The Washington Capitals have extended qualifying offers to five of their eight restricted free agents prior to this afternoon’s 5:00 deadline. Josh Godfrey, Joe Finley and Trevor Bruess were not extended qualifying offers and will become unrestricted free agents at noon on Friday.
Per Mike Vogel:
The Capitals issued qualifying contracts to […] defenseman Karl Alzner, forwards Francois Bouchard, Troy Brouwer and Mathieu Perreault and goaltender Semyon Varlamov. In making the contract offers, Washington retains the rights to the five players and the right to match any contract offer made to those players by any other NHL team after the players officially achieve RFA status at noon this Friday, July 1.
Washington has previously signed impending RFA defensemen Zach Miskovic (one year) and Patrick McNeill (two years) to deals for the upcoming 2011-12 season.
The Capitals declined to issue contract offers to three players: forward Trevor Bruess and defensemen Joe Finley and Josh Godfrey. Each of those three players now has unrestricted free agency status and is free to negotiate a deal with any of the other 29 teams in the NHL.
Of the five players to whom Washington did tender contract offers to today, only one – Brouwer – has arbitration rights this summer.