For Immediate Release

Thursday July 2, 2009

Victoria, BC – The Victoria Salmon Kings, proud affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks and Manitoba Moose, are pleased to announce they have extended qualifying offers to seven players.

Forwards Andy Brandt, Darryl Lloyd, Chris St. Jacques and Adam Taylor along with defensemen Gary Gladue, Matt Kelly and Tim Wedderburn have all received qualifying offers from the Salmon Kings.

Teams were not required to protect players who signed a Standard Players Contract prior to July 1. Players that were not signed by July 1 or extended a qualifying offer by July 1 became unrestricted free agents. Each team was entitled to reserve rights to a maximum of eight players from the season ending roster list of 20.

Of these eight (8) Qualified Players, no more than four (4) of the Qualified Players shall be Veterans (260 regular season professional hockey games played as of the start of the upcoming 2009-10 season). Players will have until August 1 to accept a qualifying offer. Players on open Qualifying Offers cannot be traded.

Teams are not allowed to sign more than 24 players to contracts during the summer.

A Member extending a valid Qualifying Offer to a Veteran retains the Rights to that Veteran until August 1. After August 1, if the Veteran is not signed to a Standard Player Contract by the Member, the Veteran shall be deemed a Restricted Free Agent and shall be entitled to seek and secure offers of employment from other Members. Restricted Free Agents may not be traded.

When a Restricted Free Agent receives an offer to sign a Standard Player Contract from an Offering Member other than the Member with Rights and the Restricted Free Agent desires to accept the Offer, the Restricted Free Agent and the Offering Member must, within 24 hours, deliver a completed Offer Sheet to the Member with Rights, the League Office and the PHPA. The Member with Rights shall then have seven (7) days after the date it receives the Offer Sheet to exercise its Right to Match. The Right to Match shall expire seven (7) days from the date the Offer Sheet was received but not counting the day of receipt.

If a Restricted Free Agent is not signed to either an Offer Sheet or a Standard Player Contract by a Member by August 31, he shall be deemed an Unrestricted Free Agent.

Season tickets for the Salmon Kings 2009-10 season are on sale. Catch all the action by calling 250-220-7889, emailing This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or by visiting www.salmonkings.com for more information.

The ECHL

The Premier ‘AA’ Hockey League drew over 3 million fans for the 16th year in a row and reached the 3 million mark in the least amount of games since 2005-06. The ECHL averaged 4,258 per game in 2008-09 which is the highest average since 2005-06 and the second-highest average in the last eight seasons. The league has averaged over 4,000 fans for the last five years and 17 times in the last 19 years.

Beginning in 1988-89 with five teams playing in four states, the Premier ‘AA’ Hockey League has grown into a coast-to-coast league that will have 24 teams in 16 states and British Columbia playing 864 games from Oct. 17, 2008 to Apr. 4, 2009. Nineteen of the 24 teams have played at least five years in their current city.

The ECHL is the third-longest tenured professional hockey league behind only the National Hockey League and the American Hockey League.

For further information contact:

Jeff Harris

Director of Media and Community Relations

and Assistant General Manager

Victoria Salmon Kings Hockey Club

250-220-2612

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

www.salmonkings.com