Loons defenseman Dalton signs NAHL tender

John Dalton spent the 2021-22 season with the New Mexico Ice Wolves in the NAHL and Minnesota Loons in the NA3HL.

The Minnesota Loons of the NA3HL are pleased to announce that defenseman John Dalton has signed a North American Hockey League (NAHL) tender agreement with the New Mexico Ice Wolves of the NAHL’s South Division.

Dalton, 18, just completed his first season of playing junior hockey, which was spent between the NA3HL and NAHL.

The 6’0/175 lbs. native of River Forest, IL, began the 2021-22 season with the Ice Wolves in the NAHL, appearing in 9 regular season games and recording two points. He also played in two exhibition games and had four points against the USA Women’s National Team that competed in the 2022 Winter Olympics.

In February, he joined the Loons at the trading deadline and played in four games in February and recorded two goals.

Prior to playing junior hockey, Dalton played youth hockey for three seasons for the Selects Academy.

Click here to see a list of NA3HL tenders for the 2021-22 season

A tender is a contract, of sorts, a player signs announcing his intentions to play for that particular NAHL team and that NAHL team only. Once a player signs a tender with an NAHL team, his playing rights belong to that team within the NAHL and he may not be recruited by any other NAHL team. Each team is granted ten (10) tenders, which include two (2) tenders exclusively used on players from the NA3HL - plus or minus any trades - which became active on November 1st. Tendered players are not eligible for the 2022 NAHL Draft.