Matthew Thornton NAHL Signs Tender Agreement

The NAPHL’s T1ER League is happy to announce the tender agreement between the Corpus Christi IceRays of the NAHL and Matthew Thornton of the Danbury Hat Tricks 18U AAA. This agreement will carry through the end of the 2026-27 season. 

The 6-foot-2 forward was physically dominant for Danbury on both sides of the puck. In 14 games this season, Thornton recorded six points for the Hat Tricks. 

Towards the end of the season, the Wilton, Connecticut native found a nose for the net as he recorded a goal in two straight games to wrap up Danbury’s year. One of those goals being the first goal of the game in an overtime win against Compuware on Feb. 15.

The best performance of the season from the 2008 birth year came on Nov. 24 against Kings Edgehill School. Thornton tallied two assists in the Hat Trick’s 5-1 victory. 

Thornton is one of two players from the Danbury Hat Tricks 18U AAA team to sign a tender agreement with a NAHL team this season. 

Click here to see a list of T1ER tenders for the 2025-26 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 T1ER - plus or minus any trades - which became active on November 1st. Tendered players are not eligible for the 2026 NAHL Draft