ROANOKE, VA. – The Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs have announced the team’s protected list for the upcoming 2025-2026 season.
The SPHL allows each team to protect 13 players who finished the previous season on their roster. Players claimed on protected lists are only able to sign tryout agreements with the SPHL team that has protected them.
“With another offseason that doesn’t feature any expansion teams entering the league, every team’s protected list can look different from others as far as the strategy behind them,” said Rail Yard Dawgs head coach Dan Bremner. “We always have exit meetings with each of our players to try to best figure out what our team might look like the next fall, and what we want our roster and identity to look like moving forward.”
Roanoke listed 11 forwards on its protected list, including eight players who just played in their rookie pro seasons. Team captain Nick Ford headlines the list alongside veterans such as Tommy Munichiello and Joe Widmar. Rookie forwards who got ECHL experience this year in Austen Swankler, Gustav Müller, and Tim Kent also made the list, as well as rookies who featured for Roanoke for most of the regular season, like Carson Gallagher and Andrew Harley. Three late season additions out of the college ranks – Daniel Chladek, Tim Manning, and Ryan Reifler – also all made the list.
Ford led the SPHL this season in both points (72) and assists (49), setting new single-season franchise records in each of those categories in his first season as the team’s captain, and now ranks second behind only Mac Jansen in franchise history for goals (61), assists (122), and points (183) since joining the team in the 2021-2022 season. Munichiello finished third in the SPHL in goals with 28, and has recorded 32 goals and 29 assists in 70 games played for the Dawgs since he was acquired by the team in a trade with Macon back in February 2024. Widmar ended the season injured, but was able to record 28 points in just 23 games played during his first season in Roanoke between multiple stints up in the ECHL during the 2024-2025 campaign. Gallagher earned the SPHL’s Rookie of the Year honors after dominating for the Dawgs following a November trade with Pensacola, as the six-foot winger notched 18 goals, 28 assists, and a plus-23 rating in just 42 games with Roanoke. Harley finished the season with eight goals, six assists, and a plus-11 rating in 32 games played for the Dawgs. Swankler had 12 points and a plus-seven rating in 11 games with the Dawgs between his multiple ECHL call-ups and ended the year in Roanoke. Müller ended the season in the ECHL for Adirondack, but tallied 25 points in 28 games with the Dawgs and was among the league’s top rookie producers at the time of his call-up to the Thunder in late January. Kent was released by Iowa in the ECHL in March but didn’t suit up again to end the season, tacking on three goals and 11 assists in his 14 games with the Dawgs before he joined the Heartlanders in December. Chladek scored twice in his pro debut in February after finishing his career at Augsburg University, stacking up six points in his first 13 pro regular season games to end the season. Manning had two goals and two assists in 12 appearances for the Dawgs after joining the team in March out of Albertus Magnus College. Reifler added one assist in six games in March for the Dawgs before he was placed on team suspension to return and finish his academic semester at Elmira College.
Roanoke placed two defensemen on the protected list as well, led by a pair of long-time Dawgs blue-liners in Billy Roche and Johnny Macdonald
Roche had a career-high eight goals this year, finishing the season with 15 points and a plus-four rating in 54 games played, and is now tied for 12th all-time in career games played for the franchise at 110 games. Macdonald had 15 points and a plus-12 rating in 36 games for Roanoke outside of a pair of call-ups to the ECHL’s Reading Royals, and finished the season with a team-leading five fighting majors for the Dawgs.
“We’ve had a really great core group of players over the past handful of seasons, and there are a lot of guys, both on and off of this protected list, that have stated their desires to continue to play in Roanoke,” Bremner said. “We’ll be looking at ways that we can adjust and improve over the offseason and get back to a style of Dawgs hockey that can bring us back to a championship level.”
Bremner also noted that he will await some decisions from a few of the players left off the protected list regarding their futures as players in the sport, but some of these players have assured Bremner that they intend to return or will only play in Roanoke. The following players that ended the season with Roanoke are not on the protected list: alternate captains Mac Jansen and Matt O’Dea, goaltenders Austyn Roudebush and Tyler Roy, defensemen Stephen Alvo, Brendan Pepe, C.J. Valerian, Bryce Martin, and Cory Doney, and forwards Brenden Stanko and Jacob Kelly. Roanoke also held the SPHL rights to defensemen Aidan Girduckis and Andrew Manley prior to the release of this protected list.
The Rail Yard Dawgs are open during the summer at their offices at Berglund Center from Monday through Thursday from 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. and Friday 10:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. Merchandise pick-up and shopping will be available during normal business hours both during the summer and the season, and you can contact Andrew, Warren, or Cyrus for more information about 2025-2026 season tickets.
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