It is that quiet time of year if you are an Allen Americans hockey fan but it is now less than 100 days until hockey returns. I had a few items of interest so thought with rain getting in the way of the morning bike ride it is time to empty the news and notes bin.
Here is the Allen Americans playoff roster with an update on the players that have already signed for the 2021-22 season and those whose rights revert back to other teams:
Goalies
#31 - C.J. Motte - signed in Great Britain (England) with Coventry Blaze
#34 - Jake Paterson - signed in Norway (Sparta)
#35 - Frank Marotte
Defensemen
#4 - Terrance Amorosa - signed AHL deal with Laval Rocket
#5 - Phil Beaulieu
#7 - Sam Ruopp
#14 - Les Lancaster - signed in Finland to a two year deal with Ilves which means Lynx in Finnish. Lancaster will play the top league in Finland (Liiga) and it is one of the six European leagues that count toward veteran status for the ECHL.
#16 - Darian Skeoch
#18 - Kris Myllari
#20 - Ben Carroll
#43 - Matt Register - signed in Great Britain with the Cardiff Devils which is in Wales. The league is the EIHL (Elite Ice Hockey League). This league is the most similar to the style of play you see in the ECHL. The EIHL relies heavily on import players with 14 allowed to dress for each game.
Forwards
#8 - Steve Owre - signed in France with Cergy-Pontoise
#9 - Brett Neumann
#11 - Collin Shirley
#15 - Corey Mackin - signed in Sweden (HC Vita Hasten), ECHL rights revert to Reading
#17 - Colby McAuley - rights revert to Idaho
#19 - Chad Butcher - signed in Sweden with HC Vita Hasten
#22 - Tyler Sheehy - signed in Germany's top league (DEL) with Nurnberg Ice Tigers
#26 - Spencer Asuchak - re-signed with the Allen Americans
#27 - Sam Laberge - rights revert to Adirondack
#40 - Josh Lammon - signed in Great Britain (Wales)
#44 - Zane Franklin
#71 - Dyson Stevenson
#77 - Scott Conway
- Spencer Asuchak kept up what has become a tradition when he was announced on Saturday as the first player signed for the 2021-22 Allen Americans roster. Asuchak has so many career records there are too many to recap. Most impressive is his longevity. This will be Spencer's ninth season in Allen. Only four players have played more than four seasons with the Americans:
9 - Spencer Asuchak
6 - Gary Steffes
5 - Jarret Lukin
5 - Brian McMillin
- Asuchak is the all-time leader in regular season games (413) and playoff games (90) and is one of six players that won three championships in Allen. The others are Greger Hanson, Trevor Ludwig, Tyler Ludwig, Brian McMillin, and Jamie Schaafsma.
- When I talked to Steve Martinson earlier this week he shared that he has several other players signed for next season that will be announced over time. Some are players returning from last season and some new players. The player announcement next week will be of interest to Allen fans.
- There are more Allen players that have signed in Europe but have not been announced in addition to the nine that have already been announced. Two of the unannounced players have signed with the same team in Great Britain (EIHL).
- There is nothing new regarding an affiliation for next season. Most NHL/AHL teams wait until after the NHL draft to see what their rosters look like before talking about new affiliations.
- Here are some former Allen Americans that will be playing in Europe in 2021-22:
Jack Combs - Germany
Kale Kerbashian - Denmark
Jonathan Lessard - France
Alex Lavoie - Sweden
Josh Atkinson - Hungary
Tanner Eberle - England
Braylon Shmyr - France
Gabe Gagne - Norway
Alex Breton - Slovakia
- In Allen Americans franchise history (since 2009-10) there have been 106 defensemen play at least one game. Just three are in the top 10 all time in games played, goals, assists, points, average points per game. penalty minutes and won championships in Allen. These three all time, all around greats are Aaron Gens, Tyler Ludwig and David Makowski.
- The City of Allen has sold the naming rights to the Allen Event Center and the AEC will be called the "Credit Union of Texas Arena" starting this fall. The Sponsorship Agreement is for eight years with a total cost of $2,275,000. If you are interested in the details here is a link: https://allen.novusagenda.com/AgendaPublic/CoverSheet.aspx?ItemID=9575&MeetingID=985
- The AEC is also undergoing some upgrades with a new sound system and video boards. I heard there will be five video boards in the arena. These upgrades will be completed prior to the start of the hockey season.
- The Dallas Stars extended their affiliation with the Idaho Steelheads for two more years. The Steelheads have served as the ECHL affiliate of the Dallas Stars continuously since 2005-06 as well as during the 2003-04 season. A total of 11 former Idaho Steelheads have played for the Dallas Stars.
- We recently got home after spending a week in Iowa visiting friends and family. While in Iowa I had a chance to stop by the Iowa Heartlanders front office and get a tour of their new arena. My thanks to David Fine, the Director of Communications and Broadcaster for taking time out of his schedule to visit with me and to Molly Uphoff and Tysen VanDraska for the first class tour of the Xtream Arena. It would be a great road trip for Allen fans when the Americans visit the Heartlanders which will probably be in 2022-23. Everything is located in a 180 acre mixed use development (Iowa River Landing) with hotels, restaurants and shopping all within walking distance from the arena.
Now that the previous city manager is gone, who made over $400K a year, and this naming rights money, perhaps the city will finally fork over $200k to get us two new machines since the ones we have currently each have over 240,000 miles on them….but I’m not holding my breath since nickels and dimes for repairs are hard to come by.
ReplyDeleteI don't get why Stars don't become Allen's affiliate.
ReplyDelete