For Immediate Release: July 3, 2018 

CYCLONES ANNOUNCE QUALIFYING OFFERS

Cincinnati Extend Offers to Five Defensemen, Two Forwards, One Goaltender

Cincinnati, OH- The Cincinnati Cyclones, proud ECHL affiliate of the American Hockey League’s (AHL) Rochester Americans and National Hockey League’s (NHL) Buffalo Sabres, have extended qualifying offers to eight members of the 2017-18 team. A list of Cincinnati’s qualifying offers can be found below.

2018 Cincinnati Cyclones Qualifying Offers:

Forwards (2)- Brandon McNally, Shawn O’Donnell

Defensemen (5)- Arvin Atwal, Brock Beukeboom, Eric Diodati, Eric Knodel, Chris Leone

Goaltenders (1)- Anthony Peters

Per ECHL rules, teams are entitled to reserve the rights to a maximum of eight qualified players, and of those eight players, no more than four could be veterans (260 regular season professional hockey games played as of the start of the upcoming 2018-19 season) Players on open qualifying offers cannot be traded, and players who had already signed a contract by June 30 did not need to receive a qualifying offer. 

Qualifying Offers must remain open for acceptance until July 16, at which time it 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. 

If a team extends a valid qualifying offer to a veteran player, they will retain the rights to that player until July 16. After July 16, if the veteran player is not signed to a contract by the team, they shall be deemed a Restricted Free Agent and shall be entitled to seek and secure offers of employment from other ECHL teams. Additionally, Restricted Free Agents may not be traded, and 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, they 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 1, the player shall be deemed an Unrestricted Free Agent.

The 2017-18 season has come to a close, and the march towards 2018 First Face-off is ON! The Cincinnati Cyclones want to thank you for all of your support this past season, and invite you to stay tuned in the coming weeks and months for information on tickets and promotions for the 2018-19 season, great offseason events like Concrete Clones, player signings, and MORE! Call (513) 421-PUCK for information regarding your Cyclones, and you can also get the latest team updates on Facebook, Twitter (@CincyCyclones), and Instagram, along with our website, www.cycloneshockey.com!