NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. – The South
Carolina Stingrays announced today that the team has extended qualifying offers to the following five players for the 2006-2007 season: Jamie Fraser, Nate Kiser, Scott Romfo, Brandon Schwartz, and Davis Parley.
Fraser, a 6’1”, 199-pound center made his professional debut last season with the Rays as they headed into the playoffs after playing most of the season with the Sarnia Sting of the OHL. Fraser scored 16 goals with 26 assists for 42 points in 65 games with the Sting and added two goals and one assist for three points in nine games with the Rays.
Defensemen Kiser, 6’1”, 207-pounds, played 61 games in his second season with the Stingrays last year, earning 12 points on 12 assists with 174 penalty minutes. Kiser’s season also included a call-up to the Albany River Rats of the AHL for one game.
Romfo was signed as a free agent in March 2006 and played 16 games with the Rays last season. The defensemen scored one goal and added seven assists, for eight points. Last year, Romfo, 5’11”, 187-pounds, scored two goals with 15 assists in his senior year at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Last season was eventful for 5’11’, 195-pound Schwartz. After finishing his senior year at Michigan Tech, he played five games with the Binghamton Senators of the AHL before joining the Rays. Schwartz, a native of
St. Cloud, Minn. , played 12 games with the Rays, earning 2 points on 2 assists.
Goalie Parley started the season playing six games with the Bakersfield Condors of the ECHL before being traded to the Rays for Joel Irving in November 2005. Parley, 6’2”, 183-pounds, played 35 games with the Rays posting a 14-12-4 record with a 2.88 goals-against-average and a .915 save percentage.
Per the collective bargaining agreement, each team was entitled to reserve the rights to a maximum of eight players from their season-ending roster by extending a qualifying offer no later than July 1. 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 2006-07 season). Players on open qualifying offers can not be traded. Teams were not required to extend a qualifying offer to players who signed a contract prior to July 1.
The qualifying offer must remain open for acceptance until August 1 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 will retain the rights to that veteran until August 1. After August 1, if the veteran player is not signed to a contract by the team, the veteran 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 31, the player shall be deemed an unrestricted free agent.
The puck drops in October for the upcoming 14th season of professional hockey in the Low Country. Order your Stingrays full season, weekend, or partial ticket package today by calling a Ticket Sales Manager at 744-2248 or visit us at www.stingrayshockey.com.
