Fuel Extend Eight Qualifying Offers
July 1, 2016 - ECHL (ECHL)
Indy Fuel News Release
INDIANAPOLIS - The Indy Fuel, proud ECHL affiliate of the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks and the AHL's Rockford IceHogs, named the eight players to whom they have issued qualifying offers for the 2016-17 ECHL season. The Fuel protected the rights to forwards Rhett Bly, Michael Colantone, Alex Lavoie, Mikhail Stefanovich and Darian Dziurzynski, in addition to defensemen Nick Petrecki, Anders Franzon and Ben Marshall.
Petrecki stands as the only veteran player tendered a qualifying offer by the club. Indy retained the ECHL rights of Franzon, despite the defenseman having already signed with the Sheffield Steelers of the Champions Hockey League.
"As we continue to build a playoff contending team, we are pleased with where we are at with the players we have signed thus far," said Bernie John, Fuel Head Coach and VP of Hockey Operations. "We will continue to work hard in our process to sign more of our players from last season, while at the same time recruiting new players to fill positions we are looking to upgrade."
The Fuel already have three players under contract for the upcoming season, having signed goaltender Keegan Asmundson and forward Justin Hussar on Wednesday, both of whom finished the 2015-16 season with the team. The pair join Slovakian forward Martin Bellu, who inked his 2016-17 contract on June 21.
"Our mindset from day one was to build a team that can play an exciting, up-tempo game," John continued. "We want to be known as the hardest team to play against."
Per the ECHL, players who had already signed a contract by June 30 did not need to receive a qualifying offer.
Each 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 2016-17 season). Players on open qualifying offers cannot be traded.
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