The Edmonton Oilers have 22 days to qualify RFAs

In exactly 22 days from the time this article goes live, the Edmonton Oilers will have to have made decisions on qualifying their RFAs.

Edmonton has a number of RFA’s this offseason: @Andreas Athanasiou, @Jesse Puljujarvi, @Matt Benning, @Ethan Bear, @Bogdan Yakimov, @Anton Slepyshev, @William Lagesson, @Ryan Mantha, @Angus Redmond, @Nolan Vesey, @Logan Day, @Cameron Hebig, @Shane Starrett, and lastly, @Ryan Kuffner.

So needless to say, I’d imagine Holland and co. will get to work sooner rather than later. The majority of these are AHL QO’s or retention offers for guys like Puljujarvi, Yakimov and Slepyshev, but Holland has a few important decisions.

Teams are required to issue qualifying offers at 100% of previous contracts in most cases, meaning Athanasiou would require a $3-m QO, Benning would get a $1.9-m QO and Bear would get a $720,000 QO.

There’s been lots of talk that Athanasiou’s new contract would come in below that QO, somewhere in the low $2-million range, while a new deal around the $2-m mark should be solid for Benning.

The Oilers will have other areas to address, too, with UFA’s like @Tyler Ennis to re-sign.

On Twitter: @zjlaing