ADIRONDACK ANNOUNCES SEASON-ENDING ROSTER

Glens Falls, NY – The Adirondack Thunder, proud ECHL affiliate of the New Jersey Devils, announced today their 2018 Season-Ending Roster.

The Thunder’s Season-Ending Roster is as follows:

Goaltenders (x1): Drew Fielding

Defensemen (x7): Desmond Bergin, Mike Bergin, Mathieu Brodeur, Kevin Lough, Dylan Olsen, Conor Riley, Blake Thompson

Forwards (x8): James Henry, Kenton Miller, Austin Orszulak, Paul Rodrigues, Ryan Schmelzer, Mike Szmatula, Terrence Wallin, Brian Ward

The Thunder’s protected list includes 16 players, all of whom skated with the Thunder during the 2017-2018 campaign. 15 of the 16 listed players were on Adirondack’s Kelly Cup Playoffs roster where the Thunder reached the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in franchise history. Kevin Lough finished his season with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves after earning a call-up in early December.

The remaining six players from the Thunder’s playoff roster are not eligible to be protected as they were assigned to Adirondack on either NHL or AHL contracts. Goaltender MacKenzie Blackwood was assigned to the Thunder from New Jersey (NHL). Forwards Shane Conacher, Troy Bourke, defenseman Matthew Spencer and goaltender Olivier Mantha were all assigned to Adirondack from Syracuse (AHL), while Colton White was assigned from Binghamton (AHL).

Season-Ending Rosters may include up to 20 players. Season-Ending Rosters cannot include any players who did not sign an ECHL contract in 2017-18.

Each team is entitled to reserve rights to a maximum of eight players from the list of 20 by extending a qualifying offer no later than June 30. Of the eight qualified players, no more than four can be veterans (260 regular season professional hockey games played as of the start of the 2018-19 Season). Players on open qualifying offers cannot be traded. Teams are not required to extend a qualifying offer to players who sign a contract prior to July 1.

The qualifying offer must remain open for acceptance until Aug. 1 at which time the qualifying offer becomes null and void and the team may sign the qualified player to any salary or may elect to take no further action. Teams that extend a valid qualifying offer to a non-veteran player shall retain the rights to that qualified player for one playing season.

A team that extends a valid qualifying offer to a veteran player, or to a goaltender who has played more than 180 regular-season games, will retain the rights to that player until Aug. 1. After Aug. 1, if the veteran player or goaltender is not signed to a contract by the team, the veteran or goaltender shall be deemed a restricted free agent and shall be entitled to seek and secure offers of employment from other ECHL teams. Restricted free agents may not be traded. When a restricted free agent receives a contract offer from a team other than the team with the player’s rights and the restricted free agent wishes to accept the contract offer, the restricted free agent and the offering member must, within 24 hours, notify the ECHL, the team with the player’s rights and the Professional Hockey Players’ Association. The member with the player’s rights shall have seven days after the date it is notified to exercise its right to match the contract offer.

If a restricted free agent is not signed to either an offer sheet or a contract by an ECHL team by Aug. 31, the player shall be deemed an unrestricted free agent.

Season tickets for the 2018-2019 Adirondack Thunder season are on sale now. Visit ECHLThunder.com or call 518-480-3355 with any questions or for more information on ticket packages. For the latest Thunder news, be sure to follow the team on Facebook (www.facebook.com/ECHLThunder) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/ECHLThunder).

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