Penguins do not give qualifying offer to P.O. Joseph, but still reportedly talking with him about extension

Qualifying offer day brings drama in Pittsburgh

The Pittsburgh Penguins have made their final decisions on qualifying offers this summer. Any impending restricted free agent not given a QO by today would become unrestricted tomorrow. Defenseman P.O. Joseph was the biggest name that applied for Pittsburgh, and he was not extended offer by the Pens, per Elliotte Friedman. Still unknown is the status of forward Emil Bemstrom, who would also needed to be qualified by Pittsburgh today by 5pm.

Qualifying in this instance would have meant the next step in the process for the players would be to file for arbitration. Arbitration cases are held later in the summer, with most being rendered unnecessary if teams and players agree to a contract prior to that point (which they can still do at any time).

The Pens waited quite a while to make the offers, using all the time they had to determine whether or not they wanted to keep Joseph and Bemstrom with the club for next season. GM Kyle Dubas has mentioned a few times that the Pens have been talking to Joseph’s representatives about finding a contract figure that works for both sides.

Qualifying offers for RFA’s was once automatic, but tighter salary caps and the threat of arbitration taking team control away has led to more teams walking away from their young players. Across the league some decently talented players like Jesper Boqvist, Erik Brannstrom, Jacob Bryson, Nils Lundkvist, Sam Steel and Noah Gregor were not qualified and will become outright free agents tomorrow. Alex Nylander, who Pittsburgh traded for Bemstrom, was not given a qualifying offer by Columbus either. Similarly, last year Pittsburgh opted to let Ryan Poehling ride off into the sunset.

On the minor league side, Dubas said that Pittsburgh would give a QO to forward Corey Andonovski. Nothing has been mentioned about forwards Dillon Hamaliuk and Maxim Cajkovic, who both might be heading to UFA.

Occasionally some players who aren’t qualified still re-sign with their original team, like Danton Heinen did with the Pens in 2022. That could be the case in this instance.

But by not qualifying Joseph, if he comes back to Pittsburgh it will be on the Penguins’ terms and not his own via a possible arbitration case.