The Calgary Flames have tendered qualifying offers to forwards Martin Pospisil, Emilio Pettersen, and Ben Jones, retaining their exclusive negotiating rights as they prepare to officially become restricted free agents on Saturday.
The deadline to qualify RFAs passed at 3:00 p.m. MT on Friday. After signing forward Yegor Sharangovich to a two-year contract extension earlier this week, the Flames approached that deadline with only three pending RFAs to qualify — and they tendered offers to all of them.
The Flames also have nine players set to become unrestricted free agents on July 1: forwards Milan Lucic, Trevor Lewis, Nick Ritchie, Matthew Phillips, and Dryden Hunt, as well as defensemen Troy Stecher, Michael Stone, Nic Meloche, and Colton Poolman.
Pospisil, 23, missed the majority of the 2022–23 season while dealing with injuries. The Flames originally selected the Slovak forward in the fourth round (No. 105 overall) of the 2018 NHL Draft. He collected four goals and 10 points in 20 AHL games with the Calgary Wranglers in the 2022–23 regular season but missed the entirety of the Wranglers’ 2023 Calder Cup Playoff run.
Pettersen, 23, racked up 19 goals and 44 points in 61 games as a third-year pro with the Wranglers in 2022–23. The 2018 sixth-round pick (No. 167 overall) remained largely healthy throughout the 2022–23 season but occasionally ended up a healthy scratch under ex-head coach Mitch Love, including for four out of the Wranglers’ nine playoff games.
Jones, 24, spent much of the 2022–23 season as the Wranglers’ No. 1 centre. A 2017 seventh-round pick (No. 189 overall) of the Vegas Golden Knights, Jones signed with the Flames as a non-tendered free agent in 2022 and set new career highs with 54 points and 71 games in the AHL, although he recorded just two points in nine playoff contests.
These three players are not obligated to accept their qualifying offers. Jones and Pospisil received one-year offers at a $787,500 cap hit; Pettersen’s QO carries an $874,125 cap hit. The players are free to negotiate with the Flames if they wish to increase their AHL salaries on their next contracts.
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