It is a quiet weekend on the ice for the Allen Americans because of the postponement of three games against Wichita but there has been a lot of change with roster movements, a new schedule and the announcement of how teams will be aligned in the standings.
ROSTER
- The Americans signed three players this week, two goalies and a defenseman. Goalie Frank Marotte was signed and immediately loaned to the AHL (Bridgeport) where he was signed to an AHL deal. Then Allen signed goalie Justin Kapelmaster who will be the back up goalie behind C.J. Motte. The other signing this week was defenseman Will Lochead.
- San Jose recalled their three contract players (Zach Sawchenko, Joe Garreffa, Jake McGrew) who will leave for Barracuda training camp tomorrow. Garreffa and McGrew have been two of the top rookies in the league and Sawchenko has been one of the top goalies in the ECHL. It is going to be hard to replace the production from these players.
- Yesterday Allen traded Cole Fraser to the South Carolina Stingrays for future considerations. If you know coach Martinson's approach to future considerations trades there will not be a player coming back to Allen as part of this trade.
- Another forward will be added to the roster early next week. A free agent who had signed with one of the teams that opted out for the season.
- Here is the updated Allen roster which includes two goalies, eight defensemen and 13 forwards:
Goalies
#31 - C.J. Motte
#39 - Justin Kapelmaster
Defensemen
#4 - Turner Ottenbreit
#5 - Phil Beaulieu
#7 - Kayle Doetzel
#14 - Les Lancaster
#20 - Ben Carroll
#25 - Nolan Kneen
#43 - Matt Register
#47 - Will Lochead
Forwards
#9 - Braylon Shmyr
#10 - Conner Bleackley
#11 - Kam Kielly
#15 - Corey Mackin
#19 - Alex Lavoie
#22 - Tyler Sheehy
#26 - Spencer Asuchak
#27 - Sam Laberge
#29 - Jesse Mychan
#40 - Josh Lammon
#44 - Zane Franklin
#71 - Dyson Stevenson
#?? - ????? ???????
SCHEDULE
- Of the scheduled games 14 are at home and 17 are on the road but six of the 14 home games are between March 24 and April 3.
- If familiarity breeds contempt there is plenty in this schedule. Allen will play Kansas City five straight games, (3 home, 2 away). Allen plays Utah four straight (1 home, 3 away) and Tulsa four straight (2 home, 2 away).
- The only non-division opponent on the schedule is Greenville which the Americans will play three times on February 25, 26 and 27. Unfortunately the Greenville series is on the road. Bryan Moore and Jack Sadek, two former Allen players could be in the lineup. Sadek is currently with his AHL team (Ontario). Moore has played in nine games and has two points (2G, 0A) but his 43 penalty minutes are #2 in the ECHL.
- With the postponement of
the home games this weekend the next home game isn't until February 3 . Here is the situation for Allen fans on the 36 homes games the Americans
will play this season. Between February 3 and the end of the ECHL
season on June 6 Allen will play 31 of their 36 home games. Said another way, in the first two months of the season Allen will play just five home games.
- Allen has played 11 games (5 home, 6 away) and now has 31 more games scheduled (14 home, 17 away). The Americans have 30 games still to be scheduled between April 5 and June 6. Of the 42 games Allen has played or are now scheduled here is the breakdown by team.
11 - Utah (5 home, 6 away)
8 - Tulsa (4 home, 4 away)
8 - Rapid City (5 home, 3 away)
6 - Wichita (3 home, 3 away)
6 - Kansas City (2 home, 4 away)
3 - Greenville (0 home, 3 away)
- With 30 games remaining to be scheduled, based on the list above, you can expect a heavy dose of games with Wichita including the three postponed games. More games with Tulsa both home and away are certain and it looks like Kansas City will come to Allen and the Americans might have to make another trip to Rapid City. Fort Wayne was just added to the Western Conference and starts playing on February 12. It would be great to have the Komets added to Allen's schedule in those last 30 games.
STANDINGS
- The ECHL announced yesterday how the 14 teams playing this season will be aligned. There will be no divisions and the teams will be evenly divided into the Eastern Conference and Western Conference. The three Central Division teams from last season that are playing this season have been split with Fort Wayne staying in the Western Conference and Wheeling and Indy moving to the Eastern Conference. The standings will be by winning percentage instead of points because all teams won't play the same number of games. Here are the current standings in the new conference configurations:
EASTERN CONFERENCE
.889 - Indy
.750 - South Carolina
.667 - Florida
.600 - Orlando
.545 - Greenville
.417 - Jacksonville
.350 - Wheeling
WESTERN CONFERENCE
.727 - Allen
.722 - Wichita
.667 - Utah
.650 - Tulsa
.300 - Kansas City
.182 - Rapid City
.000 - Fort Wayne
DID YOU KNOW: After a two week period when just three players were added to the COVID related Commissioner's Exempt List there have been 20 players added from eight different teams in the last four days. Every team in the league with the exception of Allen has now had at least one player on the Commissioner's Exempt List but remember teams aren't required to put COVID positive players on the list. The reason teams add players to the list is they don't count against the roster or the salary cap. If roster space or salary cap isn't an issue, teams don't have to put players on the list.
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