BOISE, ID – The Idaho Steelheads (@Steelheads), proud ECHL (@ECHL) affiliate of the Dallas Stars (@DallasStars), and Steelheads Head Coach & Director of Hockey Operations Everett Sheen announced today the club’s qualifying offers to three players for the 2026-27 season.
The following players received qualifying offers from the Idaho Steelheads before the July 7th deadline:
Forwards (2)
Liam Malmquist
Mick Messner
Defensemen (1)
Jake Boltmann
Players who had already signed a contract by July 7 did not need to receive a qualifying offer. Those player signings will be announced by the team throughout the summer.
Each team was entitled to reserve the rights to a maximum of eight qualified players. Players on open qualifying offers cannot be traded.
The qualifying offer must remain open for acceptance until 11:59 p.m. ET on 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 Player shall retain the rights to that qualified player for one playing season. Any Player who has played in more than 190 professional regular-season games is ineligible to receive a Qualifying Offer.
All regular-season games played in any of the following leagues shall count towards a Player’s Rookie/Veteran and Qualifying Offer status.
North America – National Hockey League, American Hockey League, ECHL, Central Hockey League (Defunct, but games played count toward veteran status)
Europe – Czech Extraliga (Czech Republic), Liiga (Finland), DEL (Germany), KHL (Russia), Slovak Extraliga
(Slovakia), SHL (Sweden), National League (Switzerland).
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