burakovsky, (D) Christian Djoos and (F) Chandler Stephenson— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) June 25, 2019
Vrana, who had a career-high 24 goals during the 2018-19 season, will likely work out a bridge contract or a long term deal with the Capitals over the summer while Burakovsky is now guaranteed to make the same salary as last year, $3.25 million, if he accepts the offer.
The decisions on Jaskin and Stephenson are a bit of a surprise considering their seasons. Jaskin proved to be driver of play and deserving of more opportunity while Stephenson was allergic to offense.
After claiming Jaskin from the Blues before the 2018-19 season, the Capitals soured on the player in the winter. Jaskin was benched less than two weeks before the trade deadline after a game on February 17 against the Anaheim Ducks. To get some cap space, the Capitals initially told reporters they were putting Jaskin on waivers ahead of the trade deadline, but 10 minutes later announced that the player was actually Devante Smith-Pelly, who was later optioned down to AHL Hershey. Jaskin played only one more game with the Capitals – the team’s final game of the season against the New York Islanders on April 6.
Jaskin had 4 points in 10 games for the Czech Republic during their fourth-place finish in the 2019 World Championship.
CapFriendly has a great explainer on restricted free agents and qualifying offers.
Teams must extend a qualifying offer to a restricted free agent to retain negotiation rights.
A qualifying offer is an official Standard Player Contract (SPC) offer which shall be 1 year in length, and which can be subject to salary arbitration should the player be eligible.
Clubs have until the later of June 25th or the first Monday after the Entry Draft to submit Qualifying Offers.
Qualifying Offers apply to Group 2 and Group 4 free agents.
Submitting a Qualifying Offers gives the prior club the right of first refusal to match any offer sheet submitted, or receive draft pick compensation.
If the player rejects the qualifying offer, they remain an RFA and their rights are retained by the team.
If a player does not receive a qualifying offer, the player becomes a UFA.
The qualifying offer is calculated from the players base salary (NHL salary minus signing bonus), and at minimum must meet the seasons minimum salary requirements:
– 110% of the base salary if the base salary is less than or equal to $660,000
– 105% of the base salary if the base salary is greater than $660,000 or less than $1,000,000. However, this qualifying offer cannot exceed $1,000,000.
– 100% of the base salary if the base salary is equal to or greater than $1,000,000.
