The NHL’s arbitration season is now officially over with Tyson Barrie signing a four-year contract the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday.

Barrie’s case was the final one on the docket.

Filing for arbitration can be used as a negotiation tactic to put a deadline on contracts and now that those deals are done the attention moves to the rest of the restricted free agents who haven’t been signed.

Some negotiations have appeared to be difficult with both sides evaluating the player’s worth differently – this is reportedly the case with Jacob Trouba.

Other teams are trying to make their contracts work with the salary cap along with their internal salary structure like the Anaheim Ducks with Hampus Lindholm and Rickard Rakell.

The Tampa Bay Lightning locked up all their important restricted free agents and unrestricted free agents so now they need to manage their salary cap in a way that enables them to sign Nikita Kucherov and leave enough space for Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat next summer.

It’s simply unclear what’s taking the Calgary Flames so long to get franchise cornerstones Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan signed. Both will get paid, but the longer the team waits the more questions pop up.

We delve into all these issues with our five restricted free agent situations worth watching and why they’re important.

5. Rasmus Ristolainen and the Buffalo Sabres

The 21-year-old Ristolainen developed rapidly in the past year going from 20 points in 78 games in 2104-15 to 41 points in 82 games in 2015-16.

Die by the Blade pointed out how he turned from a raw, young blue liner to an all-situations player averaging 25:17 of ice-time per-game.

Risto does everything required of him as a defenseman. He blocks shots, hits forwards, clears the blue ice around the goalie, gets pucks out of the zone, joins the rush, pinches decently enough and is a big part of the special teams setup. He’s got plenty of time to continue to add muscle and work on different aspects of his game.

The down side of Ristolainen’s game involves his advanced stats. He held a minus-3.81 score and venue adjusted 5-on-5 CF% and a 44.44 5-on-5 score and venue adjusted CF%.

Will these numbers improve as the Sabres get better or are they symptomatic of a less-than-stellar puck possession game? This probably weighs in Buffalo’s thinking on the matter.

4. Rickard Rakell and Hampus Lindhom and the Anaheim Ducks

The Ducks have $9,270,834 million in salary cap space, which is an issue in these negotiations.

Last season, Lindholm was a do-it-all defenseman for the Ducks who averaged 22:00 minutes per-game with a career-high with 10 goals. He also held a 57.97 score and venue adjusted 5-on-5 CF% as well as a plus-7.39 5-on-5 CF% Rel.

It would make sense if the 22-year-old Lindholm received something similar to the $32.4 million contract Seth Jones received from the Columbus Blue Jackets.

After the Ducks picked Rakell 30th overall in 2011 he developed into one of the more underrated talents in the organization. Last season he took the next step in production, more than doubling his career-high goal total from nine in 2014-15 to 20 in 2015-16.

The Orange County Register says that a long-term $4 million per-year contract is probable.

If Lindholm gets $5.4 million annually and the 23-year-old Rakell gets $4 million that puts the Ducks over the cap, which means another salary will need to be moved. Anaheim is also a budget team which increases the likelihood that another move could happen to get both players signed. Cam Fowler’s name had been mentioned in the past, but he hasn’t been moved yet.

3. Jacob Trouba and the Winnipeg Jets

There seems to be a disconnect between the Jets and the 22-year-old defenseman in terms of value. On “That’s Hockey” TSN’s Gary Lawless said Trouba sees himself as a vital cog with the team.

“Jacob Trouba doesn’t want to play in the bottom pairing anymore,” Lawless said according to The Score. “He wants to play with Dustin Byfuglien or one of the other top four D in Winnipeg. He wants power-play time. He wants to be a big part of what they’re doing in Winnipeg if he’s going to be here for a long time.”

Do the Jets feel the same way?

In the past it was reported that Trouba may be susceptible to an offer sheet. Recently Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff has said he’s not trying to trade Trouba.