I LITERALLY SAID HE BECOMES A UFA... goodness gracious you're dense. I only brought up arbitration because the goal of Meier when structuring the deal was to ensure that he did not play the final year of team control on a short-term arbitration dictated contract. He essentially cut his last year of team control out of the situation in exchange for a slightly lower AAV number in the near term.

He should be viewed as someone who is a UFA at the expiry of his deal (like say a Tomas Hertl but in 2 years vs 1 year) that can still be re-signed long-term on a normal fair market deal by the Sharks or any acquiring team or be allowed to go into the open market. There is literally no scenario in which any team is qualifying him and on the hook for $10 million. If he doesn't like the deal presented by SJ or an acquiring team and says "I want $10 million or I am walking", then he is walking as a UFA free to sign anywhere (like hundreds of players do every year). Teams non-QO players all the time and Meier would be no different if he doesn't like the offer presented to him when that time comes and wants to play hard ball.