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At 5:00 pm on Sunday, qualifying offers expired for all unsigned restricted free agents on all the teams. For the Tampa Bay Lightning, there are six RFAs who have yet to be signed. Anthony Cirelli, Mikhail Sergachev, Erik Cernak, Mathieu Joseph, Alexander Volkov, and Dominik Masin.
Reminder that all unsigned Qualifying Offers expire at 5pm ET today.
— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) October 18, 2020
Clubs can choose to extend the deadline past Oct 18th on a case by case basis.
Even if a player rejects/refuses their QO, they still retain their RFA status and the club continues to hold on to their rights. pic.twitter.com/lbIgm7tjPL
What does this mean? Largely nothing. All of these players still have their contracts under team control, they just can’t accept the initial offer the Lightning put on the table. You can calculate QO contracts on the CapFriendly website, it’s pretty much just a small raise from their salary last year on a one year deal.
I’m sure for all of these players, the Lightning have made different offers that carry different qualities to them; i.e. more money, more term, or a higher salary in the minors. Dominik Masin had the option to elect arbitration with the Lightning, but he did not file according to the NHLPA. If the Lightning want to trigger that process, they can elect arbitration themselves and get a court date to settle the contract. The fact that Masin did not use his collectively bargained right for arbitration is either good news and he’s going to sign soon, or bad news and he’s staying in the KHL where he’s currently playing.
There are still no updates or changes to the situation with Cirelli and Sergachev. Both are exposed to offer sheets — though they have not signed any yet, and there have no reports of one being offered yet. The team still needs to create space in order to know how much the two young stars can be paid. With the way things are going and the lack of space available, it’ll almost definitely be bridge deals for both and for Cernak.
My guess is that teams who are dealing with arbitration (starting Tuesday) will be able to look at their cap space again after those RFAs are cleared up to potentially take on someone like Tyler Johnson, Alex Killorn, Yanni Gourde, or Braydon Coburn. Those are the names currently out there as potential trade casualty options.
I don’t know, Steven, there’s a lot of postseason going on!
Tampa sports fans. You good ?@TBLightning @RaysBaseball @Buccaneers @TampaBayRowdies
— Steven Stamkos (@RealStamkos91) October 18, 2020
It’s been so long.
Congratulations to Los Angeles and Tampa, two cities seeking to break 7- and 20-day title droughts, respectively
— actioncookBOOk (@actioncookbook) October 19, 2020
That’s it for today, Sunday was a very slow news day. Cheers to a good Monday, and don’t forget to vote if you can!