I’m going to keep the blog warm with a series of polls over the next few weeks. There will be one poll per day and the question will be simple: Do you want the Reign to bring back this player next season?

As a disclaimer, understand that constructing an ECHL roster depends on more than just a player’s individual skill set – things like payroll constraints, salary cap constraints, how many apartments the team has available (and related to that, whether a player is single or married), whether the player is a veteran (defined as anyone with at least 260 games of pro experience; each ECHL team can have up to four), how many NHL/AHL players are assigned to Ontario, etc.

There are probably a few more minor factors but those are the big ones.

Still, in general, it’s a more useful question with ECHL players than NHL players, because their contracts only last one year. Every club is virtually guaranteed at least 50 percent turnover from year to year, regardless of where they finished in the standings. Most players won’t be brought back – but who should be?

Going in alphabetical order, we start with Luke Beaverson.

2010-11 stats [career]: 3 goals, 13 points, 78 penalty minutes, minus-5 rating in 61 games.

Quote: “I think going into the year I was kind of set that this would end up being my last year depending on how things went. So I’ve been prepping myself for it. … I never say never. We’ll see.”

Pros: When healthy, the 27-year-old was arguably the team’s most reliable defenseman last season. Beaverson doesn’t score much and is more valuable for his physical skills, but skates confidently (if not all that fast) for a 6-foot-4, 220-pound defenseman. Beaverson plays with veteran savvy, but he wouldn’t count toward the team’s veteran limit. He was also a great asset in a young locker room.

Cons: He’s leaning toward retirement.

As always, you’re encouraged to add comments below!