from Lyle Richardson at the Hockey News,

That list includes Florida’s Jay Bouwmeester, Philadelphia’s Jeff Carter, Anaheim’s Corey Perry, Pittsburgh’s Marc-Andre Fleury, Columbus’ Pascal Leclaire, Washington’s Mike Green, Minnesota’s Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Montreal’s Andrei Kostitsyn, Ottawa’s Andrej Meszaros and Nashville’s Martin Erat, Shea Weber and Ryan Suter.

While their respective clubs intend to re-sign them, the longer it takes, the greater the threat of an offer sheet becomes.

This gives those RFAs considerable leverage in contract negotiations. In the past, the only option they would’ve had to land a better deal was to stage a holdout, which rarely worked well for the player in terms of dollars and performance.

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