Allen Americans Players, Past, Present & Future - An Update

I thought today would be a good time to recap and bring everyone up to date on where things stand regarding the upcoming season and share some information on a few other players that have passed through Allen in the past.

- The Americans announced two more player signings in the last week as defensemen Mike Gunn and Eric Roy will return. They join Riley Gill and Joel Chouinard as the four players thus far announced.

- As I mentioned in an earlier post about qualifying offers, if a player was on the season ending roster but not on the qualifying offer list and they are not veterans (more than 260 pro games) you can assume they have already been signed but not announced. Only five players were given qualifying offers by coach Martinson and they are David Makowski, Wade MacLeod, Spencer Asuchak, Zach Hall and Tanner Eberle.  Two players, Bryan Moore and Miles Liberati fall into this category (not vets & not qualified) so I would expect they have been signed. For Moore the only question is whether he was signed to an ECHL contract with Allen or an AHL deal with San Jose.

- Chouinard, Roy, Gunn and Liberati are all left shot defensemen. You can be sure coach Martinson will be targeting right shot defensmen as he fills out the rest of the blueline.

- If you haven't seen the tribute to Chad Costello that appeared on the ECHL website on Friday here it is: http://www.echl.com/in-my-words-moving-on

- And if you have never seen the story I wrote back on May 22nd about Chad and Ashley heading to Germany for the upcoming season here it is: http://allenamericansblog.blogspot.com/2017/05/chad-costello-moves-on-german-press.html

-  Signing overseas sure makes for a short off season if you consider Chad Costello will head to Germany at the end of July and Spencer Asuchak told me he leaves for Slovakia on August 2.  

- Best of luck to goalie Jamie Murray who has signed with the Norfolk Admirals (ECHL) for the upcoming season. Jamie had a one year deal last season with San Jose and was not re-signed so he was a free agent. Norfolk finished in last place in the South Division last season. 

- Congrats are also in order for Phil Fox who was a member of the 2013-14 Allen Americans CHL championship team and just got  engaged. Phil is one of those players you knew would make a career in hockey. He was captain of his high school team in Stillwater, MN, was a three year captain in college at Northern Michigan University (NMU) and when he retired after the 2013-14 season he returned to NMU as the Hockey Operations Manager and also completed his master's degree in Public Administration. Phil has recently accepted a coaching position in Albuquerque and will be moving next month from the upper peninsula of Michigan to New Mexico, that is quite a change. Phil will be the head coach for the traveling bantam team and Director of Player Development for the entire youth program.   

Phil Fox & Ricci Filizetti engaged

- Every season Allen fans talk about players from the past returning to the team. Jamie Schaafsma, Alex Lavoie, Jonathan Lessard, Jack Combs, Casey Pierro-Zabotel, Vincent Arseneau and Rylan Schwartz are some of the names I hear most frequently mentioned and I am sure Chad Costello and Spencer Asuchak will now be added to that list. In case you were wondering everyone mentioned has already signed for next season with the exception of Pierro-Zabotel, Arseneau and Lessard who can sign with any team as they are or can become free agents. It would be great if coach Martinson was  able to recruit one or two of these unsigned players back to Allen!

DID YOU KNOW: As a rookie in 2015-16 Eric Roy led all Allen defensemen in plus/minus, was second in goals and third in points. He was even more impressive during the Americans 2016 Kelly Cup championship run leading all defensemen in goals (5), assists (16), points (21) and plus/minus (+12). Last season Eric was slowed by injuries and played just 40 regular season games but was still second in goals by a defenseman with 13, trailing only David Makowski who had 16 goals. Eric wasn't a 100% in the playoffs having just come off a broken jaw and spending six weeks with his jaw wired shut. He was injured February 19 and did not play again until the first playoff game on April 12th. Look for Eric, who was a fifth round draft choice of the Calgary Flames in the 2013 NHL draft, to have a big season for Allen in 2017-18. Always a clutch player, Roy has more game winning goals over the last two seasons (regular season & playoffs) than any other player on the Allen Americans. Eric has 34 career goals in Allen and 11 of them have been game winners.