Brown and Duclair will be qualified. Same as Tierney. While there is some chance one or more of these players is traded, there is no reason to let them walk for nothing when their QO’s are so low.
It depends on whether the player has arbitration rights. Guys coming off elc generally don’t unless they are like 24 or something when they come off elc. These guys will all get qualified.
Gaudette will for sure. It would be Stecher and Virtanen. Stecher is at $2.235 mill for his cap hit while Virtanen is at $1.25 mill. Actual salary may be higher thus the QO would be their salary.
Stecher because he was behind Tanev and Myers who were able to remain in the lineup virtually all season won’t have top 4 Dman Minutes to use in his arbitration case. He’s a 3rd pairing Dman who can move into the top 4 to cover injuries. But he’s not a guy you want in the top 4 if you are a quality playoff team.
Virtanen is in that group of guys that would seem like a no brainer to qualify but that’s where you would need to project his arbitration award. Going around the nhl, it will likely take around $3 mill to get him signed. It’s cases like this that you could see teams walk away but based on age they may be able to find a taker via trade.
the ones where you can see teams walk away are similar to Burkovsky who was due $3.25 mill in a QO. If you qualify him you have to be prepared to absorb that cap charge or at least be confident about trading him.
even last season Ben Hutton didn’t get his QO at $2.8 mill because the Canucks didn’t think he was going to be worth an arbitration award of around $3.5 mill or more. he ended up with a 1 year deal for $1.5 mill in LA a week before camp opened.