Who Might Get Assigned to Allen by the Wild, Schedule Breakdown, Critical Dates, Opening Day Roster Numbers, Training Camp Salaries

The Allen Americans are just a few days from the start of training camp and there are 21 players on the roster. The big unknown is how many players will be added to the Allen roster through the new affiliation with the Minnesota Wild. The Iowa Wild start their training camp today, play their two preseason games on September 28 & 29 and open the season on October 5. It will be known soon how many Wild players will be assigned to Allen. Obviously training camp performance, injuries and overall team needs play a big part of who will be coming to Allen so trying to predict at this point is fools gold.


- Yesterday I mentioned the goalie that could be assigned to Allen from the Wild is C.J. Motte. This is based on the fact that he appears to be the fifth goalie on the Wild depth chart. Other possibilities from Iowa are players on their roster that spent time with their ECHL affiliate (Rapid City) last season. Here are those players:

Gustav Bouramman - a 6'0" 187 pound right shot defenseman from Sweden played 54 games with Rapid City and had 28 points (5G, 23A). Gustav was drafted in the 7th round of the 2015 NHL draft by the Minnesota Wild.

Dante Salituro - a 5'8" 176 pound right shot right wing/center played 53 games in Rapid City and had 48 points (23G, 25A). Salituro was acquired by the Wild in a trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets in June of 2017. He was selected for the ECHL all-star game last season.

Pavel Jenys - a 6'3" 218 pound left shot center played 48 games in Rapid City and had 35 points (17G, 18A). Pavel is from the Czech Republic and was drafted in the 7th round of the 2014 NHL draft by the Minnesota Wild.

Chase Lang - a  6'1" 194 pound right shot center/right wing played 18 games in Rapid City and had 10 points (4G, 6A). He was drafted in the 6th round of the 2014 NHL draft by the Minnesota Wild.


- It is a big week for the Allen contracted players that received invitations to the Iowa Wild training camp. Alex Breton, Josh Atkinson, Josh Thrower, Chad Butcher, and Braylon Shmyr will have a chance to show the new Allen affiliate what they can do. An AHL contract is the goal for these young players.


- Below is a complete list of Allen's 72 games broken down by opponent. Teams with an asterisk are Mountain Division foes. Note there is much more emphasis on divisional play this season as Allen will play 60 of their 72 games (83%) against Mountain Division foes.


14 games - Wichita (6 home, 8 away)*
13 games - Tulsa (5 home, 8 away)*
11 games - Utah (6 home 5 away)*
10 games - Kansas City (5 home, 5 away)*          
6 games - Rapid City (3 home, 3 away)*
6 games - Idaho (3 home, 3 away)*
5 games - Reading (2 home, 3 away)
3 games - Cincinnati (3 home, 0 away)
2 games - South Carolina (2 home, 0 away)
1 game - Wheeling (0 home, 1 away)
1 games - Worcester (1 home, 0 away)


- It is always dangerous to look at how teams played last season and project that result on the upcoming season but nevertheless here is some data. Allen will play six teams with a winning percentage higher than the Americans winning percentage last season (.542) including three teams (South Carolina, Idaho, Reading) with a winning percentage above .600. However, 54 of Allen's 72 games (75%) are against teams with a lower winning percentage than the Americans. Note that only two teams on the schedule (Utah & Rapid City) had a winning percentage below .500 last season.  Here is a complete list in winning percentage order with the number of games Allen will play each team this season in parentheses:

.722 - South Carolina (2)
.667 - Idaho (6).
.604 - Reading (5)
.569 - Worcester (1)
.563 - Cincinnati (3)
.549 - Wheeling (1)
.542 - ALLEN
.528 - Wichita (14) 
.514 - Kansas City (10)
.514 - Tulsa (13)
.493 - Utah (11) 
.389 - Rapid City (6)


- Here are the critical dates set by the ECHL between now and the start of the season:

September 27 - Training camp rosters due to league office
September 28 - Training camp opens (Allen's first on ice session is September 30)

October 10 - Opening day rosters due to league office
October 12 - 31st ECHL regular season begins (Allen starts on the road in Kansas City, first home game is October 20 against Wichita).


- There are a few components to the opening day roster to keep in mind. There can be 21 players on the active roster for the first month of the season after which it reduces to 20. However, the active roster salaries must stay under the salary cap which is $13,470 for the first 30 days and $13,000 for the balance of the season. Because of high salaries sometimes the active roster has to be less than the maximum number.  In addition to the active roster there can be two players (healthy or injured) on reserve. Salary paid to the two reserve players does not count toward the salary cap. The final component to the roster is the 14 day injured reserve. An unlimited number of players can be placed on the 14 day injured reserve. Once placed on this list the player must stay for a minimum of 14 days.



DID YOU KNOW: Players don't get a salary during training camp. They are provided housing and meals but the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) says this about salaries:

"Each player will be paid his salary in equal weekly or bi-weekly installments over the course of the regular season commencing with the date of the first regular season game."