The first day of Allen training camp is in the books and as a group they remind you of the successful teams from past that were big, fast, skilled and tough. Here is an updated list of the players in camp broken down by Allen contracted players, Wild assigned players and tryout players:
- Allen Contracted Players
Forwards
*Spencer Asuchak - seventh pro season, 60 AHL games
Gabriel Gagne - fourth pro season, 154 AHL games
Alex Guptill - sixth pro season, 89 AHL games
*Mike Hedden - 11th pro season, 210 AHL games, 155 DEL games (top German league)
Regan Nagy - first pro season, 0 AHL games
*Shawn O'Donnell - seventh pro season, 188 AHL games
Brett Pollock - fourth pro season, 102 AHL games
Jason Salvaggio - second pro season, 4 AHL games
Braylon Shmyr - second pro season, 3 AHL games
Jordan Topping - second pro season, 0 AHL games
Defensemen
Kayle Doetzel - third pro season, 68 AHL games
Turner Ottenbreit - second pro season, 4 AHL games
Ben Owen - second pro season, 0 AHL games
Goalies
Jake Paterson - fifth pro season, 10 AHL games
Evan Weninger - first pro season, 0 AHL games
*Veterans
- Wild Assigned Players (under NHL/AHL contract)
Forwards
Olivier Archambault - sixth pro season, 88 AHL games
Tyler Sheehy - first full pro season, played five AHL games last year after college season
Defensemen
Alex Breton - second pro season, 11 AHL games
Stepan Falkovsky - fourth pro season, 49 AHL games
Jack Sadek - first full pro season, 0 AHL games
Goalie
Dereck Baribeau - first pro season, 0 AHL games
- Tryout Players
Defensemen
Josh Victor - from Round Rock and finished collegiate career last year (Fitchburg State)
Ricky Regala - from Dallas, played 10 pro games last season in Sweden (Division 2)
Forwards
R.T. Rice - played 16 games with the Utah Grizzlies last season
Eddie Matsushima - played 14 games in SPHL last season after collegiate career (Wisc. - River Falls)
J.M. Piotrowski - played 21 pro games last season in Australia after graduating from Yale
OTHER COMMENTARY
- Four Allen players are still at AHL camps with a good shot of making opening day rosters. I listed five players in the blog yesterday but I was mistaken as rookie Regan Nagy was released from his tryout with the Toronto Marlies and was at practice yesterday.
- Jake Doty has a chance to make the Ontario Reign roster. Doty is as tough as they come. The Pacific Division teams play each other a lot of times and if Ontario needs someone in a tough guy role Jake should be the guy.
- Defensemen Matt Register, Josh Atkinson and Les Lancaster are still in Iowa. Yesterday the Minnestoa Wild sent a defenseman to Iowa (Louie Belpedio) so I would expect that would push one of the Americans defensemen down to Allen. Iowa opens their season on Friday at home against the Rockford IceHogs.
- If you plan on attending a training camp practice session at the Community Rink the schedule times vary the next three days:
Tuesday: 11:00 - 1:00
Wednesday: 9:15 - 10:15 (annual golf outing with fans at Watters Creek in afternoon)
Thursday: 11:00 - 1:00 (team leaves after practice for Kansas City)
- The AHL announced yesterday they have awarded an expansion franchise to have their 32nd team play in Palm Springs, CA. The team will be the AHL affiliate of the new NHL franchise in Seattle. Both teams will start play in the 2021-22 season. Here are the details with some possible names for this new franchise: https://thehockeynews.com/news/article/seattle-gets-its-ahl-affiliate-as-palm-springs-announced-as-leagues-32nd-team
- The defending ECHL champions Newfoundland Growlers are starting out just as they left off last season, loaded with NHL/AHL contracted players from their affiliate (Toronto). Yesterday, Toronto assigned 15 players to Newfoundland for the start of training camp.
- Dyson Stevenson is still in training camp with the Utica Comets (AHL) according to their website. Utica reduced their preseason roster by nine players on Sunday and Dyson survived that cut. The Comets website still shows 15 forwards on the roster so there may be more cuts to come but Stevenson has a good chance of being on the opening day roster. Utica opens their season on Saturday.
DID YOU KNOW: Chad Costello continues to lead the top German league (DEL) in scoring with 12 points (4G, 8A) in six games. For his great start Chad has been nominated for the DEL Player of the Month for September. There are five nominees and the winner is selected by a fan vote. Got a chuckle when I saw on the team's (Krefeld Pinguine) Facebook page there was a translation from German to English that didn't go so well.
German: Chad Costello ist als Spieler des Monats September nominiert. Stimmt kräftig ab!
Translation: Chad Cooper is nominated as the player of the month of September. Vote hard!
Here is the website where you can vote for Chad. Not sure of all the rules as it is in German but it is easy to vote and you can vote on different devices. Chad is currently in third place with 20% of the vote. Knowing Allen fans when the news gets out that will change: https://www.eishockeynews.de/artikel/2019/09/30/wer-wird-del-spieler-des-monats-september/2ac9f275-6ba1-45e6-b24b-ff52871b6b8c.html
Here is the website where you can vote for Chad. Not sure of all the rules as it is in German but it is easy to vote and you can vote on different devices. Chad is currently in third place with 20% of the vote. Knowing Allen fans when the news gets out that will change: https://www.eishockeynews.de/artikel/2019/09/30/wer-wird-del-spieler-des-monats-september/2ac9f275-6ba1-45e6-b24b-ff52871b6b8c.html
In reference to the number of NHL/AHL contracted players being assigned to Newfoundland: Plain & Simple: The ECHL needs to limit the number of contracted NHL/AHL players on an ECHL team. Organizations with deep pockets will certainly have an advantage, especially since there is no limit as to the number of players an AHL team can sign.
ReplyDeleteYou are spot on and while having more NHL/AHL contracted players assigned to ECHL teams is a good thing to do so with no limits now that these players aren't required to play any AHL games to be eligible for the ECHL playoffs gives the deep pocket AHL/NHL teams a huge advantage.
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