Eight players receive qualifying offers

By Steve Silver

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 | 4:02 p.m.

Each team in the ECHL is entitled to reserve the rights to a maximum of eight qualified players and the Las Vegas Wranglers did just that Wednesday.

The Wranglers offered deals to Tim Spencer, Brandon Straub, Dan Riedel, Adam Miller, Jason Dest, Mick Lawrence, Mike Hamilton and Justin Taylor.

According to the ECHL rules these guidelines govern qualifying offers:

"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 will retain the rights to that veteran until Aug. 1. After Aug. 1, if the veteran player is not signed to a contract by the team, the veteran 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 August 31, the player shall be deemed an unrestricted free agent. Teams are not allowed to sign more than 24 players to contracts during the summer."