Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Allen Americans Player Announcement on Thursday Plus Other Musings


Just a quick post to let everyone know a player signing announcement will take place tomorrow (Thursday). Another cornerstone of the foundation of the 2016-17 Allen Americans team. This will make just the second player announcement following the signing of Chad Costello last week. Seems like they never happen fast enough during the off season. 

There has been plenty of activity around the ECHL and if you keep up with social media most of the following is old information. Here are a few things that have caught my eye. 

- The Wichita Thunder will have an affiliation next year and it will be with the Ottawa Senators. Should be a big help for Wichita who had by far the worst record in the ECHL last season with just 49 points.

- The South Carolina Stingrays selected a new coach and named their assistant coach, Ryan Warsofsky, to replace Spencer Carbery. Selecting an assistant coach to move up to the head coaching position has been a trend recently with some great franchises (Toledo, Missouri, South Carolina) opting to pass over experienced head coaches to give the job to one of their assistants. Here is the story on Warsofsky's selection. http://www.postandcourier.com/20160706/160709647/warsofsky-named-new-south-carolina-stingrays-coach

- Missouri had the best goaltending tandem in the ECHL last season in Josh Robinson and Parker Milner. They have now lost both players as Robinson signed to play in Norway and Milner has signed with Hershey (AHL). They will be tough to replace. 

- Still haven't heard anything official about ECHL division/conference realignment which has been rumored. This could have an impact on the upcoming season if it is true. 

- An interesting story by Justin Cohn about ECHL teams for sale. http://www.journalgazette.net/blog/ice-chips/ECHL-team-for-sale-not-Komets-13969912

- The San Jose Sharks development camp starts on Friday and if you look at the roster you might see the names of players that will spend time in Allen in the future. Not a lot of familiar names but goalie Jamie Murray who played four games in Allen and forward Alex Schoeborn who played two games with Allen are at the development camp. If you click on the word "announced" in this story the complete roster will come up. It is small print so hopefully you can view it on a bigger screen. https://bladesofteal.com/2016/07/05/san-jose-sharks-release-development-camp-roster/

- If you are a fan of Team Sin Bin and ever go to their site (thesinbin.net) take a few minutes to complete their survey and give your opinions. The team would really appreciate your feedback. Here is the link: http://thesinbin.net/the-2016-sin-bin-reader-survey/


DID YOU KNOW: Chad Costello played a year of junior hockey (2005-06) with the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Roughriders of the USHL. Cedar Rapids is just 100 miles from Chad's home in Johnston. There are five members of that team that have played for the Allen Americans. In addition to Chad, Gary Steffes, David Strathman, Steve Kaunisto, and Phil Fox were on that team and played for Allen. Their goalie was Alex Stalock who played many years in the San Jose organization before recently signing with the Toronto Marlies (AHL).

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