Wranglers fans, I am impressed! In my first blog post, I asked people to help me pick an NHL team, and everyone has been chiming in with advice! I got emails, Facebook comments and random feedback from people around the office, and I write this blog post with good news — I have narrowed my choice down to NINE final teams.
So, here’s what I’m going to ask you to do. Click on this link — http://poll.fm/37q01 — and help me narrow the teams down one more time! I tried for hours to get a poll to embed into this post, and it was a nightmare, but I do promise that the link won’t collect emails or anything spam-y like that. I really want an NHL hockey team to support, so let’s make my dream come true.
There’s more to this post, though! We already have a guest blogger for this front office experiment — Brendan Doolan, our Director of Hockey Operations! Below is his introduction to blogging, and he will give you some insider info about what’s going on at the Wranglers right now…
Hello, Wranglers fans!
Let me introduce myself. I am Brendan Doolan, and I am the Director of Hockey Operations. I have grown up in professional hockey, from having my diapers changed at the Igloo (Mellon Arena) when my father was the Pittsburgh Penguins’ equipment manager to being able to hang out in the New York Islanders locker room and see how amazing a coach Al Arbour was for them. I knew hockey was going to be my profession.
I went to school at Bowling Green State University, alma mater of Ken Morrow, Garry Galley, Rob Blake and Kevin Bieska, and got a degree in sports management. After working for the Bakersfield Condors (ECHL), Quad City Flames (AHL) and Calgary Flames (NHL), I took a hiatus from working in hockey only to get back in the game as an Account Manager for the Wranglers in late October last year. You might have seen me running prizes around the Orleans Arena or working the sales table! I was promoted in July of this year to Director of Hockey Operations, and now I help Coach Ryan Mougenel with all the aspects of hockey operations.
Right now, Ryan and I are setting up training and free agent camps, booking flights for away games, and of course, signing players. Signing a player may be a process that many fans might not totally understand, and I want to give you a little insight into the process.
Usually, it starts with Ryan talking to players and their agents. When they finally agree to terms, Ryan lets me know and I start preparing the contract. After getting certain information, like addresses and salary requirements, I need to collect five signatures to make the contract valid. Ryan signs it first, and then I have to send the contract to the player to sign and mail back to me. Once that happens, I have to get a person on the Wranglers Board of Governors to sign it, and then a witness (usually me). At this point, the contract then gets mailed to the ECHL office in Princeton, New Jersey, so the League can approve the contract and sign off on it. That’s when the ECHL contacts us and lets the Wranglers know we can announce the newest player we’ve signed, and copies of the contract come back to us.
There are many contracts currently going through the above process, so don’t worry that we might have only announced a few signing as of right now! I hope this helps all you Wranglers fans out there get a glimpse of the inner workings of a professional hockey team. Keep checking the website for new signings!
– Brendan
I can admit, I did not know all the details of how a player signing worked until yesterday, when I actually saw my first contract, so I hope this enlightened some of you! I never know what the next day will bring at the Wranglers office, so until next time, please vote on my poll and get excited for the hockey season!
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