Let’s go back to the 2009 offseason. Dale Tallon didn’t get qualifying offers to Kris Versteeg, Cam Barker, Ben Eager, Colin Fraser, Aaron Johnson and Troy Brouwer. This essentially cost Chicago several years of player control and made Barker, Bolland and Versteeg a lot more expensive than they needed to be. Chicago was already walking a tightrope cap-wise, and those extra millions forced them to blow up the 2009-10 Stanley Cup-winning team more dramatically than they should have needed to.
We laugh at Dale Tallon for doing this by accident (he does a lot of incomprehensible things) but when teams intentionally burn a year of a player's contract even though they don't have a chance to compete – like many readers seem to want the Jets to do with Mark Scheifele – we don't bat an eye.
Cap management is the biggest skill a general manager can have in the NHL these days. It's inexcusable for them to intentionally hasten a player's UFA status.
