User:Stolilv87/Sandbox/2011-12 Las Vegas Wranglers season

The 2011–12 Las Vegas Wranglers season will be the club's 9th season in the ECHL and third under current head coach and general manager Ryan Mougenel. The Wranglers will attempt to make their seventh consecutive appearance in the Kelly Cup playoffs. The Wranglers are expected to enter their third year as the ECHL affiliate of the National Hockey League's Phoenix Coyotes and their first season as the ECHL affiliate of the American Hockey League's Portland Pirates. The Wranglers will open their season with a two-game road series against heated rivals the Alaska Aces from October 14&nadsh;15, before hosting their home opener on October 21 against the Ontario Reign. The season will conclude with a two-game home series against the expansion Colorado Eagles from March 30–31.

Preseason
Shortly after the conclusion of the 2011 Kelly Cup playoffs, the Wranglers and team president Billy Johnson announced that they would hold a special promotion for their home opener against the Ontario Reign commemorating radio host Harold Camping's prediction that the world would end on October 21, the same night as the contest with Ontario. The promotion entitled "Rapture Night" and "The Last Hockey Game on Earth", garnered national attention and is currently in the planning stages.

On July 5, the Wranglers extended qualifying offers to forwards Jamie Bates, Greg Collins, Blake Gallagher, Chris Higgins, defensemen Eddie DelGrosso, Barry Goers and Sean McMonagle and goaltender Michael Ouzas. Three of the players that were extended qualifying offers had already signed contracts with European clubs when the Wranglers offers had been submitted. These three were Higgins (Tingsryd), Gallagher (Strasbourg) and Ouzas (KHL Medveščak). A fourth player, McMonagle, would sign a try out agreement with Tingsryd the following day.

Three former Wranglers players from the previous season, centres Colin Long and Andy Miele and defenseman Mathieu Brodeur, were invited to a prospect development camp held by Las Vegas' NHL affiliate, the Phoenix Coyotes, at Polar Ice in Peoria, Arizona. Miele, the 2011 Hobey Baker Award winner, performed most favorably at the camp and

Las Vegas made its first player signing of the season on July 19, when the team announced it had come to terms with centre Thomas Kiriakou, who had previously played with the Ottawa 67s of the Ontario Hockey League and at the University of Guelph.

Roster
Updated November 21, 2011.