A crowd of 75-100 attended yesterday's press conference to reintroduce Steve Martinson as the coach and general manager of the Allen Americans. The crowd included many long-time fans, some new fans, long-time sponsors, and some relatively new sponsors. Some in the audience shared that they had dropped their season tickets and, when they heard Steve Martinson was returning, had now renewed them.
The press conference was vintage Steve Martinson. He was open, honest and humorous, telling stories from the past. He made it very clear what his expectations are for the 2025-26 season, covering everything from style of play, the players he has already started recruiting and his approach to affiliations. Here are some of the highlights from the press conference. I was told ACTV will be posting a video of the entire press conference on their YouTube channel in the next day or so. I guarantee the full version will be much more entertaining than this recap!
MARTINSON COMMENTS
"One nice thing about Barry's blog is you can follow the team pretty closely and I continued to do that after I left the team. My wife told me a couple of times, Steve you have to give it up and stop following the team. That is hard when you spend 10 years in Allen and then walk away. We put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into this place, so I kept track of the team, and it is great to be back."
"We are excited, but there is a lot of work to do. I told Myles hard work is something I never shied away from. I had three meetings with Myles and spent more time with him face to face than I did in five years with previous ownership."
"Myles is the type of owner that will do anything he can for the players and his primary goal is to win. That wasn't always the case in the past."
"Myles represents a unique ownership. You don't get a young ex-NFL player who played at the highest level as an owner of a team at this level. We have a situation where he wants to do whatever he can to help the team win."
"I was part-owner of the San Diego Gulls, so I understand wanting to entertain and also not to lose money. What we want to do is win and entertain fans while we are doing it. I know what sells tickets. You have to win, and you have to play physical. We want to be skilled, we want to be fast and we want to be hard to play against. I assure you, all those things are coming back, and it will be fun getting it done, but it will be a lot of hard work."
"We have a great fan base, a great arena, a practice rink, fabulous apartments with brand new furniture, and a major international airport. Everything you need to succeed, whether players want to win, move up, or develop."
"We want to create an environment that makes it fun to come to the rink. It is not a job, it is doing something that you love. The key is getting the right group of guys."
"Nothing against the guys that were with the team last season. There were just too many of the same type of guys. We need a higher-end skill level at the top, and we need some hard guys on the third and fourth line. We are probably not going to carry as many players. The money is going to be spent more to get the top-end talent and make sure we have the right depth. These are all the things I talked to Myles about. It is so refreshing to talk to an owner about these things, rather than whether we can buy skates and sticks?"
"I am working on getting the right affiliation. I am not afraid to ask potential affiliates for what I need and expect. I am not looking to get a job with the affiliate like a younger coach who wants to move to the AHL. It won't be easy. I am already working hard to see what I can do."
"Regardless of what happens with an affiliation, I will still get some training camp spots to be able to get those top guys. We will have to spend our money wisely to make sure we are getting the right players and that they are complete players. If you can't finish your checks, you'd better be one of the league's leading scorers."
"I have agents calling me and players calling wanting to come back. We are going to turn this thing around, and not in two or three years, but we will turn it around this summer. We will get right back up on the horse and get to work."
"Our team will be all out offense, but will also be all out defense. I always tell players the best way to get noticed is with offense. That will get you to the AHL, but how you play without the puck will keep you in the AHL. I also tell players I am recruiting to look up our teams from the past and notice how many players had their best career years in Allen."
"I expect we will have four veterans on the team, even though most ECHL teams have fewer vets. One way to compensate for an affiliation that doesn't send a lot of players is to have veterans who want to stay and win championships."
"Last season in the Federal League (FPHL) reinforced to me how important it is to have your core group really buy in. When that happens, it makes coming to the rink and dealing with the players a lot of fun. It reinforced to me that where I have had success, it was because of that core group."
"As far as my staff, I am talking to a player about becoming a player/assistant, I will be talking to potential affiliates to see if they have a coach they want to bring in to help cement the affiliation. Jason Deitsch, who was the captain on our first championship team and helped me out in the past, will be helping out. Jason is a fireman in McKinney and a great leader. We will have a goalie coach and a skating coach, so lots of help in developing our players."
"We will have lunch with the coach and post-game press conferences with the season ticket holders. I will do my part to acknowledge our season ticket holders."
MYLES JACK COMMENTS
"It is a new day in Allen, and we are looking to win. My goal is to restore greatness in this organization and bring back the good times. It all starts with bringing back Steve Martinson, and I am looking forward to doing big things this year and moving forward."
"I zeroed in on Marty very early in the process. During the season, I was getting a lot of input from you guys and was doing my homework, just trying to get the best thing for this organization. Once the season ended, I took a trip to Athens to watch his team play. A big thing for me was talking to the players after the game. They had just lost, and their season was over. They were thankful for how Marty had pushed them and gotten the best out of them. You could tell they wanted him to stay there, but I was there to steal their coach."
"The Martinsons are a great family and great people. You can tell how dedicated Steve is. When we were still negotiating his contract, he was already sending me things about the league and already working as if he were the coach."
OTHER COMMENTS
- Martinson will spend most of the summer recruiting from his home in Rockford, IL. He has a lot on his plate for the next few weeks. In addition to all of the time devoted to securing an affiliation, he has to get familiar with the Allen roster from last season. That will entail watching a lot of video. Here are the key dates Martinson must deal with:
- June 8 - Protected list due
- June 20: Future consideration trade deadline (Allen has several with some going both directions).
- June 22: Season-ending rosters due
- June 23: 1st day to sign contracts for 2025-26 season.
- The ECHL schedule will be released today (1:00 pm). The Americans will issue a press release and post it to their social media accounts. The rumors I have heard are that the team will open on the road, and the home opener will be against a very good team, so Allen will have a good measuring stick of where it stands. Remember, Allen opened at home last season against Kansas City and lost 4-0 and 9-0.
- Erik Adams
- Mathieu Aubin
- Daniel Barnes
- Joel Chouinard
- Chad Costello
- Jason Deitsch
- Nolan Descoteaux
- Aaron Gens
- Riley Gill
- Trevor Ludwig
- Tyler Ludwig
- David Makowski
