Heartlanders extend qualifying offers to eight players

Coralville, Iowa – The Iowa Heartlanders, proud ECHL affiliate of the Minnesota Wild and Iowa Wild, issued qualifying offers to eight players: goaltender Drew DeRidder, goaltender Peyton Jones, defenseman Louka Henault, defenseman Ben Brinkman, defenseman Hunter Lellig, forward Dakota Raabe, forward Jake Durflinger and forward Nick Campoli. 

The Heartlanders will retain the ECHL rights to each of these eight players for the 2024-25 season even if they do not sign an ECHL contract with Iowa for this upcoming year. 

Three players have agreed to terms with Iowa on ECHL contracts for this season: forwards Yuki Miura, Will Calverley and Jonny Sorenson. 

Full-season tickets are currently on sale, and deposits can be placed for partial season plans, group outings, birthday parties, suites and the United Iowa Financial Party Plaza. Call 319-855-1775 to discuss options, or visit this link to make your plans for the 2024-25 season! 

Stay tuned to Iowa Heartlanders social media (@goheartlanders) for upcoming theme night announcements and promotional calendar updates . Sign up here to be notified by text message for team news and updates ahead of the start of the 2024-25 season. 

Additional notes

Players who had already signed a contract by July 7 did not need to receive a qualifying offer. 

Each team was entitled to reserve the rights to a maximum of eight qualified players. Of the eight qualified players, no more than four could be veterans (260 regular season professional hockey games played as of the start of the upcoming 2024-25 season). Players on open qualifying offers cannot be traded. 

The qualifying offer must remain open for acceptance until July 22 at which time the qualifying offer 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. 

A team that extends a valid qualifying offer to a veteran player, or to a goaltender who has played more than 180 regular-season games, will retain the rights to that player until July 22. After July 22, if the veteran player or goaltender is not signed to a contract by the team, the player shall be deemed a restricted free agent and shall be entitled to seek and secure offers of employment from other ECHL teams. Restricted free agents may not be traded. 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, the restricted free agent 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 8, the player shall be deemed an unrestricted free agent.