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.
CBA Reference 10.2 (a) (ii)
For players who are on expiring contracts that were signed after July 10, 2020:
The Qualifying Offer is limited to 120% of their previous contracts annual average (AAV)
Reference: 2020 NHL CBA extension Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
The qualifying offer must be a One-Way offer if the following three requirements are met (A goaltender is considered to have played a game if they are on the bench as a backup for this scenario):
In the previous three seasons, the player played in:
180 NHL games (or as pro-rated in the table below)
In the previous season, the player played in:
60 NHL game (or as pro-rated in the table below)
The player did not clear waivers in the previous season.
Games Played QualifyingOfferTypeDeterminer Pro-Ratings