Nope. They all got changed. They were talking about this a few weeks back when the rumors about Tkachuk wanting out were floated around.
Qualifying Offers
In the previous CBA, for a team to keep the rights to a
Restricted Free Agent, they were required to make an offer of 100% of their final year base salary (if the player made $1M +). That led to some interesting contract structures, where the final year of the contract is much higher than the rest so that the RFA Qualifying Offer after the contract will be very high.
Take
Timo Meier for Example, he signed a 4 year $6M Cap Hit, with a base salary of $10M in 2022-23, which is his final year before RFA status.
With this contract, San Jose must offer him a $10M salary in 2023 or he’ll become an Unrestricted Free Agent and they’ll lose his rights.
In the MOU 68, this changes. For contracts signed starting now, if the final year salary is more than 120% of the AAV/Cap Hit of the contract, then the Qualifying Offer required is only 120% of the AAV. In Meier’s example, instead of a $10M contract offer, this contract would require a $7.2M Qualifying to retain his RFA rights. This serves to lower the Qualifying Offer and therefore potentially lowering the next contract.
“For contracts starting now”. All these guys were signed before the changes. Unless it means all contracts signed regardless. Can’t see agents or players signing contracts with different rules being to pleased with changes that leave millions in the table from what they agreed upon.
Key Salary Cap Changes in new CBA | Puckpedia