Joni Ortio is now a restricted free agent

A little while back, we took a look at Joni Ortio’s status for this coming summer. Due to his age and National Hockey League experience, Ortio was likely to become a Group 6 free agent at the end of the season…unless he played a certain number of games of 30 minutes or more.

After last night’s game, Ortio has played enough games (26) to be a restricted free agent on July 1.

We initially listed the number as 28 games, but our pal Pat Steinberg did some digging and discovered that the lockout year skewed the numbers a bit.

Here’s the math: Ortio’s presently in his fifth professional season. (His first two seasons were spent partially and then entirely in Finland’s SM-Liiga, but they count because his entry-level contract was active.)

The 28 game figure is based on five full NHL seasons for a player to get their games in, and that number represents roughly 6.8% of the available games. But with the 2012-13 season getting knocked down to 48 games due to the lockout, 6.8% of the available games shrinks from 28 to 25.6, 26 if you’re rounding.

Including last night’s game, Ortio has played 30+ minutes in:

So he’s definitely hit the 26-game threshold. If the Flames choose to qualify him, he’ll be a restricted free agent this summer.