Belleville Sens 2024 Offseason Player Tracker

As many American Hockey League teams move into off-season mode, executives and general managers will be looking to add to, or rebuild their rosters, ahead of the 2024-25 season. The same can be said for the Belleville Senators, who have only about a dozen players under contract through the upcoming season, or beyond that.

To help you keep track, here’s the 2024 edition of our Offseason Player Tracker (along with some helpful dates and definitions), so you can be informed who’s coming or going, to or from, the Friendly City this summer.

Definitions:

• Entry-level Contract (ELC):
  All new players, under the age of 25, are required to sign an ELC. ELC’s last three years if the player is age 18-21, two years if age 22-24 and one year if age 24.

• Restricted Free Agent (RFA):
  A player that has reached the end of their initial entry-level contract but is not yet an unrestricted free agent. Their rights are still held by the NHL team.

• Unrestricted Free Agent (UFA):
  A player that is older than 25 (or after 7 years, whichever comes first) and his contract ends. UFAs can sign with any team.

•  American Hockey League Contract:
  If a player signs an AHL contract, they are ineligible to play in the National Hockey League. Players on AHL contracts become UFAs once their deals expire.

•  Two-way contract:
  Players on a two-way contract have their pay dependent on if they are assigned to the NHL or the AHL. All entry-level contracts are two-way contracts.
•  One-way contract:
  Players on a one-way contract are paid the same amount of money regardless of whether they play in the NHL or AHL.

The following players had their contracts with the Belleville Senators expire at the conclusion of the 2023-24 AHL season and will become free agents as of July 1, 2024:

The following players are under contract with either the Belleville Senators (AHL) or Ottawa Senators (NHL) and are eligible to play in the American Hockey League in 2024-25:

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The following players are prospects who were drafted by the Senators organization but have yet to sign professional contracts. Prospects who don’t sign by the deadlines indicated below will become free agents and can be signed by any club:

Key Dates:

• NHL Draft – June 28-29, 2024
  The 2024 NHL Draft will be hosted by the Vegas Golden Knights at The Sphere, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The first round will take place on June 28th, with the second-through-seventh rounds taking place the following day. The Ottawa Senators have a total of eight picks to make in the draft, including two in the first round, one in the second, four in the fourth and one in the fifth.
• Qualifying Offers – July 1, 2024
  In order to retain the rights of any restricted free agent, NHL teams must send a qualifying offer by the Monday following the NHL Draft (July 1, 2024). A qualifying offer is considered to be “on the table” for two weeks and if a player signs, they are under contract to the NHL club for one more season. RFAs who do not receive qualifying offers become UFAs on the opening day of NHL free agency (July 1, 2024). Additionally, other NHL teams can send an RFA an offer sheet, which is for a contract with a certain term (years) and dollar amount. The RFA’s current team has seven days to match the offer sheet. If the team matches, then the player remains with their team under the terms of the offer sheet, but if the team does not match, the player goes to the team that signed him to the offer sheet and his former team receives compensation in terms of draft picks based on the financial terms of the offer sheet.
• Free Agency Begins – July 1, 2024
  As of July 1, 2024, the Ottawa and Belleville Senators can sign any unrestricted free agent who is available.

Fans can put a deposit down now to lock in a group experience for one of the B-Sens six guaranteed dates for the 2024-25 season, with more information on 2024-25 season seat memberships or 2024-25 Business Elite memberships, available via the Belleville Sens website, or by emailing tickets@bellevillesens.com. 

About the Belleville Senators

The Belleville Senators are the American Hockey League affiliate of the National Hockey Leagues’ Ottawa Senators and have been operating in the AHL since the 2017-18 season. The Senators play their home games out of the CAA Arena at the Quinte Sports and Wellness Centre and have graduated more than 60 players to the NHL since moving from Binghamton, New York.

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