The NHL Entry Draft, where the Bruins performed well, has concluded. Free Agency begins on Tuesday. In between, teams faced a Monday 5:00 PM deadline to submit qualifying offers to their restricted free agents to retain negotiating rights beyond July 1.
The Bruins had already signed Mason Lohrei to an extension, on Sunday announced Marat Khusnutdinov signed an extension and on a late-night news dump on Sunday signed Morgan Geekie.
The Bruins revealed today which players received qualifying offers. Those that did not are set to become unrestricted free agents on July 1.
Qualified were: John Farinacci. Just prior to the deadline, the Bruins announced a one-year two-way extension for Georgii Merkulov.
Not Qualified were: Oliver Wahlstrom, Jakub Lauko, Ian Mitchell, Jaxon Nelson, Daniil Misyul, Drew Bavaro and Trevor Kuntar
Misyul signed a contract with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). Extending him a qualifying offer would have ensured that the Bruins retained his NHL rights should he choose to return to North America in the future.
As I wrote about here, I would have opted not to extend a qualifying offer to Nelson, given his difficulty securing a regular spot in the Providence lineup. It seems the Bruins felt the same way. Regarding Bavaro, his departure appeared imminent following his trade at the AHL level by the Bruins.
I thought they might keep Mitchell around with such a young group of defenders in Providence to help guide them along. That will now fall on Billy Sweezey and whoever else the Bruins bring in. I’m not as surprised as most about Lauko as I felt the Bruins were going to decide between him and Khusnutdinov and when the Bruins announced an extension to the latter, the writing was on the wall for me.
I am however surprised about Kuntar. I thought he had a lot more to give than what we saw in Providence last season, but he never really got a shot as an every day player.
Dom - Hockey 