On Monday, the Wichita Thunder announced their season-ending roster, which includes one goalie, nine forwards, and ten defensemen.
The lone goalie listed is Trevor Gorsuch. Gorsuch played in 37 games for the Thunder this season. He had an average of 3.41 goals against and had an average save percentage of .908. He was selected as the Warrior ECHL Goaltender of the Week during March 4-10. During that week, he went 3-0-0, averaged 2.61 goals against, and a .932 save percentage.
The nine forwards include Peter Bates, Dillon Boucher, Ryan Finnegan, Jason Pineo, Declan Smith, Michal Stinil, Jake Wahlin, Kobe Walker, and T.J. Walsh.
The ten defensemen are Ryan Barbosa, Dominic Dockery, Nicholas Favaro, Tyler Jette, Nolan Kneen, Shane Kuzmeski, Jeremy Masella, Lleyton Moore, Xavier Pouliot, and Ethan Roswell.
In the ECHL, teams are allowed up to 20 players on their season-ending rosters. These rosters cannot consist of any player that did not sign an ECHL contract during the season. Teams are entitled to reserve rights to eight players out of the 20 from the season-ending rosters by extending a qualifying offer prior to 11:59 p.m. ET on July 7. Out of those eight, a maximum of four can be veterans. Players who have open qualifying offers cannot be traded. Teams do not have to extend qualifying offers to players if they have signed a contract before July 7. The qualifying offer must stay open for acceptance until July 22 at 11:59 p.m. ET. At that time, the qualifying offer becomes invalid, and the team are allowed to sign the player to any salary or take no action. Teams that extend qualifying offers to non-veteran players will keep the rights to that qualified for another season.
A team that extends a qualifying offer to a veteran player or goaltender who played in over 180 regular-season games will keep right to that player until 11:59 p.m. ET on July 22. If the veteran player or goalie does not sign a contract with the team, they will be considered a restricted free agent and will be allowed to seek out employment offers from other ECHL teams. Restricted free agents cannot be traded. When a restricted free agent has an offer from a team that is not the team with their rights, and the player wants to accept the offer, the restricted free agent and offering member must notify the ECHL, the team with the player’s rights, and the Professional Hockey Players’ Association within 24 hours. The team with the players’ rights will have a week afterward to match the new contract offer. If the restricted free agent has not signed an offer sheet or a contract by 11:59 p.m. ET on August 8, the player will be an unrestricted free agent.
The Wichita Thunder begin their season on Friday, October 18, at Intrust Bank Arena, and face off against the Kansas City Mavericks.
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