The Adirondack Thunder have officially released their 2024 Season-Ending Roster of 20 players following their announcement earlier this week that they were protecting 23 players. Each team is allowed to protect a maximum of 20 players and reserve the rights to eight players; no more than four can be veterans. The ECHL considers any player with 260 professional hockey games played prior to the 2024-25 season a veteran. The list does not include players on NHL or AHL Contracts.
The Roster
Mac Welsher, Shane Harper, Alex Young, Mike Gillespie, Andre Ghantous, Ryan Smith, Yanick Turcotte, Zach Walker, Travis Broughman, Tristan Ashbrook, Patrick Grasso.
Darian Skeoch, Ryan Wheeler, Brendan Less, Matt Stief, Connor Blake, Ryan Conroy, Jackson van de Leest, Scott Allan
Vinnie Purpura
Thoughts/Surprises As The Thunder Begin To Build For Next Season
As we enter the 2024 off-season, Head Coach/Head of Hockey Operations Pete MacArthur, along with Assistant Coach Mike Bergin, will certainly have some holes to fill. The biggest things on MacArthur and Bergin’s agenda should be filling the holes left by Patrick Grasso as he headed to Europe and considering the possibility of Shane Harper retiring. There’s no question that each of them brought a lot to the Thunder offensively. However, this isn’t as big of a hole as long as Adirondack can at least find a way to bring back Tristan Ashbrook for next year, as he led the team in goals last season.
It’s going to be very interesting to see how the Thunder fill out the blueline over the off-season. Last off-season, the Adirondack Thunder added the duo of Colin Felix and Will MacKinnon, who were one of the top pairs in the ECHL. Both of them spent the majority of the year up in the AHL with the Utica Comets, and that would leave some big shoes to fill. I expect Adirondack to bring back Darian Skeoch after the year had, including being named the interim Captain late in the season. One of the biggest questions is if the Thunder will look at bringing back Matt Stief; he had a great regular season but didn’t see much playing time during the Kelly Cup Playoffs.
In net, I think there’s no doubt that Vinnie Purpura has earned a spot on this team for next season, but the goaltending situation at all three levels of the New Jersey Devil’s organization is very crowded, especially with the Devils recently acquiring Jacob Markstrom from the Calgary Flames. We also have to remember that Jeremy Brodeur was on an AHL deal last season with Utica; if he re-signs in Utica, I would expect the same as last year, with most of his time spent with the Thunder, who will also likely get Tyler Brennan back after he spent the entire year with Adirondack but was battling a lot of injuries. I expect us to have a clearer picture of what the goaltending will look like as we get closer to September and October.
