Player Movement Begins - Jamie Murray Assigned to Allen, Five More On the Way

There will be a lot of activity around the Allen Americans today as they prepare for their one and only preseason game tomorrow in Wichita. Here is some of what is going on with the team:

- Goalie Jamie Murray has been assigned to Allen by San Jose, so the duo of  veteran Riley Gill and rookie Murray is set for the start of the season. There is a possibility coach Martinson could keep three goalies (Peter Di Salvo is also in camp) to start the season but that remains to be seen.

- Expect to see some of the Allen players that are at the San Jose Barracuda camp to be released and  return to Allen today. The plan was to have the Allen players play last night. The Barracuda had an exhibition game and beat the Tucson Roadrunners 4-2 led by Swedish rookie, Marcus Sorensen, who had a hat trick. Dyson Stevenson was injured in a fight early in the game and had to be helped off the ice. I just got an update from coach Martinson who had this to say, "Two players are staying with San Jose and five have been reassigned, but I am not 100% sure if Stevenson is coming today."

- AHL teams have started to assign contracted players to their ECHL affiliates and you will see more of that starting today and going through next week as they trim down to their opening day rosters. San Jose opens their season on October 15 and should at a minimum, assign two forwards and two defensemen to Allen unless they incur some injuries in training camp.

- The first cuts from the Americans training camp roster should start to happen today. With players returning from San Jose, expect the tryout players in Allen's training camp that do not go with the team to Wichita to be released.

- All of this activity of Allen players returning from AHL camps, tryout players from Allen's training camp being released and San Jose contracted players being assigned to Allen will lead to the opening day roster which is due to the league office next Wednesday (October 12, 3:00 p.m. ET).


OTHER COMMENTS

- Joel Rumpel had a great night in his first start as a member of the Cincinnati Cyclones. Joel had a 20 save shutout as the Cyclones beat the Wheeling Nailers 4-0.

- Jamie Murray made a great first impression with Allen fans when he played four games for the Americans last March. He played three times at the Allen Event Center and stopped 91 of  94 shots for a .968 save percentage. Maybe even more impressive is he left Allen to go back to college (Babson College) to finish his degree. Jamie has an interesting story of being a small goalie as a youngster and having trouble finding a place to play to becoming one of the rare small college (Division III) players to sign an NHL contract right out of college. Check out this interview with Jamie which is a great player profile. http://www.lockerroomtalk.com/half-time-talk-with-jamie-murray-san-jose-sharks-organization-player-and-former-babson-hockey-goalie/


- Photographer Dianne Webster devotes many hours of her time providing photos to the Americans, the media and of course to this blog. Here are a few from training camp yesterday.

Where is the puck?

A young Americans fan takes in practice

Aaron Gens entertaining goalie coach Thomas Speer

Gill and Steffes go mano a mano, looks like Riley won this battle

Chad Costello, penny for your thoughts

DID YOU KNOW: There have been just six times in Allen Americans history when a player has scored more than 30 goals in a season and five of the six happened in just two seasons. With the talented forwards on the team this season, there is a good chance this list could grow. Here is the list:
44 goals: Gary Steffes (2014-15)
41 goals: Chad Costello (2014-15)
34 goals: Bruce Graham (2010-11)
34 goals: Nino Musitelli (2010-11)
33 goals: Colton Yellow Horn (2010-11)
31 goals: Bruce Graham (2009-10)