Growlers Announce Season Ending Roster

ST. JOHN’S, NL – The Newfoundland Growlers proud affiliate of the Toronto Maple Leafs, announced their ECHL season-ending roster today. The announcement of protected players is the second step of a multi-step process in which ECHL teams reserve the rights to ECHL contracted players for the upcoming 2020-21 ECHL season.

The Growlers season-ending roster includes three forwards, four defensemen, and one goaltender. See below for the full breakdown: 

Goaltenders (1): Parker GahagenDefensemen (4): Garrett Johnston, Evan Neugold, James Melindy, Tommy PanicoForwards (3): Todd Skirving, Mark Tremaine, Dylan Vander Esch

Season-Ending Rosters may include up to 20 players. Season-Ending Rosters cannot include any players who did not sign an ECHL contract in 2019-20. 

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 2020-21 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 June 30. 

The qualifying offer must remain open for acceptance until July 16 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 July 16. After July 16, 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. 1, the player shall be deemed an unrestricted free agent.