Allen Americans Update, 2023-24 Roster, Liam Finlay Returns, Renewed Affiliation, Preseason Games, BOG Decisions, 3ICE Update, ECHL 2010's Decade Top Scorers

 

I signed up for Threads today so if you have established a Threads account give Allen Americans Blog a follow. Just another way to keep up with posts, especially in the off season when blogs don't get published every day.

 

- It has been over a week since the last update on all things Allen Americans. The biggest news since the last update was the renewal of the affiliation agreement with the Ottawa Senators and the announcement of Liam Finlay's return to Allen for 2023-24. Here are the details on these two news items plus a bunch of other miscellaneous items:

 

- Liam Finlay became the third player announced for 2022-23 joining captain Colton Hargrove and defenseman Matt Brassard on the formally announced roster. Finlay returns after an outstanding rookie season with the Americans. In 54 games Finlay had 70 points (33G, 37A). Here are a few of his accomplishments:

• His seven game winning goals led the Americans and was tied for third in the ECHL,,
• His .611 average goals per game was second on the team, trailing only Hank Crone.
• His 33 goals ranked him #3 among all rookies and #8 in the ECHL despite missing 18 games.
• His 22.4% shooting percentage (33 goals on 147 shots) led the Americans, led all rookies and was #4 in the ECHL.
• He was selected to the ECHL All-Rookie Team.
• He was Allen's representative in the ECHL All-Star Game. 

Staying healthy will be key for Finlay in 2023-24 after missing 18 games to injury last season. Despite being a small player, elite prospects shows him as one of the shortest (5'7") and lightest (154 pounds) players in the ECHL, Finlay has a knack for getting to the tough areas of the ice. He has a combination of speed and quickness that allows him to get in front of the net. He has also been durable, playing in every game (118 straight) his last three seasons in college. Finlay was a member of the University of Denver NCAA championship team in 2017 that was coached by the current NHL Coach of the Year, Jim Montgomery of the Boston Bruins. In 2018-19, Finlay led Denver in scoring. 
 

 

-  Allen has renewed its affiliation with the Ottawa Senators and Belleville Senators. Hopefully year two of the affiliation will be more productive for Allen than year one. From my reporting Allen never looked around for other options and got this agreement done early. If you remember, last year the affiliation wasn't announced until August 24, 2022. Allen didn't get much help from the affiliation last season. The Senators sent two goalies (27 games), two defensemen (75 games) and no forwards. Both Ottawa and Belleville had many injuries during the season that impacted the number of players sent to Allen.

On the flip side Belleville signed many ECHL players to PTO's during the season but not a single Allen forward got a chance in Belleville. Defenseman Nick Albano was loaned to Belleville in November, signed an AHL deal with the Senators in December and promptly left for Europe. 

All indications are year two of the affiliation will be better for the Americans, but Ottawa is in the process of changing ownership so you never know what that will bring. It won't take much to be an improvement over last season when Allen had the fewest NHL/AHL contracted players (games) in the league.

 

- Here is a reminder of the players I think are signed but not announced. These are the players that played a significant role with the Americans last season, are not veterans, were on Allen's season ending roster and were not given a qualifying offer. The only logical reason these players were not qualified is because they had already signed with Allen.

• Colby McAuley (F)
• Grant Herbert (F)
• Kris Myllari (D)
• Eric Williams (D)
• Ryan Gagnon (D)
• Ty Farmer (D)

 

 

- I have had several questions about the goalie situation for 2023-24. I would assume it will be similar to last season. Allen will get several different goalies from Ottawa/Belleville and the Americans will sign one goalie to an ECHL contract. Chase Perry was key to Allen making the playoffs as he played 10 of 15 games in the last month of the season. Perry's save percentage in Allen was .921 over 22 games. I also heard he had a great attitude in the playoffs when Kevin Mandolese played in most games and Perry was primarily in a backup roll. Perry did get the only win in Allen's 4-1 series playoff loss to Idaho. Perry faced 56 shots and saved 54 in game three, Allen's only win against the Steelheads. Have to assume Perry will be back with the Americans in 2023-24. 

 

 

 

- Allen will play two preseason games against Tulsa. On Friday, October 13th the teams will play in DFW at the NYTEX Sports Centre (North Richlands Hills) and on Saturday, October 14th they will play in Tulsa. Why is Allen playing at NYTEX? I contacted team President, Jonny Mydra to get the answer:

 

"The staff at NYTEX has been trying to get us to host a game there for a while. They told us they are confident most of their season ticket members (NYTEX is the home of the NAHL Lone Star Brahmas) will buy tickets and we can keep 90% of the revenue from the game. The game will be an opportunity to grow our fan base since we are on TV in that market."

 

"The City of Allen didn't want us to have the preseason game in the main arena, so it would have had to be played in the community rink again, which is obviously very small and not the best fan experience.  We have seen NHL/NBA teams occasionally have preseason games in cities that are on the fringe of their market so we figured we would give it a try."

 

I have been around long enough to watch many Allen games at NYTEX and it is a fun rink to watch a hockey game. Sitting in the balcony at the end of the rink, right above the goal, is a unique experience. Here is the press release on the preseason games:  https://allenamericans.com/news/press-release/preseason-schedule-announced/    

 

 

 

- At the ECHL Board of Governor's (BOG) meeting in Las Vegas at the end of June the rule changes the BOG adopted got a lot of publicity especially the rules that call for an automatic game misconduct for two fights in a game and for fighting prior to or at the puck drop. Something else the BOG approved that has not gotten as much publicity is an increase in the maximum number of ECHL memberships from 30 to 32. It sounds rather mundane since there has been talk for years the ECHL wants to match the 32 teams in the NHL and AHL. The BOG change makes you wonder how many ownership groups are currently pursuing a franchise. Franchise #29 (Lake Tahoe) was just approved for startup in 2024-25, but you have to assume others are in the works. I have also heard there are quite a few current ECHL franchises up for sale.

 

 

 

- If you have been following 3ICE you know the Allen connected players have played a dominant role thus far. The schedule is different this season as only four of the eight teams play each week, and the regular season is only six weeks. Each team plays three weeks (2 games per week) and the top four (by points) go to the championship on August 12. Each week is a four-game tournament. After the first round the two losing teams play for the consolation and the two winning teams play for the championship. Points awarded are one point for a first-round win, a half point for a consolation win and two points for a championship win. Last week (Wednesday) the tournament was in Grand Rapids and all four teams had current/former Allen players on the roster. Here were the results:

 

• In game one Team Johnston (Costello) beat Team Fuhr (Combs, Newton) 2-1 (shootout)
• In game two Team Murphy (Crone, Hargrove, Register) beat Team LeClair (Saucerman) 5-1
• In consolation game Team Fuhr beat Team LeClair 9-5
• In the championship game Team Murphy beat Team Johnston 4-2.

Team Murphy has played two tournaments and won them both so are a lock as one of the four teams that will play in championship week. The other three teams with Allen connections also have played two tournaments and have just one regular week remaining. It will be an uphill battle to make the final four on August 12. Here are the points earned by the four Allen related teams:

 

• 6.0 points - Team Murphy
• 1.5 points - Team Fuhr
• 1.0 points - Team Johnston
• 1.0 points - Team LeClair

FYI, the other four teams in 3ICE have played only once so 3.0 points is the maximum with 6.0 points still available. Here are the points for these teams:

• 3.0 points - Team Patrick
• 0.5 points - Team Carbonneau
• 0.5 points - Team Bourque
• 0.0 points - Team Mullen       

 

- The Allen connected players are all over the 3ICE leader board. Here are some individual stats and accomplishments:

• #1 in points (9) - Hank Crone
• #3 in points (6) - Chad Costello
• #3 in points (6) - Colton Hargrove
• #1 in goals (6) - Hank Crone
• #1 in assists (5) - Jack Combs
• #2 in assists (4) - Colton Hargrove
• #2 in plus/minus (+7) - Matt Register 
• Hank Crone won Goal of the Week in week 2.
• Hank Crone and Colton Hargrove were nominated for Goal of the Week in week 3.

 

- This week 3ICE is in Newark, NJ and the four teams are Team Bourque vs Team Leclair (Saucerman) and Team Carbonneau vs Team Johnston (Costello). It will be the last opportunity for Saucerman and Costello to earn points to make it the championship weekend. They will likely have to win the weekend (3 points) to make it to the final four. Games will start at 6:00 pm CDT and can be viewed on the CBS Sports Network.

 

 

DID YOU KNOW: I came across this stat while researching the top ECHL point scorers by decade for my ECHL Stats page. The decade of the 2010's has a distinct Allen flavor.  Three of the top five in points in the 2010's decade spent time in Allen. I have included ECHL games played in the decade in parenthesis:

• #1 - Casey Pierro-Zabotel, 504 points (558)
• #2 - Chad Costello, 589 points (307)
• #5 - Mathieu Aubin, 393 points (507)