The Reign extended qualifying offers to defensemen Dan Knapp, Andrew Martens and Darren McMillan, forwards Jason Techjma, Dale Reinhardt, Mike Howe and Dusty Collins, and goaltender Kellen Briggs.

ECHL teams were not required to protect players who have signed a Standard Player Contract prior to July 1. Players that were not signed by July 1 or extended a qualifying offer by July 1 became unrestricted free agents. Each team was entitled to reserve rights to a maximum of eight players from the season-ending roster list of 20.

Brian Kilburg is less than a month away from earning his economics degree from Minnesota State-Mankato. After he gets his diploma, he'll embark on a very different task: Playing hockey for the Reign.

Coach Karl Taylor called the 6-foot-3 defenseman a player with "all the physical skills."

"He loves to hit, he's a very aggressive player," Taylor said. "He plays hard and takes pride in what he does. We still have to teach him the correct pace for the pro game and how to make the correct reads."

Kilburg, 25, gave Reign fans a bigger slice of what they can expect ...

Jon Francisco is currently visiting his family in Minnesota, but didn't really feel as though he had left Southern California when it was suggested he "would be returning" to the Reign. That was the plan all along, said the team captain, who was among the first to re-sign with the team in June.

Tim Kraus, who re-signed with the Reign in June, wanted to be back in Ontario but not for too long. At 22, he's still chasing the NHL dream and will be surrounded this summer with someone who can help him get there. Here's what he had to say this afternoon...

The Reign will bring back their two leading scorers in 2009-10, as the team announced today the signing of centers Jon Francisco and Tim Kraus. In addition, coach Karl Taylor signed rugged defenseman Brian Kilburg, who is coming off a four-year career at Minnesota State-Mankato.

The ECHL board of governors restructured the Kelly Cup playoff format at their annual summer meeting, awarding seven berths to the eight-team National Conference. Under the old format, which awarded playoff berths to the top four teams in the Pacific and West divisions, every team in the conference (including the Reign) would have advanced. The Phoenix Roadrunners ceased operations at the end of last season.

A publication called MLN Sports has conducted an online poll to determine the best arena in minor-league American sports. Seven of the top 10 were ECHL venues, including Bakersfield's Rabobank Arena (fourth) and Stockton Arena (second).

Citizens Business Bank Arena didn't crack the top 10. Why not? The guess here is that local fans haven't heard of MLN, or don't think it's worth a $12/year subscription, and thus didn't vote. It's an established publication and CBBA isn't an established arena. So maybe give it some time and, in the meantime, enjoy The Bank in relative secrecy.

The Reign have announced their season-ending roster, a list of 20 players among whom the team may submit qualifying offers to no more than eight by 8:59 p.m. July 1.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal is reporting that Wranglers head coach Glen Gulutzan will accept an AHL coaching position.

Update: Gulutzan will coach the Texas Stars, the expansion franchise near Austin that will serve as the Dallas Stars' new AHL affiliate, the Las Vegas Sun reports. No word yet on who will replace him in Vegas.

Took me ten days to translate this page from German, but it appears that former Reign goalie Kellen Briggs has signed with a German team for 2009-10.

Briggs didn't return to the Reign after being recalled by the AHL's Portland Pirates in February. His new team, the Dresdner Eislöwen (Ice Lions) finished 11th last season in the 13-team 2nd Bundesliga, which is a notch below the Deutsch Elite League. It's basically the German AHL.

Any other questions about that article, I'll get back to you. Eventually.