Hawks extend offer to 4 promising RFAs.

With the UFA market fast approaching, the NHL teams still have to manage their restricted free agents (RFAs). These players have special contracts that lets their team make a first offer before the rest of the market. If the team doesn't do it by 5 p.m. tonight, the players will then become straight UFAs. The RFA status basically lets team make offers to their younger players before everyone else and also match hostile offer sheets after that. 

Anyhow,the Blackhawks made offers to four of their RFAs this morning, namely Tomas Jurco, Dennis Rasmussen, Ville Pokka and Erik Gustafsson. Interestingly, the management decided not to offer anything to Michael Latta, Kenton Helgesen and Nolan Valleau, freeing them up for the whole league. 

By extending a qualifying offer to these four guys, you can more or less expect the Hawks to retain their service for the upcoming seasons. Except for a random hostile offer sheet, the Hawks will negotiate with their player and sign them quickly.