The Hurricanes extended qualifying offers to seven players Monday prior to the 5 p.m. deadline.
Along with Victor Rask, restricted free agents Patrick Brown, Keegan Lowe, Ryan Murphy, Dennis Robertson, Brody Sutter and Brendan Woods were all qualified, allowing Carolina to retain their rights. The group now remains property of the Hurricanes, though contracts must still be signed in order for them to return to the fold next season.
Most notably, this keeps the physical trio of Brown, Sutter and Woods, who spent most of last season on a line together for Charlotte, in the system. On defense, retaining Lowe and Robertson would give some much needed depth to what is shaping up to be a fairly young blue line in Charlotte next season, while Murphy has been a consistently impactful player when suiting up for the Checkers.
Even bigger, however, is the group of players that were not qualified, which includes Danny Biega, Zach Boychuk, Anthony Camara, Dane Fox, Michal Jordan, Carter Sandlak, Justin Shugg, Rasmus Rissanen (who has already signed with Jokerit of the KHL) and Rasmus Tirronen. This non-qualified group is now slated to become unrestricted free agents on July 1.
Quite a few of the names on the unqualified list will be familiar to Checkers fans. Boychuk, the franchise’s leader in games played, goals, assists and points, was loaned to Bakersfield at the tail end of last season, but now officially hits the market as an unrestricted free agent for the first time, while former captain and longtime Checkers blue liner Jordan joins him.
Biega and Shugg have been mainstays on the Checkers over the past few seasons, but injuries derailed much of Biega's 2015-16 campaigns, as he missed the final four months of the season. Camara and Fox joined the team at the trade deadline, with the former enjoying a hot offensive run with the club and the latter suffering a season-ending injury after just one game. Tirronen spent the majority of his rookie year with the Florida Everblades, while Sandlak bounced between the ECHL and being a healthy extra for Charlotte.
Despite not offering them qualifying offers, the Hurricanes could still pursue anyone in that group once free agency opens on Friday.
