Weekly Update - Roster, Schedule Changes, Player Updates, Costello Records

 The Allen Americans are now less than a month away from training camp and just 40 days from opening night. The past week has been kind of quiet but you can look for things to pick up after the Labor Day holiday. Coach Martinson is back in Allen, the players that live in the DFW area are getting together informally to skate, and the number of player signing announcements should increase. 

- The Allen Americans roster remains at 12 players officially announced. - The 12 players include eight forwards (Chad Costello, JP LaFontaine, Dyson Stevenson, Kale Kerbashian, Kyle Neuber, Gary Steffes, Chris Crane, Tanner Eberle), three defensemen (Joel Chouinard, Aaron Gens, Mike Gunn) and one goalie (Riley Gill).  There are many more players waiting in the wings to be announced and that should start this week. 

- Coach Martinson always tries to get as many players as possible to attend AHL training camps as it is great exposure and experience. With the talent Martinson has recruited for the upcoming season (both officially announced and yet to be announced) you can anticipate a lot of players going to AHL camps this year. The majority will attend the San Jose Barracuda training camp but there will be players attending other AHL camps as well.

- Heard the ice will be installed at the Allen Event Center starting October 1st.

- The Americans promotion schedule including specialty jersey nights should be out sometime this  week. One area of emphasis for the upcoming season will be improving the game night experience for fans.

-  The December 31st New Year's Eve game against Utah has a changed start time and will now start at 5:05 pm rather than the earlier announced 6:05 pm.  Plenty of time to attend the hockey game and still get your party on.  The January 16th home game against Missouri, which is the annual MLK game, will start at 1:05 pm. Times for all other home games remain the same with a 7:05 pm start except on Sunday's when start time is 4:05 pm.

- If you were planning on making the road trip to Florida in January the dates have been changed for the two games with the Orlando Solar Bears. The games were scheduled for Friday, January 27th and Saturday, January 28th. The games will now take place Thursday, January 26th and Sunday, January 29th. The Solar Bears play at the Amway Center which is also the home of the NBA Orlando Magic and from what I understand a scheduling conflict necessitated the change. In case you were wondering, the Amway Center has a capacity of 17,353 for hockey. The new schedule will give everyone a couple of days in Orlando between games to see the sites.

- The Allen Americans had 46 different players play at least one game last season. Here is a list of where some of them will be playing for the upcoming season.

Joel Rumpel - Cincinnati Cyclones (ECHL)
Reid Halabi - Rapid City Rush (ECHL)
Ian Schultz - Edinburgh Capitals (Scotland)
Casey Pierro-Zabotel - Colorado Eagles (ECHL)
Vincent Arseneau - Wichita Thunder (ECHL)
Danny Federico - South Carolina Stingrays (ECHL)
David Makowski - Szekesfehervar  (Hungary)
Thomas Carr - Gap (France)
Daniel Doremus - Manchester Monarchs (ECHL)
Nikita Jevpalovs - San Jose Barracuda (AHL)
Jake Hildebrand - Rockford IceHogs (AHL)
Jordan Rowley - HC Vita Hasten (Sweden)
Ayrton Nikkel - Lethbridge Pronghorns (CIS - Canadian Inter-university Sport)
Alex Schoenborn - San Jose Barracuda (AHL)
Kyle Follmer - Fife Flyers - (Scotland)
Mike DiPaolo - University of Western Ontario (CIS)
Chance Braid - Acadia University (CIS)
Jamie Murray - San Jose Barracuda (AHL)
Garrett Clarke - Orlik Opole (Poland)

-  Here is another story, written by Kevin Kurz, about Aaron Dell being the back up goalie for the San Jose Sharks this season. As training camp approaches for the Sharks, Allen fans will be eagerly watching and cheering for Aaron to make the NHL roster. http://www.csnbayarea.com/sharks/dell-penciled-sharks-backup-now


DID YOU KNOW: Chad Costello holds the Allen Americans single season scoring record at 125 points which he accomplished in 2014-15. Chad also holds second place in single season scoring with 103 points which he had last season. Third place all time is held by Colton Yellow Horn with 88 points which he accomplished in 2010-11. Chad is no stranger to single season scoring records as he  still holds that record for the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders of the USHL. The RoughRiders are a Tier I junior team that has been in Cedar Rapids since 1999 and have had 15 players go on to play in the NHL. Chad played one season in Cedar Rapids (2005-06) when he was 19 and had 76 points (31 goals 45 assists) in 59 games. His 76 points is still the all time single season scoring record for the RoughRiders. Incidentally, future Allen Americans Gary Steffes, David Strathman, Steve Kaunisto, and Phil Fox were also on that team.