Allen Gains a Center and Loses a Goalie, Season Opening Roster Update, ECHL Kicks Off Tonight, A Martinson Quote on Lines and More

It was good news/bad news for the Allen Americans yesterday. The good news was the loan of center Ryan Lohin from Charlotte (AHL) to Allen. Lohin was the seventh round draft pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2016 NHL draft. He left college after his junior season where he was the captain of his team (UMass-Lowell) to sign a two year entry level NHL deal with the Lightning in March of 2019. He split last season between the AHL and ECHL (Orlando). He played 25 AHL games with the Syracuse Crunch scoring seven goals and 15 points. A six foot, 195 pound center, scouting reports list his strengths as good hands, playmaking ability and high hockey IQ. He is obviously a leader having been selected captain of his college team as a junior and he was also captain of his junior team in the USHL (Madison Capitols). If you are interested in getting to know a little about Ryan Lohin here is a 52 minute interview he did with Method Hockey in October, 2020 where he covers his entire hockey career for some youth hockey players. It starts slow but some good stuff later in the interview and good advice if you have a relative or friend playing youth hockey:

- The bad news for the Americans was the recall to Charlotte of goalie Antoine Bibeau who was assigned to Allen on Monday and recalled on Wednesday. An injury in Seattle (Chris Driedger) created the domino effect of recalling Seattle goalie, Joey Daccord from Charlotte to the Kraken and Seattle goalie Antoine Bibeau from Allen to the Checkers. While Bibeau is expected back in Allen soon he is Seattle's #4 goalie so if one of the other three goalies get injured he will be recalled to Charlotte. FYI, Frank Marotte, who is with the San Diego Gulls, is also supposed to be back soon.

- Martinson told me last night he changed practice today to 3:35 so Ryan Lohin can skate with the team. He will center one of the lines in the opener. Martinson doesn't like to refer to his lines as first, second and third line. While everyone expects the Costello, Asuchak, Combs line to be the top scoring line, the reports I have gotten say Branden Troock has scored more goals in practice than any other player. Here are Steve Martinson's exact words when I asked him about the lines, "We are going to have three scoring lines. Two lines are veteran proven scorers, the next has a bunch of nasty guys that can skate, make plays, score goals and kick your ass." Enough said!

-  Here is Allen's season opening roster that was submitted to the ECHL yesterday with 11 forwards, eight defensemen and one goalie, Remember, this is just the starting point and changes can and will happen frequently.

Goalies

#34 - Alexis Gravel

Defensemen:

#3 - Darian Skeoch

#4 - Kris Myllari

#7 - Eric Roy

#15 - Josh Burnside

#20 - Ben Carroll

#24 - Nolan Kneen

#25 - Phil Beaulieu

#28 - Miles Liberati

 

Forwards

#5 - Jackson Leef

#9 - Ryan Lohin

#10- Jackson Leppard

#11 - Branden Troock

#13 - Chad Costello

#19 - Jared Bethune

#21 - Jack Combs

#26 - Spencer Asuchak

#28 - D-Jay Jerome

#29 - Kelly Bent

#49 - Dawson Butt

- As expected Zane Franklin (college) and Josh Brittain (Europe) were suspended by the Americans to retain their ECHL rights. It is a little surprising to me that Miles Liberati was not suspended and is still shown on the roster, having been placed on reserve. Liberati never reported to camp so must have been placed on reserve for insurance. Remember, for the first month of the season, teams can have 21 players on the active roster plus two on reserve. Allen currently has 18 on the active roster with a goalie having to be added to make 19, plus two on reserve (Liberati and Nolan Kneen). That makes a total of 21 players so below the 23 max. 

- The Americans roster on average is the biggest in the ECHL averaging 199 pounds per player. Despite having two players in their mid 30's Allen is mid pack in average age at 25.35. There are 14 teams older and 12 teams younger than the Americans.  

- I will have more details in a team preview tomorrow but the current roster has eight players with AHL experience, a total of 432 games. As usual the team has a Western Hockey League emphasis with 10 players playing junior hockey in the WHL. 

- The ECHL kicks off the 2021-22 season tonight with the league’s two Canadian franchises going head to head. The Newfoundland Growlers will visit the Trois Rivières Lions. It will be the first game in Lions history and will christen their new arena. These are two teams that could contend for the Kelly Cup.

Newfoundland won the Kelly Cup in its first season (2019) with the help of an unprecedented number of contract players from Toronto. The Growlers are loaded again with 13 contracted players on the roster including the return of Zach O’Brien who spent last season in a Germany when Newfoundland opted out of the season. O’Brien was the Kelly Cup playoff MVP in 2019.

Trois Rivières, is looking to match Newfoundland in winning the Kelly Cup in its first year of operation. The Lions have assembled an impressive team with players that have NHL, AHL and KHL experience, yet they are a younger ECHL team (15 teams are older than the Lions). There are 14 players on the roster that have played in the AHL and their total games played of 1307 is the second most in the league. It looks like many players gave Trois Rivières a hometown discount to play close to home in the Montreal area. Most played their junior hockey in the QMJHL.

DID YOU KNOW: If you haven't seen the season opening rosters here is the ECHL press release with the rosters for all 27 teams. https://www.echl.com/en/news/2021/10/echl-announces-season-opening-rosters