Joined: Jul. 2021
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Does anybody know why Evan Rodrigues was part of this trade? He was a RFA so Toronto acquired his signing rights, but they gave up those signing rights by not making him a qualifying offer, which made him a UFA. Then he went back to Pittsburgh and signed for a lesser amount. No games were played between the trade and the deadline for making qualifying offers, so Toronto must have already known when they traded for him that they weren’t going to qualify him.
Is there some rule I don’t know about that says that if you don’t make a qualifying offer to a RFA, you can’t sign him when he becomes a UFA? That’s the only reason I can think of for including him. In that case, trading him to a team that had no intention of qualifying him allowed Pittsburgh to try to re-sign him for a lower amount (which they ultimately did).