Allen Americans Update, Casey Pierro-Zabotel First Signee, Former Americans Sign Contracts, ECHL Meeting, Vet Status as Defined by CBA

 I am headed on vacation so wanted to do one more update before no blog posts for a month. Here is the latest:


The official start of the 2018-19 season took place on Saturday with the first day players could be signed. Allen got out of the gate early with the announcement that player/assistant coach and leading scorer for the Americans (69 points in 72 games), Casey Pierro-Zabotel, will return. Here is the press release announcing Casey's return and the involvement of former player and assistant coach Erik Adams as the Ambassador for the tenth anniversary celebration which will include an alumni game. https://allenamericans.com/casey-pierro-zabotel-returns-erik-adams-named-ambassador-for-10-year-anniversary-team/



The Allen Americans just issued their season-ending roster. This roster can contain up to a maximum of 20 players and cannot include any players who did not sign an ECHL contract for 2017-18. Each team is entitled to reserve the rights to a maximum of eight players from the list of 20 by extending a qualifying offer no later than June 30. Players on open qualifying offers cannot be traded. Teams are not required to extend a qualifying offer to players who sign a contract prior to June 30. Here is a link to the press release with all of the details: https://www.echl.com/echl-announces-2018-season-ending-rosters

Here are the 20 players on the Allen season ending list:

Goalies
Jeremy Brodeur

Forwards
Olivier Archambault
Vincent Arseneau
Jared Bethune
JC Campagna
Matt Foget
Alex Guptill
Jonathan Lessard
Zach Pochiro
Tyler Poulsen
Braylon Shmyr
Casey Pierro-Zabotel

Defensemen
Gordie Ballhorn
Joel Chouinard
Mike Gunn
Miles Liberati
Eric Roy
Josh Thrower
Dalton Thrower
Micheal Webster



- It is important to note that players on AHL contracts last season cannot be on the season ending roster and are free agents. Here are the players that were on AHL deals so are missing from the list above.

Spencer Asuchak
Thomas Frazee
David Makowski
Bryan Moore
Jake Paterson


- The next 10 days will be very busy for coach Martinson as he tries to sign players on the season ending roster. Since there are only eight qualifying offers for the 20 players on the list it is important to get as many players as possible signed prior to June 30. Martinson has already come to terms with many of the players on the list with more to get done this week. Some players may not want to sign because they think they can get an AHL deal or are looking to sign in Europe.


- The bottom line is much will be known by the end of the month. The 20 players on the season ending roster will have to be signed or given a qualifying offer or they will become free agents. However, there are many other moving parts in putting together the roster. Once the new affiliation is announced (my guess is in the next week) coach Martinson will get a better idea of what players will be assigned by the AHL team to Allen. He is also recruiting free agents around the ECHL and AHL and of course talking to the five players above who were on AHL deals last season.


-  When players are signed and when they are announced are two different things. History says the Americans will spread out the announcements throughout the summer.



OTHER COMMENTS

- Several former Allen Americans signed contracts this week. Tanner Eberle, who played in Jacksonville last season has signed to play for the Sheffield Steelers (England). Harrison Ruopp, who didn't play pro hockey last season, has signed with the Manchester Storm (England). Jake Marchment re-signed with the Utah Grizzlies where he ended the season and Dyson Stevenson was the first player announcement by the Wichita Thunder. Here is a video the Thunder used to announce the return of their captain. The video starts with some Dyson highlights (goals & fights) and then he talks about his return to Wichita.

 

-  The ECHL league meetings are taking place this week. Have not heard much about potential rule changes but apparently one topic of conversation is whether the first round of the playoffs should be the best of five rather than a best of seven series.


- This time of year the definition of veteran status frequently comes up so it is always good to review. The definition of a veteran from the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is, "Veteran shall mean any player, other than goaltender, who has played in at least 260 regular season games in any recognized professional hockey league as defined by the rules." Here are the defined leagues from the CBA:

North America
- NHL
- AHL
- ECHL
- CHL (defunct but games played count toward veteran status)

Europe
- Czech Extraliga (Czech Republic)
- Liiga (Finland)
- DEL (Germany)
- KHL (Russia)
- Slovak Extraliga (Slovakia)
- SHL (Sweden)
- National League (Switzerland)



DID YOU KNOW: It is hard to quantify the value Casey Pierro-Zabotel brings to the Allen Americans. He is a two way player that plays in all situations. He has led his team in scoring in Allen, Colorado and Atlanta. Casey has not missed a game in two years and even though he has only played 130 regular season games for Allen he is already 10th all-time on the Americans career assist list. If all goes well this season Casey will be #2 all-time on the career assist list. 

A Busy Week for Critical Dates, Martinson to Make Big Announcements Saturday, Salary Numbers in New CBA, Player Updates and ECHL Attendance Increase

If you are an Allen Americans fan it has been rather quiet since their first round playoff exit but that is about to change with several critical dates this week. The future considerations deadline was yesterday.  Friday (June 15) the season-ending rosters are due to the league office (3:00 pm EDT) and Saturday (June 16) is the first day to sign players for the 2018-19 season.

- Season-Ending Rosters - This roster can contain up to a maximum of 20 players and cannot include any players who did not sign an ECHL contract for 2017-18.


- Each team is entitled to reserve the rights to a maximum of eight players from the list of 20 by extending a qualifying offer no later than June 30. Of the eight qualified players, no more than four can be veterans (260 regular season professional games played). Players on open qualifying offers cannot be traded. Teams are not required to extend a qualifying offer to players who sign a contract prior to June 30.


- Future Considerations - There was a flurry of activity around the ECHL yesterday as all future consideration trades had to be completed by 3:00 pm EDT. The Americans only outstanding future consideration trade was with Quad City when Allen acquired Tristan King at the end of the season but the Mallards ceased operations so Allen was out of the future considerations activity. One former Allen player was involved yesterday as Rapid City forward Daniel Leavens was sent to Wichita to complete the trade just prior to Christmas when the Thunder sent goalie Shane Owen to Rapid City.


- I have had numerous questions about the release the Allen Americans issued on Tuesday with the title, "Big Announcements Coming from Coach Martinson this Saturday."  Everyone wants to know what will be announced on Saturday. I doubt it is a coincidence that Saturday is the first day players can be signed for the 2018-19 season so a player announcement has to be in the works. As I have reported for the last couple of weeks the hope was the new affiliation would be announced prior to the ECHL summer meetings which will be in Las Vegas next week so maybe that will be one of the big announcements. Whatever the announcements are it will be worth the trip to the Allen Event Center to get the latest information. Announcements scheduled for 12:30. Here is the info issued by the Americans: https://allenamericans.com/big-announcements-coming-from-coach-martinson-this-saturday/  


- The exodus of ECHL players heading overseas continues. Two former Allen Americans made the move in the last few days. Defenseman Garrett Clarke who played for the Indy Fuel last season will play in Romania next season and goalie Joel Rumpel, who started last season in Wichita and finished the season in Utah has signed to play in Scotland.


- Rookie Allen defenseman Gordie Ballhorn has decided to forgo professional hockey and will pursue a college career at the University of Saskatchewan. Ballhorn joins Jared Bethune to go the college route. The other two late season rookie additions (Braylon Shymr & Matt Foget) are expected to return.


- Here is a story about what is next for the Colorado Eagles as they transition from the ECHL to the AHL. The story covers who will be the coach, the schedule, how the roster will be built and affiliation possibilities. https://www.milehighhockey.com/2018/6/13/17457084/whats-next-for-the-colorado-eagles-ahl-avalanche


- A new five year Collective Bargaining Agreement will take effect July 1 and run through June 30, 2023. The weekly salary cap will increase from $12,800 last season to $13,000 per week for the upcoming season. For the duration of the CBA the salary cap will go to $13,300 in 2019-20, $13,600 in 2020-21, $13,900 in 2021-22 and $14,100 in 2022-23. If you figure 20 players on the active roster the average salary over the five years of the CBA will go from $650 per week in 2018-19 to $705 per week in 2022-23.


- Other dollar figures for the 2018-19 season include rookie maximum salary ($550 per week), rookie minimum salary ($470) and minimum salary for non-rookies ($510).


- Last season per diem when the team was on the road was $42 split between breakfast ($9), lunch ($12) and dinner ($21). Next season per diem will rise to $43 and will thereafter increase $2 per year so in the final year of this CBA (2022-23) per diem will be $50 per day. 



DID YOU KNOW: The ECHL reversed a a four year decline in attendance this season which has to be good news for the league. Average attendance was the largest since the 2014-15 season. Here is average regular season attendance over the past five years according to the ECHL website:

2017-18  -  4424
2016-17  -  4252
2015-16  -  4386
2014-15  -  4598
2013-14  -  4764

Allen Americans Update and Musings of Barry the Blogger

It has been over six weeks since the Allen Americans played their last game (April 25) but today is one to remember because it was two years ago today (June 9, 2016) the American won their second Kelly Cup and fourth consecutive championship. There have been a lot of great moments as the Americans begin their 10th year as a franchise but it is very hard to top winning four straight championships and winning all of them on home ice.


- Two of Allen's four championships (2013 & 2015) were decided in game seven and hockey can't get more exciting than game seven. That will be the case tonight as the Florida Everblades play the Colorado Eagles in game seven of the Kelly Cup finals. It will be the fifth time in ECHL history the title will be decided in game seven. By the way in the four prior Kelly Cup finals that went to game seven the home team is 2-2. However, if you are looking for a home team game seven advantage check out these stats. The game tonight will be the 44th game seven in ECHL post season history. The home team is 31-12 in game sevens and has won 18 of the last 23.


-  There are a lot of stats you could look at to predict the outcome of the game tonight in Florida but two old standbys are pretty powerful. The first goal of the game is so important as combined the Everblades and Eagles are 22-2-1 when scoring first in the playoffs and Florida is 13-0-1. The team leading after the first period stat shows these teams are a combined 14-2 and Florida is 9-0 when leading after the first period. Getting that good start will be the key to victory tonight.


- There were a lot of great story lines coming out of the Stanley Cup finals with the Capitals finally winning the championship but none better than that of  Washington's forward Jay Beagle who became the first player ever to win the Kelly Cup, Calder Cup and the Stanley Cup. Beagle has played close to 500 NHL games (all for Washington) as a hard working fourth liner. His story is one of inspiration for any young hockey player. When he was 18, Jay tried out for his hometown Western Hockey League (WHL) team, the Calgary Hitmen and was cut. He ended up playing for a tier II junior team and then attended the University of Alaska - Anchorage as a grinding forward for two years where his stat line after 67 games was 30 points (14G 16A), 133 penalty minutes and a plus/minus of -18. With his academics failing he left school at the end of his sophomore season and signed with the Idaho Steelheads at the end of the 2006-07 season. He played eight regular season games and 18 playoff games as Idaho went on to win the Kelly Cup. Beagle had one goal and two assists in his 18 playoff games with Idaho. The next season he ended up in Hershey (AHL) where he won two Calder Cups. How he got to the AHL is also an interesting story. Check it out here: https://wtop.com/washington-capitals/2018/06/jay-beagles-journey-comes-full-circle-as-capitals-eye-stanley-cup-in-vegas/


- Blake Sebring of the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel did a Q&A with incoming ECHL Commissioner Ryan Crelin. Here is that interview where Crelin talks about his background, his goals for improving the ECHL, shortening the season or playoffs, the all-star game and balancing the desires of ECHL fans while serving as a developmental league for the AHL. http://www.news-sentinel.com/sports/2018/06/07/qa-with-incoming-echl-commissioner-ryan-crelin/


 - The Allen Americans recently issued their protected but it is not a very meaningful list since you can put an unlimited number of players on the list as long as they meet the criteria which is very broad. Here is a link to the press release with all of the details: https://allenamericans.com/americans-announce-protected-list-2/

Here are the 24 players on the Allen protected list:

Goalies
Jeremy Brodeur

Forwards
Olivier Archambault
Vincent Arseneau
Jared Bethune
JC Campagna
Alex Carrier
Matt Foget
Alex Guptill
Tristan King
Jonathan Lessard
Peter MacArthur
Wade MacLeod
Zach Pochiro
Tyler Poulsen
Braylon Shmyr
Casey Pierro-Zabotel

Defensemen
Gordie Ballhorn
Joel Chouinard
Mike Gunn
Miles Liberati
Eric Roy
Josh Thrower
Dalton Thrower
Micheal Webster

Don't read too much into this list as it represents those players that meet the criteria for being on the list and nothing more.

It is important to note that players on AHL contracts cannot be protected. Here are the players that were on AHL deals so are missing from the protected list.

Spencer Asuchak
Thomas Frazee
David Makowski
Colby McAuley
Bryan Moore
Jake Paterson
Alex Schoenborn


- The next list that will come out is the season ending roster which must be submitted to the league on June 15 (3:00 pm EDT). This list can be no more than 20 players and can only include players that signed an ECHL contract in 2017-18.


- The first day to officially sign players for the 2018-19 season is June 16. You can expect coach Martinson will sign a lot of players between June 16 and June 30 when qualifying offers are made. Only eight players can be given qualifying offers. It doesn't mean players signed will be announced. If you see your favorite player not getting a qualifying offer when the qualifying offer list is released (June 30) it could mean they are already signed.


- It is all speculation at this point but if you attended the get together at the Allen Event Center a couple of weeks ago and listened carefully to what coach Steve Martinson had to say and made a few assumptions it sounds like there is a good chance that the rookies that came in at the end of last season will return (Ballhorn, Shmyr, Foget) with the exception of Jared Bethune who is headed to college (Queen's University). You have to also assume the four veteran spots will go to Chouinard, Pierro-Zabotel, Asuchak and Frazee.


- Until the new affiliation is finalized and it is determined how many players will be assigned to Allen the number of players Martinson will have to re-sign or recruit is an unknown. The last I heard was hope the affiliation would be announced prior to the ECHL summer meetings in Las Vegas which start June 18.


- Congrats to Vincent Arseneau who signed a one way contract with Utica (AHL) this week.


 - If you follow social media you most likely saw recently that former Allen Americans forward Wade MacLeod signed with a new team in Germany (Dresden) back in April after playing for Frankfurt this past season. Wade finished the 2017-18 season with 49 points (25G 24A) in 49 games. Last week it was announced that Wade will not be playing in Dresden because he has had a reoccurrence of a brain tumor that will require surgery. Wade has gone through this surgery two times before. Wade is a fighter and he will come through this battle in the relentless way he plays hockey. Here is the "Google Translate" version of the German press release issued by the team.


"Wade MacLeod has to undergo surgery again

Shattering news for the Dresden Ice Lions: Striker Wade MacLeod, the first newcomer to the Blue-White, can not get into the preparation as planned. The 31-year-old striker will have to undergo surgery again in the weeks following a recurrent tumor. In mutual agreement, a contract was agreed. MacLeod's shirt number 19 will not be awarded this season.

Over the next few weeks fans and supporters will have the opportunity to write down the best wishes for recovery on a special jersey print in the EnergieVerbund Arena, which will then be forwarded to the striker. The start date for the action is in the communicates the next few days.

Wade MacLeod: "Of course the re-operation is a setback for me. I'm extremely disappointed, but I'm not giving up. I can promise everyone that I will fight back again this time."

Thomas Barth, sports manager at the Dresden Ice Lions: "The fate of Wade touches us very much. We wish him all the best for the healing process, we are in close contact with him. His health is the focus and he should be able to focus on that for the next few months alone. In consultation with him and his advisor, we have therefore agreed to dissolve the existing contract. When Wade signals that we want to return to the ice, we are of course his point of contact."


- The pace of ECHL players signing overseas has really picked up over the last two weeks. Here is the list:

Adam Vay (G)                Rapid City to Kazakhstan
Gabriel Desjardins (F)    Fort Wayne to Sweden
Scott Jacklin (F)             Brampton to France
Mason Baptista (F)         Fort Wayne to Germany
Jordan Smotherman (F)  Manchester to Germany
Kyle Bonis (F)                Toledo to Norway
Paul Geiger (D)              South Carolina to Italy
Dylan Olsen (D)             Adirondack to England
Matt Caito (D)                Rapid City to Austria
Colin Sullivan (D)           Atlanta to France
Simon Denis (D)             Toledo to South Korea
Micheal McNicholas (F)  Indy to Norway
Ben Marshall (D)            Atlanta to Slovakia
Garrett Thompson (F)     Fort Wayne to Norway
Nolan Zajac (D)              Reading to Sweden
Josh Pitt (F)                     Kalamazoo to England
Kevin Schulze (D)          Wheeling to Sweden
T.J. Moore (F)                 Norfolk to Denmark
Evan Jasper (F)              Greenville to Denmark
Mark MacMillan (F)        Wichita to Sweden
Scott Tanski (F)               Reading to Scotland



DID YOU KNOW:  There is just one game remaining in the ECHL playoffs and David Makowski is still #3 in goals scored in the playoffs by defensemen. Jake Marto (Colorado) is #1 with seven goals in 23 games and Daniel Maggio (Fort Wayne) is #2 with six goals in 12 games. David is third in goals scored with four goals in seven games. Makowski also leads all defensemen in the playoffs in points per game average at 1.00. In seven games David had seven points (4G 3A).