The ECHL’s Brampton Beast have released their Protected List of 27 players heading into the off-season. The ECHL doesn’t have multi-year contracts, so this process of a protected list helps teams retain rights to players from the previous season ahead of contract negotiations.
Protected List rules
Every team is allowed to protect as many players from the previous season as they want, but there are a few caveats. A player must have met one of the following conditions:
- under contract with the team until the end of the 2016-17 season, without being traded or released;
- received a Qualifying Offer for the season, didn’t sign a contract, but wasn’t traded or released, or;
- was signed to an AHL or NHL contract during the season after signing an ECHL standard playing contract first.