Today is the opening of free agency for the five or six players who remain unsigned in the NHL. It begins at noon, but the rumours know no time.

If you missed it yesterday in all the hubbub, the Leafs issued Qualifying Offers to some of their RFAs:

David Alter pointed out that Knies is on the list because as at 5 pm, his contract had not been formally finalized, so it was necessary.

Also missing are Pontus Holmberg and Mikko Kokkonen as well as Marlies-only players Reese Johnson and Cedric Paré. If you've forgotten, Alex Steeves and Nick Abruzzese are both now UFAs under the Group 6 rules.

What this means is that the Leafs maintain the signing rights to everyone they qualified, and can still re-sign anyone they didn't.

His QO was over $850,000, and the Leafs might be more interested in a deal at his former AAV of $800,000. He might be more interested in not taking massive checks just to draw a penalty, but the signing of Matias Maccelli seems to close the door on Holmberg getting much time up the lineup again. We'll find out in time how this shakes out.

Kokkonen is likely in the same situation. He hasn't got a European deal yet, and he likely could get one, but as his age, he's proven to have found his level in the AHL.

I should mention the arbitration schedule. Players have until July 5 at 5 pm to elect arbitration, and then the teams get 24 hrs. We may start hearing about arbitration elections soon. However, the NHLPA issues a list for player elections sometime after July 5.

This is not quite the story the LTIR "loophole" people thought they were watching unfold yesterday:

Pietrangelo stepping away from Golden Knights for health reasons | NHL.com
35-year-old defenseman says ‘likelihood is low that my body will recover to the standard required to play’
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Today's free agent pickings are slim to say the least. By points Mikael Granlund leads with 66 including 22 goals. Nikolaj Ehlers comes next with 63 and 24 goals, and the potential to earn a lot of money. I don't see any sign the Leafs have interest.

P. Kane re-signed with Detroit last night as well.

JVR makes the top 10 UFAs by points now with 35. Jeff Skinner and Anthony Beauvillier are interesting depth players of the "all he does is score" variety while being better than Nick Robertson. There's lots of fourth liners.

Connor Dewar wasn't qualified, so he's a UFA now too.

Brad Marchand is off the board with an eyebrow raising 6-year deal that takes him to 43.

The Leafs have, at time of writing, -$3M in projected cap space with 22 players included. That's because Mitch Marner and his $12M was still there pending the trade. He was signed by the Leafs, his contract registered, and then he will (or has been) traded to Vegas and the trade will be registered and formally approved.

So, add in Nic Roy and take out Marner and you get $6M in space. This calculation includes the bonus overage that rolled into this year from Max Pacioretty's contract.

To add any player of note, some cap space will need to be created. It is July 1. If you take salary cap projections seriously today, you are being a bit silly. Many moves will be made and unexpected things will happen before the end of training camp.

That said: don't expect much excitement today from the Leafs.

The Leafs engineered a good news story on the day:

That's all for now, and we'll see where this goes otherwise. Happy Canada Day!

From The Branches