Allen Americans Weekly Update

A couple of big picture items are top of mind this week while Allen Americans fans are awaiting  more player announcements.

- Minnesota Wild:  The Wild fired general manager Paul Fenton this week and that is always unsettling when your affiliate goes through a change especially at this point in preparing for next season. Fenton was only on the job for 14 months. Assistant General Manager, Tom Kurvers has been named as interim GM while a search is underway for Fenton's replacement. Coach Martinson deals with Kurvers a lot because as assistant GM one of his duties is to be the GM for the Iowa Wild. It remains to be seen what, if any, impact the changes will have on the Americans. Iowa is in the process of recruiting/signing depth players for their team who will be assigned to the Americans. Here is a story from the Minneapolis Star and Tribune about the situation with the Wild.  http://www.startribune.com/wild-general-manager-paul-fenton-fired-by-owner-craig-leipold/513393392/


- Allen Americans Sale: Nothing specific to report on the sale of the team other than my reporting is several groups are interested in buying the team and are in the process of doing their due diligence. Remember, owner Jack Gulati has said if the team isn't sold prior to the start of the season he will remove the franchise from sale to focus on competing in the 2019-20 season.


- The Americans official roster now stands at six players with the announcement last week that defenseman Dalton Thrower has been traded to Jacksonville for defenseman Kayle Doetzel. Here is the press release on the trade: https://allenamericans.com/americans-and-jacksonville-swap-defensemen/


1. Spencer Asuchak
2. Ben Owen
3. Mike Hedden
4. Jacob Doty
5. Braylon Shmyr
6. Kayle Doetzel


- There have been rumors all summer that former Allen Americans defenseman and three time ECHL Defenseman of the Year, Matt Register, would not return to Toledo. That was confirmed yesterday in a story written by Mark Monroe of the Toledo Blade where Toledo coach, Dan Watson, said Register would not be returning to Toledo. It also says in the story Register is "reportedly in talks with ECHL teams Idaho and Allen." Here is a link to Monroe's story: https://www.toledoblade.com/sports/walleye/2019/08/02/decorated-defenseman-matt-register-will-not-return-to-the-toledo-walleye/stories/20190802188


- I had a chance to talk to coach Martinson this morning and there are a lot of moving pieces going on right now. He is signing players himself, helping in signing depth guys for Iowa, identifying rookies to attend the Traverse City tournament, and identifying players that will attend Iowa's training camp. While there is a lot accomplished there is still work to be done. If all goes as planned, the Americans should have some exciting announcements next week.


- The number of player announcements around the ECHL continues to accelerate with an average of 8-10 players being announced each day. The total is now over 200 ranging from 16 by Maine to zero by Kalamazoo. The majority of teams have announced between six and ten players. At the start of the season there will be somewhere between 575-600 players on ECHL rosters so there is still a long way to go. It should be noted there are a lot of players signed but not announced by all ECHL teams.


- Dan Myers, Digital Content Coordinator for the Minnesota Wild is doing a series of interviews with the three head coaches in the Wild organization. He started with Allen coach Steve Martinson and it is a great interview. You will learn some new things about the Americans coach. Then Myers interviewed Iowa coach Tim Army. Yet to come is the interview with Minnesota Wild coach Bruce Boudreau. Here are the links to the stories.

Steve Martinson: https://www.nhl.com/wild/news/coach-catchup-steve-martinson-072919/c-308385666

Tim Army: https://www.nhl.com/wild/news/coach-catchup-tim-army-080119/c-308413108


- I ran into Thomas Frazee this week and had a chance to talk to him briefly. He is thrilled that the Atlanta Gladiators reached out to him and signed him to a contract for next season. The veteran's rehab from season ending knee surgery last season is going well and he is looking forward to playing for Atlanta, where he makes his off season home. Frazee went out of his way to say how much he enjoyed his time in Allen and mentioned the team, front office and fans. He is a real class act.


- You may have heard of stick handling expert Pavel Barber, who posts many videos. Here is one that is a shootout challenge between the pros vs the YouTube guys. The pros are Cam Atkinson who scored 41 goals for the Columbus Blue Jackets last season and former Allen Americans forward J.C. Campagna who had 35 goals for Fort Wayne. It is 18 minutes long but the chirping and the shootout moves are enjoyable. Campagna acquits himself very well.

- My ECHL Stats page had its one year anniversary this week but is still not known by most ECHL fans. Do me a favor and if you are on Twitter give me a follow (@EchlStats). If you are on Facebook go to the ECHL Stats & Information page and give it a like. Thanks!



DID YOU KNOW: This was my ECHL Stats post for today:
Scoring more than 110 points in a season has happened 26 times in ECHL history but 23 of the 26 took place prior to the turn of the century. Here are the three exceptions:

125 - Chad Costello, 2014-15, Allen Americans
122 - Chad Costello, 2016-17, Allen Americans
114 - Tyler Donati, 2009-10, Elmira Jackals

What the post today didn't include was Steve Martinson was the coach for all three of these achievements. Also, Chad Costello is one of only 12 players who have scored 120+ points in one ECHL season. Chad's 125 points in 2014-15 is #9 all-time and his 122 points in 2016-17 is #10 all-time. The eight players ahead of Costello on the single season point list all set their marks between 1989 -1996 during the high scoring years of pro hockey.