Evansville IceMen Announce 8 Players Offered Qualifying Offers

Head Coach Al Sims and the Evansville IceMen, announced on Wednesday the eight players that have received qualifying offers from the organization.

The eight players are goaltender Cal Heeter, defensemen Mike Banwell, Cameron Burt, Spencer Humphries, Dan Sova, and forwards Jarret Lukin, Robin Soudek, and Patrick Cullen. Banwell, Burt, and Cullen were all acquired in June following the completion of future consideration trades. Banwell came from the Greenville Road Warriors, Burt from the Florida Everblades, and Cullen from the Rapid City Rush. The other five players played in Evansville during the 2014-2015 ECHL season.

Players who had already signed a contract by June 30 did not need to receive a qualifying offer.

Each ECHL team was entitled to reserve the rights to a maximum of eight qualified players. Of the eight qualified players, no more than four could be veterans (260 regular season professional hockey games played as of the start of the upcoming 2015-16 season). Players on open qualifying offers cannot be traded.

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 Aug. 31, the player shall be deemed an unrestricted free agent.

The Evansville IceMen anticipate making additional player signing announcements in the near future. Evansville opens the 2015-2016 season on Saturday, October 17th at the Ford Center against the Indy Fuel at 7:15pm.

2015-16 IceMen season tickets are now on sale by calling an IceMen Account Executive at (812) 421-GOAL (4625), Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm. Season tickets start for as little as $10.00 per game. And for more information about the IceMen visit their official website.