Canes make qualifying offers to Rask, six others

The Carolina Hurricanes on Monday made qualifying offers to seven restricted free agents, including center Victor Rask.

Also receiving offers before the NHL’s 5 p.m. deadline were forwards Patrick Brown, Brody Sutter and Brendan Woods, and defensemen Ryan Murphy, Keegan Lowe and Dennis Robertson.

Two notable exceptions were forward Zach Boychuk and defenseman Michal Jordan. Boychuk, 26, is a former first-round draft pick by the Canes who played 127 NHL games for Carolina, although none in the 2015-16 season.

Jordan, 25, has gotten in 79 NHL games for the Canes, 74 over the past two seasons. He competed for the Czech Republic in each of the past two World Championships.

Others who did not get qualifying offers were Danny Biega, Anthony Camara, Dane Fox, Carter Sandlak, Justin Shugg, Rasmus Rissanen and goalie Rasmus Tirronen. Rissanen already has signed to play with Jokerit of the KHL next season.

Most of the players spent most of last season with the Charlotte Checkers, the Canes’ American Hockey League affilaite.

Carolina recently re-signed goalie Cam Ward, who was due to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, to a two-year contract. Unsigned are forwards Riley Nash, Nathan Gerbe, Chris Terry, Brad Malone and T.J. Hensick — all due to become unrestricted free agents on Friday.

As unrestricted free agents, the players can be re-signed by the Canes. Nash did that a year ago, receiving a one-year, $1.15 million NHL contract on July 1.

Boychuk signed a one-year, two-way contract last July that had a guarantee of $250,000.

Canes general manager Ron Francis has talked of possibly signing Rask to a multiyear contract extension. The Swedish forward was tied for second on the Canes in points with 48 last season, scoring 21 goals in his second NHL season.

This story was originally published June 27, 2016 at 6:07 PM with the headline "Canes make qualifying offers to Rask, six others."