The Montreal Canadiens have extended qualifying offers to forwards Mikhail Grabovski, Andrei Kostitsyn and Corey Locke, defencemen Josh Gorges and Ryan O'Byrne and goaltender Jaroslav Halak.
All six players are set to become restricted free agents on July 1.
Teams are required to extend a one-year qualifying offer to potential restricted free agents by June 25 in order to receive the right of first refusal or draft choice compensation should that respective player sign an offer sheet with another NHL club.
If a team does not give a qualifying offer to a restricted free agent, he is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1 and can sign with any team without compensation.
Players have until July 15 to accept or decline the offer. Depending on their NHL experience, certain restricted free agents who decline their team's qualifying offer can opt to go to arbitration to settle their contract.
