The Allen Americans will be back at practice today to prepare for the game against Wichita tomorrow night. How many players will participate is another question as the Americans are like a MASH unit right now with all of the injuries ranging from out for the season, to out for the week, to day to day, to dinged up but need a maintenance day. When I talked to coach Martinson this morning he was unsure how many players will be available tomorrow night. As a recap, three players are on injured reserve (Gould, Butcher, Jerome) and definitely out. Gould is gone for the season. Five other players are out (Troock, Roy, Bethune, Hall, Jarvis) and hopefully will be available after this weekend. Allen will be lucky to get even one of these players back for tomorrow night. Martinson did say he expects Jake Kearley (see below) to be in the lineup tomorrow night. He is driving from Florida today but that is a long haul (1250 miles).
- Remember, players on injured reserve don't count against the salary cap but if a player goes on injured reserve they are out for a minimum of two weeks. Short term injured players can be put on reserve and they don't count against the salary cap but the team is allowed just two players (injured or healthy) on the reserve. Martinson will have to juggle to to fit everyone under the salary cap or make a roster change. He will play all three roles today as the coach, capologist and general manager.
- Allen acquired defenseman Jake Kearley yesterday in a trade with the Florida Everblades. The trade was for future considerations, which can mean almost anything, but I can report Steve Martinson never makes trades like this where the "futures" is for a specific player to be named later or a pick from a group of players. A mutually agreed upon player is more of Martinson's approach, if a player is involved at all.
- Kearley is a 26 year old, left shot defenseman from Newmarket, Ontario, which is just north of Toronto. Hockey data bases and prior teams always vary on a player's height and weight but by any measure Jake is a big guy (6'3" or 6"4") and 230-240 pounds.
- Kearley is a first year pro who played 24 games for Florida (0G, 2A), 54 penalty minutes and plus/minus of +7. Don't let the lack of scoring in Florida fool you as Jake's scouting report says he a puck moving defenseman who can jump into the play offensively. He played two years of junior hockey in Canada (BCHL) and in 109 games had 57 points (14G, 43A) for an average points per game of .52 which is very good for a defenseman. He is not afraid to drop the gloves as evidenced by his three fights this season, two of them against former Allen defenseman Josh Thrower.
- After Kearley finished his junior career he started his college hockey career at the University of Vermont with his best season in 2016-17 when he had 25 points (7G, 18A) in 14 games. He then transferred to UNLV for the 2017-18 season and had 32 points (8G, 24A) in 24 games. He finished his collegiate career at the University of Calgary where he had 10 assists in 36 games.
- Here is a video from 2017 when Jake transferred to UNLV where he was captain of the team. It is a seven minute video with lots of distractions but is the only one I could find where Kearley is talking about himself. https://youtu.be/riv_vX5KhlI
- Here is the press release from the Allen Americans on Jake Kearley: https://allenamericans.com/media/americans-add-depth-on-defense/
OTHER COMMENTS
- Former Allen goalie Dereck Baribeau, who spent some time on the Minnesota Wild taxi squad and was the backup goalie for two games with Minnesota, was reassigned to the ECHL Iowa Heartlanders yesterday. Baribeau has played 10 games for the Iowa Wild this season with a GAA of 2.54 and .914 save percentage.
- Former Allen goalie, Aaron Dell, was suspended for three games last week for a hit that injured Ottawa Senators forward Drake Batherson who is expected to miss two months with a high ankle sprain. Batherson was will also miss the NHL All-Star game, the first time he had been selected. Buffalo placed Dell on waivers after the incident which he has cleared. That means Buffalo can assign Dell to its AHL affiliate (Rochester Americans) if it chooses. If by chance you haven't seen the video, here it is: https://youtu.be/pF79-AaK8YE
- Allen's three game winning streak may not sound like much but it is the second longest in the ECHL right now. Greenville has the longest streak of 4-0-1-0. The only other teams with more than two straight wins are Allen and Idaho at 3-0-0-0.
DID YOU KNOW: The ECHL Stats post today is a list of the leading rookie scorers. Gavin Gould could have been at the top of this list had he not gotten injured (out for the season). Gavin had 29 points (10G, 19A) in just 28 games. His points per game average (1.04) is better than any of the players on this list:
Dumb play by Dell. He has done it before. If goalies don't want to be hit then don't hit players.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the new guy. Will be tired after that drive.