This afternoon news has come out that several prospects that have ties to the Toronto Maple Leafs and other NHL teams have been released. These moves come after their team the Newfoundland Growlers have folded.
The ECHL's Newfoundland Growlers are ceasing operations immediately. Any NFLD player who was on an AHL/NHL contract as of March 20 is ineligible to play in the ECHL for the rest of the season. Everyone else is a free agent.
As the announcement says any player with NHL or AHL affiliation that was playing with the Growlers is now ineligible to play the rest of the season. For the Maple Leafs, this will have a major effect on 21-year-old goaltender Vyacheslav Pekka who was in the ECHL with the Growlers.
At the moment it is unclear if a new ECHL team will replace the Newfoundland Growlers for next season. Regardless this failure by the league and the team to keep the team afloat will negatively impact an entire group of players trying to live out their hockey-playing dreams.