"The NHL Players' Association has filed a grievance against the Nashville Predators, claiming the team did not tender qualifying offers to restricted free agents as mandated by the collective bargaining agreement, an NHLPA spokesman said Wednesday night.

If an arbitrator rules in favor of the NHLPA, all of the Predators' restricted free agents would become unrestricted free agents, meaning they could sign with another team without compensation for the Predators.

A ruling is expected to be made quickly and could affect Sergei Kostitsyn, Cal O'Reilly, Nick Spaling, Matt Halischuk, Chris Mueller, Andreas Thuresson and Linus Klasen.

Under terms of the labor agreement, qualifying offers were due at 4 p.m. Central on Monday. A Predators spokesman said the team had met the deadline."