Gladiators Extend Qualifying Offers to Eight Players

DULUTH, Ga. – The Atlanta Gladiators announced Monday that the team has extended qualifying offers to forwards Tanner Pond, Alex Gacek, Branden Troock, Taylor Stefishen, Luke Sandler, and Darby Llewellyn as well as defensemen Ben Danford and Zach Malatesta.

Each team is entitled to reserve the rights to a maximum of eight qualified players. Of those eight, no more than four can 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. All players on the Gladiators protected list that did not receive qualifying offers became unrestricted free agents on July 1.Qualifying offers will remain open for acceptance until July 16 when the offer will become null and void. The team may then 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 restricted free agent is not signed to either an offer sheet or a contract by an ECHL team by Aug. 1, the player shall be deemed an unrestricted free agent.

The 16th season of Atlanta Gladiators hockey begins at the Infinite Energy Arena on Friday, October 19th against theGreenville Swamp Rabbits at 7:35 PM. For ticket information, visit the official team website at www.atlantagladiators.com or call the main office line at 770-497-5100.

The Gladiators are members of the ECHL, the nation’s premier "AA" hockey league. All home games are played at the 10,867-seat Infinite Energy Arena, located just off I-85 on Sugarloaf Parkway in Duluth – where parking is always free. The Gladiators have established an unrivaled commitment to excellence, maintaining a distinctive reputation for affordable and family-friendly sports entertainment and consistently ranked as one of the top “Things To Do” in the Atlanta area and across the North Georgia region.

For all the latest team news, contests, and more visit AtlantaGladiators.com, or “like” the Gladiators on Facebook (www.facebook.com/AtlantaGladiators), follow the team on Twitter (www.twitter.com/ATLGladiators), Instagram (www.instagram.com/atlgladiators) or Snapchat (www.snapchat.com) at "gladshockey".

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