Predators make qualifying offers on some, send others to free agency

The Nashville Predators released the list of pending restricted free agents that they made qualifying offers to before Sunday's July first free agency period begins.

Players who earned less than $660,000 in the previous season must be offered 110 percent of last season's salary. Players making up to $1 million must be offered 105 percent. Players making over $1 million must be offered 100 percent of their salary.

The Preds qualified the following five players who are not arbitration eligible (2011-12 NHL base salary in parenthesis - from CapGeek.com).



Jonathon Blum ($787,500)
Jack Maclellan ($692,500)
Alexander Radulov ($984,200)
Jeremy Smith ($600,000)
Colin Wilson ($875,000)

The following players are arbitration eligible and were qualified by the team.

Atte Engren ($610,000)
Sergei Kostitsyn ($2,500,000)
Teemu Laakso ($675,000)
Ryan Thang ($565,000)
Shea Weber ($7,500,000)

These players were not qualified and will become free agents on July 1.

Ryan Flynn ($525,000)
Jack Hillen ($650,000)
Zack Stortini ($550,000)

Finally, the following players are pure unrestricted free agents and are free to negotiate with all 30 NHL teams on July 1.

Ryan Suter
Hal Gill
Francis Bouillon
Paul Gaustad
Andrei Kostitsyn
Jordin Tootoo
Brian McGratten
Sebastien Caron
Brodie Dupont
Tyler Sloan

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass