2009–10 Las Vegas Wranglers season

The 2009–10 Las Vegas Wranglers season will be the 7th season for the Las Vegas Wranglers in the ECHL. The Wranglers will enter the season with a new head coach for the first time since the inaugural season, following the promotion of former head coach and general manager Glen Gulutzan to the position of head coach of the Texas Stars of the American Hockey League.

Preseason
Following an unlikely return to the National Conference finals, the first head coach and general manager of the Las Vegas Wranglers, Glen Gulutzan, left the team to become the head coach of the expansion Texas Stars of the AHL. For the first time in seven years, Wranglers owner Charles Davenport was forced to look for a head coach, but stated that Gulutzan's move to the AHL was "long overdue." Gulutzan had been offered assistant coaching jobs in the AHL for the past few years, but the offer to coach Texas was his first head coaching offer in the AHL. Davenport is actively searching for Gulutzan’s replacement and hopes to fill the position within one month. Gulutzan said he would make some recommendations to help Davenport’s search.

On June 25, the Wranglers announced that they had hired former Stockton Thunder assistant, Ryan Mougenel to be the second head coach and general manager in team history. Mougenel played in the ECHL for Hampton Roads, Chesapeake, Jackson and Atlantic City. Mougenel was officially introduced at Orleans Arena on June 30. Mougenel said he intends to keep a core nucleus of last year's squad while implementing on-ice systems similar to those Gulutzan employed. Mougenel also announced that the team would not retain Mike McBain as the team's assistant coach and would not employ an assistant coach at all for the 2009-10 season, a move many ECHL clubs have decided to due to financial constraints.

On July 15, the Wranglers announced that they had hired former NHL All-Star Keith Primeau to take over as the team's director of player development as well as being a special assistant to the General Manager. Primeau, who played in fifteen NHL seasons, runs the Durham Hockey Institute in Toronto with Wranglers head coach and general manager Ryan Mougenel and Keith's brother Wayne and the trio are also the owners of the Whitby Fury of the Ontario Junior Hockey League.

On August 10, the Wranglers announced that the team had severed its six-year affiliation with the Calgary Flames and signed an agreement to become the ECHL affiliate of the Phoenix Coyotes and Phoenix's AHL affiliate, the San Antonio Rampage. Head Coach Ryan Mougenel stated that cost of travel between Las Vegas and Abbotsford, British Columbia (site of Calgary's newly relocated AHL affiliate) and immigration issues from Canada played large roles in the decision to separate.

On August 26, the Wranglers announced that they would play a home and home preseason series with the Ontario Reign. The first game would be played at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas on October 8, while the two teams will play again the following night at the Center Ice Arena in Ontario, California.


 * 1. Game played at Center Ice Arena in Ontario, California.

Conference standings
x - clinched playoff spot, y - clinched division title, b - clinched Brabham Cup, best record in the conference and first round bye, e - eliminated from playoff contention

Skaters
Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/- = Plus-minus; PIM = Penalty minutes


 * † Denotes player spent time with another team before joining Wranglers. Stats reflect time with the Wranglers only.
 * ‡ Denotes player was traded mid-season.
 * (G) Denotes goaltender.

Goaltenders
Note: GPI = Games Played In; MIN = Minutes played; GAA = Goals Against Average; W = Wins; L = Losses; OT = Overtime/Shootout Losses; SO = Shutouts; SA = Shots Against; GA = Goals Against; SV% = Save Percentage

Transactions
The Wranglers have been involved in the following transactions during the 2009–10 season.

Final Roster
Updated April 6, 2010.


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Affiliates
The Las Vegas Wranglers will enter their first season as the ECHL affiliate of the Phoenix Coyotes of the National Hockey League after being the affiliate for the Calgary Flames for the first six years of the team's existence. The Wranglers will also begin their first season with the San Antonio Rampage as their American Hockey League affiliate.