Steve Martinson Shares Good News on Affiliate and Roster, 3ICE Championship on Thursday, and More

 

It has been a while since I had any information to share for an update, but that changed yesterday when I spoke with Coach Martinson at length about what he has been working on since the calendar turned to August. 

 

- Martinson was in Allen for a few days getting all of the family's household goods out of storage and set up in their apartment. He wanted to thank Tim Brown, owner of Hotshots Delivery and Moving, for his assistance with the move-in. Steve and Michelle will be in Allen at the beginning of September, and the team will set up a luncheon or get-together for fans to hear directly from Martinson and ask questions.

 

-  The best news I heard from Martinson is that the affiliation agreement is being finalized, and there should be an announcement by the end of the week if all goes as planned. I think everyone knows from my reporting that since Martinson was named head coach, he has been working hard on lining up an affiliation. To be completely honest, it has been a challenge to try and overcome some of the obstacles and decisions made related to affiliations in the recent past. 

 

- Everything is now falling into place for Martinson. He has already been given multiple slots in the affiliate's rookie camp and AHL training camp. While no names have been announced yet, Martinson is in the process of recruiting players for some of those camp spots he was just given. I fully expect Mark Duarte will be heading to one of the camps. With these training camp spots to work with, Martinson feels that recruiting two or three more players will put him over the top.   

 

- Because it was uncertain if Allen would get an affiliate, Martinson had to sign a lot of players to protect himself. With the help he will now be getting from the affiliate, he will have to release some of the players he signed earlier in the summer. The number of players currently under contract is around 24, so you can expect several to be released now that Martinson has a good idea where the affiliate is with players. 

 

- Martinson reiterated to me that with the affiliate coming on board, he is even more comfortable with the roster he is putting together. His quote to me was, "Things are really working out in our favor. I can assure everyone we will be big, fast, physical, and skilled. It will be the biggest team I have ever had. We will have some big forwards that are physical but also skilled." 

 

- Martinson mentioned to me one of the reasons he has been able to build a roster that is older and more experienced is because team owner Myles Jack and team President Jonny Mydra have given him a housing budget that has allowed him to recruit more married players. Since married players get their own apartment, while single players share an apartment, it is more costly when recruiting married players, especially those married with children.   

 

- In addition to the potential affiliate announcement at the end of the week, you can expect more player announcements as early as today. Martinson paused player announcements last week because he wanted to have a call with our affiliate to find out where they were at with players and training camp spots. Now that he has those answers, player announcements will commence again.          

 

- Here is the current roster. Note that several of the returning players will be wearing different numbers in 2025-26. The player's prior Allen number is in parentheses:  

Goalies

• #33 Marco Costantini 

Defensemen

• #22 Anthony Costantini
• #43 Matt Register
• #44 Kevin Spinozzi 
• #9 Hudson Wilson (#5)

Forwards

• #26 Spencer Asuchak
• #18 Harrison Blaisdell (#24)
• #11 Thomas Caron 
• #7 Colton Hargrove (#17)
• #77 Brad Morrison 
• #29 Brayden Watts (#92) 

 

OTHER COMMENTS

 - Here are the NHL prospect/rookie tournaments I could find in a search this morning for my ECHL Stats page:

Look for some young ECHL-signed players to participate in these 2025 NHL rookie/prospect tournaments:

 

September 11-15: Buffalo (host), New Jersey, Boston, Columbus, Pittsburgh

September 12-14: Colorado (host), Utah, Vegas

September 12-14: Anaheim (host), Los Angeles, San Jose

September 13-14: Dallas (host), Detroit

September 13-14: Montreal (host), Toronto, Ottawa, Winnipeg

 

 

 -  Brayden Guy, who played in 52 games for Allen last season, has retired from professional hockey at age 24 to become an assistant coach for the OHL Sarnia Sting, the junior team he played for and served as captain. Here is a very nice story about his selection: https://chl.ca/ohl-sting/article/sarnia-sting-name-brayden-guy-assistant-coach/  

 

- Noah Kane, who played 19 games in Allen at the end of last season, has signed with the Worcester Railers. https://echl.com/news/2025/08/kane-joins-railers  

 

- The 3ICE championship tournament will take place on Thursday (August 14) at 7:00 pm EDT. The top four teams from the four regular-season tournaments will play for the Patrick Cup. The #1 seed (Buffalo) plays the #4 seed (Minnesota) in game one, and the #2 seed (NY/NJ) plays the #3 seed (Tennessee) in game two. The two losing teams will play a third-place game, followed by the two winners playing for the championship. The final four teams are loaded with current and former Allen Americans players as well as many other ECHL players. The only team without an Allen connection is the #3 seed (Tennessee).  

The championship tournament will be live streamed on the Fanduel Sports Network and will be replayed on the NHL Network in Friday (August 15) at 7:00 pm EDT. 

I apologize for the poor editing on these graphics.     

 

   

DID YOU KNOW: I posted this on my ECHL Stats page the other day, which shows how one-sided most ECHL championship series have been. The Americans were an exception to the general rule. Allen won 4-3 when it won its first Kelly Cup over South Carolina in 2015, and won 4-2 when they beat Wheeling in 2016.

 

Trois Rivières beat Toledo in five games (4-1) to win the 2025 ECHL Kelly Cup championship. In the 37-year history of the ECHL, 19 different teams have won ECHL championships, with nine teams winning multiple times. However, the championship finals have been a one-sided series for the most part. Here are the all-time final series results:

 

4-0 - 5 times

4-1 - 17 times

4-2 - 8 times

4-3 - 5 times (1999 game 7 went 2OT)

3-1 - Once (2021), only 14 teams played in 2020-21

 

There were no playoffs in 2020 as the season was cancelled on March 14, 2020, because of COVID-19.