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QOs for Avs restricted RFAs

Written by Jibblescribbits | 29 Jun 2010

The Avs waited until the very last minute, but finally made qualifying offers for their corps of talented restricted Free Agents Yesterday (Stewart, Mueller, Stewart, err Quincey, and Yip), according to Jori over at Avs prospects (and I am digging the new design over there. Welcome to, well past 2005) . Thankfully they did not pull a Dave Tallon and miss the deadline (as far as we know. But with the Avs, they probably did it 4 weeks ago and didn't bother to tell anyone.)

I think some folks are a little worried about the possibility of other teams tendering offers to these players, and potentially losing them, but I'm not really all that worried about it.  And the reason behind it is the compensation that comes back if someone does sign any of the Avs to offer sheets.

Here's the compensation chart, courtesy of NHLSCAP.com:

Amount

Compensation Due

$863,156 or less

None

$863,156 - $1,307,811

3rd round pick

$1,307,811 - $2,615,623

2nd round pick

$2,615,623 - $3,923,434

1st and 3rd round pick

$3,923,434 - $5,231,246

1st, 2nd, and 3rd round pick

$5,231,246 - $6,539,061

Two 1st's, one 2nd, one 3rd round pick

$6,539,061 or more

Four 1st round picks

More after the jump

What's more is that if any team offers one of those guys money the Avs get picks back (if they don't match, which they have the option to do). Well why I'm not too worried about it is that any contract that someone would offer any of those four free agents would either be met with a matching offer by the Avs that wouldn't be too bad, or compensation in return which is probably worht more than what the player is worth.

The only one I might worry about is Yip. Someone might offer him > $2M, but less than $2.6M, which would mean the Avs would only get a 2nd round pick in return, which wouldn't quite be a good enough return.  But if someone were to offer Mueller. Quincey or Stewart $2.6M or less then the Avs would match and they would get a good player for a decent contract. At the very worst it wouldn't be any less than market value.

And that's IF anyone offers that kind of money to those players. I just don't see that happening though, because all four of those players have at least some red flags that would make other teams nervous to invest that kind of money, and those draft picks. Stewart was benched during the season, Mueller was in the doghouse and has had concussion problems, Yip has a small sample size (32 games), and Quincey. Well he probably has the least red flags, but he was a fairly unremarkable player until this season, so there's still potential that he is a bit of a fluke. That's not to mention that there seems to be a ridiculous gentlemen's agreement in place that keeps GMs from tendering offers to other RFAs.

So I guess it's possible to lose one of those players, but I don't think it's likely, even if they aren't signed come July 1st.