Another piece of the Washington Capitals' Stanley Cup-winning puzzle could be on his way out of Washington.

The Capitals announced that they will not give pending restricted free agent right winger Devante Smith-Pelly a qualifying offer prior to Monday's 5 p.m. deadline making Smith-Pelly an unrestricted free agent on July 1.

TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun reports, however, the Capitals are keeping a dialogue open with the winger but are expected to face competition from around the league.

The winger had a fantastic postseason on the team's run to their first-ever Stanley Cup victory, scoring seven goals in 24 games, including the game-tying goal in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Vegas Golden Knights. Smith-Pelly's acension to one of the Capitals' unsung heros was surprising given that he scored only seven goals all regular season (adding nine assists in 75 games).

According to the Washington Post's Isabelle Khurshudyan, because Smith-Pelly made the league minimum salary of $650,000 last season, a qualifying offer would have been $715,000, which Smith-Pelly would have most likely rejected. But at age 26, Smith-Pelly is arbitration-eligible, and with Washington concerned about salary-cap constraints, the team seemingly feared he would have a strong case if negotiations went all the way to arbitration, in which a third-party mediator rules on either a one-year or two-year salary.

The Capitals cleared cap room over the weekend by shipping veteran defenceman Brooks Orpik and his $5.5 million cap hit to the Colorado Avalanche as part of a trade that also included young goaltender Philipp Grubauer. Even after Washington re-signed defenceman John Carlson to a massive eight-year, $64 million contract on Sunday night, the Capitals still have roughly $13.2 million left for seven players to fill out a 23-man roster.

Washington is Smith-Pelly’s fourth team in seven seasons — the New Jersey Devils bought out the final year of his contract last summer.