ECHL: Season-ending rosters released

The ECHL released its season-ending list of 20-man rosters on Monday. The rosters had to be submitted and finalized Sunday afternoon. This will mean more to us in a year when the Indy Fuel are protecting players, but it's at least a good look at the player pool in the ECHL.

Read the list here. 

The ECHL does a good job of explaining what this means. Essentially, of the 20 players on each roster:

• A team can sign any of its own players starting today. Players who sign contracts with their existing team do not have to be extended offer sheets. 
• A team can extend offer sheets to 8 unsigned players on its 20-man roster, essentially "protecting" those players, between now and July 1. 
• Players have until Aug. 1 to either sign or reject the offer sheet.
• The ECHL team extending the offer sheet will hold the rights to non-veterans (players with less than 260 professional games) for one year. Veteran players become restricted free agents free to sign with any team, but the original team has seven days to match any offer until Aug. 31. After that date, all veterans with unsigned offer sheets become unrestricted free agents and are free to sign with any team.
• All players not re-signed by their original teams or extended qualifying offers by June 30 become unrestricted free agents and are free to sign with any team. Those free agents are the players to keep an eye on, as those will be the players available to the Fuel -- and by extension, any other ECHL team.
• Players under NHL or AHL contracts are not subject to this system, as their rights are held by the NHL/AHL parent club and not with the ECHL club.

Of note: Las Vegas will suspend operations for one season while it works out its arena situation, so it does not have a 20-man roster.  Therefore, all of the Wranglers are automatically free agents.