Allen Americans Weekly Update - Qualifying Offers, Who's is Signed, Who is a Free Agent, 3ICE, New ECHL Franchise and More

 

The Allen Americans took the next big step in the process of putting together a roster for the 2022-23 season with the publication of their qualifying offer list yesterday. The Americans sent qualifying offers to seven players, one less than the maximum allowed. What that says is General Manager Chad Costello was able to sign a lot of players between the first day players could sign (June 16) and June 30 when qualifying offers had to be offered to retain the rights to players. FYI, players that are already signed do not need to be qualified. 

- To understand where the Americans are at with the roster it is best to start with the 20 players Allen had the rights to on June 15, the season ending roster

• Signed and Announced
• Jackson Leppard
  
• Nick Albano
   
• Seven players given qualifying offers
  
• Ben Carroll
• Kris Myllari
• Darian Skeoch
  
• Jake Kearley
• Chad Butcher
• Colby McAuley
• J.D.Dudek
  

•  Others
  
• Luke Peressini 
• Nolan Kneen, 
• Andrew Jarvis
• Eric Roy
• Corey Durocher
• Josh Winquist
• Branden Troock
• Justin Young
• Jared Bethune
• Zach Hall
• Kelly Bent 

 

- In addition to the 20 players above, a couple of players conspicuously absent from the season ending roster were Spencer Asuchak and Jack Combs. I interpret that to the fact that Costello already knows they will both be in Allen so no need to protect them. Yes, they are free agents and could sign with any team but they will be in Allen. 

 

- As of today just two players have been signed and announced but it is clear others have been signed but not announced. The team will trickle out announcements all summer if they follow past practice.

 

- What is known about the seven players given qualifying offers is they are not ready to sign because they are either pursuing AHL deals or looking to go to Europe or both. I could see the majority of them eventually signing with the Americans.

 

- The real guessing game comes with the "Other " group because those 11 players are either already signed or are now free agents:

• Roy, Troock and Winquist have signed in Europe so it is obvious they are now free agents.
• Kelly Bent is out of hockey (a policeman) so he is a free agent.
• Goalie Luke Peressini was Allen's top goalie down the stretch so no way he is a free agent.
• Defenseman Nolan Kneen spent a couple of months in the AHL (Charlotte) so is definitely not a free agent. 
• Justin Young was playing against the opposing teams top line toward the end of last season and Jared Bethune was Allen's most versatile player so it is hard to see them being free agents. 

Bottom line is it will be a wait and see as players are announced over the next few month.

 

-  The other part of the recruiting process is finding new players to add to the roster. The best way to describe where Costello is at in this process is he has a lot of irons in the fire and has already landed a few players. He is very optimistic about signing some high end players to supplement the core he will have back from last season. 

 

- When I talked to coach Costello before he headed to Grand Rapids for his 3ICE Tournament he was encouraged about the possibility of finding an affiliate for the 2022-23 season. It is a slow process and nothing specific to report but he is making progress.

 

- Costello is also getting closer regarding an assistant coach. He hopes to have an announcement in the near future.

 

- If you haven't been tracking Chad's 3-on-3 hockey exploits (3ICE) his team (Team Trottier) made it to the finals in Denver last Saturday before losing to Team Mullen. You can watch 3ICE live if you have the CBS Sports Network. The tournament today (Saturday) is in Grand Rapids and starts at 2:00 pm (CDT).

Here are the highlights from last week with a couple of Costello goals and Jack Combs goals. https://youtu.be/gl-nrA50Zbg

 

    

 

- The ECHL held its summer meetings in Las Vegas this week and the Board of Governors approved the use of two referees for nine of the 36 home games for each team. The ECHL also presents awards during the week and the Allen Americans received the award for "ECHL Creative Revenue Generation of the Year" for the College Classic where college teams played games prior to some Allen home games. 

- Here is a re-post of the chart from last week created by Andrew Zadarnowski where you see the remaining steps in re-signing players. Go to the qualifying offer part of the chart to see the next steps.

 

- If you haven't seen the full list of qualifying offers here is a link: https://www.echl.com/en/news/2022/7/echl-announces-qualifying-offers

 

- Just 13 teams used the maximum of eight qualifying offers to retain the rights to players from last season. Players already signed do not have to be qualified, NHL/AHL contracted players can’t be qualified and veterans are typically not qualified since they can become free agents if they don’t sign. The other group that isn't qualified are the players teams don’t want back. Here are the five ECHL teams that qualified fewer than six players:

2 - Kalamazoo

3 - Atlanta

4 - Iowa, Maine, Newfoundland

 

 

-  Here is an article from the Albuquerque paper talking about a new ECHL franchise that plans to begin play in the 2023-24 season. Someone needs to tell the potential owner, who is quoted in the story, the league changed its name from East Coast Hockey League to simply ECHL in 2003.  https://www.abqjournal.com/2512924/get-ready-for-the-raptors-pro-hockey-set-to-return-to-rio-rancho.html

 

DID YOU KNOW: Defenseman Eric Roy has just signed to play in Slovakia for the 2022-23 season. He will be a teammate of Josh Winquist. As a 21 year old rookie in 2015-16, Eric set the all time Allen record for points by a defenseman in a single playoff season. In 23 games, Eric had 21 points (5G, 16A) and was a major factor in Allen's second Kelly Cup championship.