I had a chance to sit down with Allen Americans coach and general manager Chad Costello earlier this week to see how his first week has gone. Chad's to do list is as long as your arm and he is already fully engaged trying to get up to speed on the many issues related to the on ice product but also the myriad of off ice issues he has to deal with.
- The Kelly Cup playoffs are still in the conference finals round and the ECHL could go as late as June 15 before a champion is crowned. But the playoffs do not stop the planning for the 2022-23 season. Here are the critical dates that Chad Costello and all ECHL coaches will be dealing with in the month of June.
- June 1: Protected lists due (3:00 pm EDT) - Teams are allowed to protect as many players as they wish as long as they meet the guidelines. Players that signed a SPC in 2021-22 and were not traded or released, signed a SPC and were recalled to NHL/AHL and were not traded or released and players that received a qualifying offer last summer but did not sign the SPC and were not traded or released, can be included on the protected list.
- June 13: Future considerations trade deadline (3:00 pm EDT) - Allen made a lot of trades between February and April and most were for future considerations. The Americans acquired Luke Peressini, Jake Kearley, Josh Winquist, Nick Albano and Colby McAuley in trades. Costello will have to deal with these future considerations by June 13 and it may not be pretty.
- June 15: Season-ending rosters due (3:00 pm EDT) - This list may include up to 20 players and cannot include any players who did not sign a 2021-22 contract with Allen.
- June 16: First day to sign contracts for 2022-23 season - Costello can come to agreements with players before this date but the first day to sign contracts for 2022-23 is June 16. Allen typically spaces out player signings over the summer, but with a new coach I would expect the Americans will try to make a big splash with some early signing announcements.
- June 30: Qualifying offers due to players (11:59 pm EDT) - This is a big date because Costello will only be able to issue eight qualifying offers to reserve a player's rights. Players who have signed contracts prior to June 30 do not have to be given qualifying offers so Costello will be working hard between June 16-30 to sign players that want to return to Allen. Veterans do not typically get qualifying offers because they can become free agents if they don't sign the qualifying offer.
- Talking to all of the Allen players/agents will be critical as June 1st approaches, but Chad also has to develop relationships with the ECHL front office as they drive so many action items and reporting requirements. Then there is the recruitment of an assistant coach and other coaches (skating coach, goalie coach) to help out. Another huge issue on Chad's to do list is finding a NHL affiliation which will be critical to success. Then Chad has to start recruiting players that will be new to Allen. As you can see everything is a tip top priority and this just scratches the surface of all the things on Chad's to do list.
- Way before Chad was called by Jack Gulati about the Allen coaching job he had made a commitment to play in a new professional 3-on-3 hockey league that will begin in June. Part of Costello's agreement to take the Allen coaching job was that he could fulfill this playing commitment. The league is called 3ICE and it will consist of six teams each coached by NHL legends (Guy Carbonneau, Grant Fuhr, John LeClair, Joe Mullen, Larry Murphy and Bryan Trottier). The league commissioner is Hall of Famer Craig Patrick. All six teams will travel to eight locations for a one day single elimination tournament. The teams will fly in on Friday, play the tournament on Saturday and fly home on Sunday. The schedule is:
- June 18 - Las Vegas
- June 25 - Denver
- July 2 - Grand Rapids
- July 9 - Hershey
- July 16 - London, Ontario
- July 23 - Pittsburgh
- July 30 - Quebec City
- August 6 - Nashville
The league will conclude with a championship tournament back in Las Vegas on August 20.
- As they say on their website, 3ICE was created to bring fans one thing, pure unadulterated excitement. The games are two halves of eight minutes running time with the winners advancing. Six teams, six skaters, one goalie and a Hall of Fame coach on a full sized sheet of ice. Here are some of the rules that will ensure a fast paced game of 3-on-3 hockey.
- All penalties are penalty shots
- If goalie freezes the puck it is a penalty
- Pucks going into the netting remain in play
- No open ice checking (will still be puck battles)
- No video replay stoppages
- Chad will play on the Bryan Trottier team with a couple of other former Allen players (Matt Foget and Jake Newton). Other former Allen players in the league are J.C. Campagna and Jeremy Brodeur who are on team Carbonneau.
- What started out to be a summer job for Chad Costello and the chance to play hockey has turned into a recruiting and networking opportunity for coach Chad Costello.
- Here is a story from the Hockey News on 3ICE with details about the league and the rosters for all six teams: https://thehockeynews.com/news/former-nhlers-highlight-3ice-rosters-for-inaugural-season
- How can the 3ICE league afford all of this high profile talent. A big part of the answer has to be the fact the league sold its international media rights to ESPN who plans to stream all games to 185 countries. Here are the details: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/3ice-announces-international-media-rights-agreement-with-espn-301477999.html
DID YOU KNOW: The ECHL Stat post today is about playoff special teams this season. As a comparison to the final four in the playoffs, the Allen Americans total in the playoffs was 90.2%. In their five playoff games the Americans were ranked #5 on the penalty kill (85.2%) and #15 on the power play (5.3%).
Special teams are usually the difference maker in the playoffs. One way to compare special teams is to add together the power play (PP) percentage and penalty kill (PK) percentage for the four teams remaining in the Kelly Cup playoffs. Anything above 105% is considered excellent. The two Western Conference teams have had the better special teams thus far in the playoffs:
117.8% - Toledo (PP 31.3%, PK 86.5%)
113.9% - Utah (PP 34.4%, PK 79.5%)
102.4% - Newfoundland (PP 23.1%, PK 79.3%)
102.0% - Florida (PP 21.6%, PK 80.4%)
Well, sounds like Chad is starting out in hole. Those future considerations plus no affiliation is going to really hurt.
ReplyDeleteThe Americans are still active with the Kraken, but that agreement needs to be finalized. I’m told that they for sure would not have returned if Martinson was retained.
ReplyDeleteAnother crap burger that was left by Martinson was the whole “Future considerations” mess as he knew back around the all star break that he was likely done in Allen. If anything is a red flag of Marty’s last Party its this as he could not get veterans to sign to play with him and the Kraken were not sending their players back due to players not wanting to be around Marty. The only way he had to fill the roster was to mortgage the teams future with those weak personnel moves. For all of the talk of Marty being the king of personnel the reality is that he had no pull. This is why no one will even talk to him now. The only place that people wanted him was here in Allen with his Kool Aid Club.
It’s pretty clear Martinson used his futures trades to either sabotage the team or to set him up nicely if he got the Worcester job. Sounds like along with Allen and Worcester no other teams have even knocked on his door. Shows the level of competence behind a lot of the “Marty no party army”. It’s pretty easy to understand the bad reputation with AHL teams as guys would arrive in to a Allen to a team with no game plan, no practice plan and no structure and report back to Seattle about how unprofessional it was. It’s a miracle this team was able to make playoffs and even more concerning he sold the entire farm and was still only able to put together this team. The lack of preparation and pre scouting reeks of laziness and arrogance from Martinson who got dominated by a rookie coach in Rapid City who had a pre scouting report on every single player on the Americans. Meanwhile the Americans were warming up without even knowing who their own linemates will be for the game. A change was desperately needed and I can’t wait to see what Costello does with his opportunity. There’s no doubt Jack is a terrible owner but this team still has all the tools to be successful and having a bad owner is no excuse for the lack of structure from the head coach.
ReplyDeleteI don’t normally respond to comments on the blog because everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I have learned over the years that engaging with people who post anonymous comments just becomes a pissing contest. All I will say is these comments are full of inaccurate and/or misleading information about the Seattle affiliation, the building of the Allen roster, the interest of Charlotte players coming to Allen, the interest in teams talking to Martinson and game planning/preparation. The only thing accurate in these comments is everyone can’t wait to see what Chad Costello does with this opportunity and I will support Chad in any way possible.
ReplyDeleteSo Barry, perhaps you should clarify what went wrong with each affiliation since Martinson was coach and Gulati as owner.
DeleteThe Marty Party Line is alive and well here.
DeleteWe can always count on Barry to give the Martinson version of all. If only Barry talked to anyone with the Kraken or the Wild? Did you talk to Bibeau at Al Barry? Henman? Lohin? Of course not.
DeleteWell, well, well. Is someone here paving the way to a disappointing upcoming season by blaming Marty ALREADY?? LMFAO!!!
ReplyDeleteI miss Barry and I miss his support. Ice cold fans.
ReplyDeleteHey Steve, If you are the Real Steve Martinson then hello and most fans wish you luck on the future. I can see other ECHL teams hiring you soon. The covid year team was one of the most dominate ECHL teams I can remember and I felt it was headed for title number 5. For me, This past season was the worst Allen team I have watched. I was glad everyone tried until the end. I wish Chad the best of luck and you best of luck, unless you are playing Allen.
ReplyDeleteBarry selecting Google account isn't working. It put my post above as Anonymous instead of me Kevin Loeffler. June 1 4:07 post
ReplyDelete