The Edmonton Oilers made qualifying offers Monday to Group 2 free-agent defencemen Denis Grebeshkov and Ladislav Smid to keep their rights so they don't become unrestricted and free to walk on Wednesday.

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The Edmonton Oilers have made qualifying offers to free-agent defencemen Denis Grebeshkov, above, and Ladislav Smid, right.

Photograph by : Shaughn Butts, The Journal, File

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They also qualified winger Liam Reddox, Gilbert Brule--who will get a good shot as a fourth-line centre-- and farmhand forwards Rob Schremp, Ryan Potulny, Ryan Stone and goalie Devan Dubnyk, which means they won't be unrestricted free agents, either.

But they reportedly cut their ties with a handful of farmhand players, including injury-plagued Springfield blue-liner Mathieu Roy, and Bryan Young, who was thrown into the deep end for 15 Oiler games during his first pro season in 2006-07 when the NHL club had an awful run of medical problems on the back end.

The rule of thumb is NHL teams have to offer a 10-per-cent bump to those Group 2 free-agents making less than $660,000 (Reddox was at $508,333 last season). Those making between $666,000 and $1 million get a mandatory five-per-cent increase (Smid at $915,053). Those over$1 million (Grebeshkov at $1.5 million) are qualified at the same rate as last year. That doesn't mean that's all they get in a new contract; they can work on a different one, as Grebeshkov is for at least double last year's salary.

Several sources at the draft said the Oilers offered up Schremp for a pick, possibly a second-rounder, but there were no takers for the forward, who needs a change of scenery. They qualified him Monday because they don't want to lose him for nothing, but that doesn't mean he fits into the long-range plans. There's no room for him on the top two Oiler lines.

The Oilers would have qualified centre Kyle Brodziak, too, but the Wild did that Monday after getting him last Saturday for two draft picks.

Brodziak played for new Minnesota coach Todd Richards in Wilkes-Barre, the Penguins' farm club, and they envision him as a strong role player. When they got Brodziak, they decided to not qualify a much higher-paid centre, Dan Fritsche, who becomes an unrestricted freeagent Wednesday.

ON THE BENCH

The Oilers will hire a new goalie coach in the next day or two to replace Pete Peeters. He apparently doesn't have any ties to the Vancouver Canucks from when Oiler GM Steve Tambellini worked there. Peeters is still looking. ... The Flyers released their goalie coach, Reggie Lemelin, and there's a tie-in there for Peeters. He used to play for the Flyers, and current Philly GM Paul Holmgren was a teammate ... Former Oiler CHED radio colour commentator Morley Scott has a new gig as the radio play-by-play voice of the WHL's Vancouver Giants. He's also the PR man for one of the league's best franchises. He'll be riding the buses, but he's always wanted to call the games ...The Oilers are interested in Rangers free-agent centre Blair Betts, who anchored the NHL's best penalty-killing unit last year, but Brule and Marc Pouliot, if he's not traded, obviously will have first dibs on Brodziak's job ... Stone, who came from Pittsburgh in the Mathieu Biron trade, and Potulny figure to form two-thirds of the top line in Springfield ... Former Oilers winger Brad Winchester, who was an unrestricted free-agent in St. Louis, got a new one-year deal for $800,000.