Wisniewski, Salcido, Festerling receive qualifying offers.
The Ducks have extended qualifying offers to five restricted free agents: defensemen James Wisniewski, Brett Festerling and Brian Salcido, and forwards Petteri Wirtanen and Petri Kontiola. All would have become unrestricted free agents Wednesday.
Forwards Erik Christensen, Chad Painchaud and Michal Birner were not tendered qualifying offers and are set to become unrestricted free agents. Christensen had two goals and 11 points in 25 games after being acquired at the trade deadline from the Atlanta Thrashers, but was a healthy scratch in five of the Ducks' 13 playoff games.
Painchaud was acquired from Atlanta in the Mathieu Schneider trade and split last season between the ECHL and AHL. Birner, acquired from St. Louis in 2007 along with Doug Weight, split last season between the AHL and Finnish Elite League.
Kontiola recently signed with Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the Russian Kontinental Hockey League, and his agent has informed the Ducks that Kontiola expects to play there next season. By tendering the forward a qualifying offer, Anaheim has simply secured Kontiola's NHL rights.
Also, forward Troy Bodie has signed a two-year contract that will pay him $500,000 if he reaches the NHL and $75,000 in the minors. Bodie scored 15 goals in 71 games for Iowa last season before earning a four-game NHL call-up at midseason.
About J.P.
J.P. Hoornstra has been covering the Anaheim Ducks since 2007. Eight months after the University of Wisconsin won its third NCAA hockey championship, he was born in a frigid Madison winter. He betrayed his blue-blooded beginnings by graduating from UCLA in 2003, and welcomes any and all dialogue on the finer points of hockey.
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