It has been a busy week for the Allen Americans. Since my last update a week ago, the Americans have doubled the roster by announcing five more players for 2023-24. The flurry of announcements started on August 3rd with defenseman Kris Myllari, who was recently voted by his ECHL peers as the best defensive defenseman in the Western Conference. The Americans followed up Myllari's announcement with an unprecedented three players the next day.
- Ty Farmer - Defenseman Farmer joined Allen late last season after finishing his collegiate career at the University of North Dakota. He played 10 regular season and five playoff games before being injured. He will start the season on injured reserve after undergoing surgery in the off season.
- Mikael Robidoux - Robidoux returns to Allen for a second season in his role as a third line player that can skate, hit and chip in on the scoreboard. His offensive production increased dramatically last season. In his first 53 pro games (Maine & Kansas City) Mikael had no goals. In his 42 games in Allen last season, he had nine goals. Over a 72-game season that would equal 15 goals. In the role Robidoux plays for the Americans he is always playing on the edge. He will have to do a better job of not crossing the line in the upcoming season. He showed great discipline at the end of last season. If that continues in 2023-24, he will be a valuable asset to the team. His combination of being a great skater, ability to finish checks and toughness makes him a good fit for Allen.
- Jordan Ty-Fournier - Fournier is an interesting signing for the Americans for a few reasons. He is a rookie having just completed his collegiate career at McGill University. He will play his first pro game in October, but he is one of those mature seasoned rookies who has played four years of major junior hockey (QMJHL) and five years of college hockey. He is 26 years old, 6'1" and 205 pounds who is a left shot forward. He is the younger brother of Stefan Fournier who was with Allen last season. He plays the same style of hockey as his brother and will remind you of Dyson Stevenson when he was first is Allen in 2015.
- The announcements were completed today when Ryan Gagnon became the fourth defenseman on the Allen roster. Gagnon played in all 72 regular season games (plus all 11 playoff games) as a rookie last season. The ECHL had over 1000 players last season and just 27 played in every game. It gets lost in all of the stats, but Gagnon led all Allen defensemen in points in the playoffs with six points in 11 games. Look for his second pro year to be a big step forward as he plays a key role for the Americans.
- Here is an updated Allen roster with the 10 players announced for 2023-24:
GOALIES
DEFENSEMEN
- Matt Brassard
- Ty Farmer
- Ryan Gagnon
- Kris Myllari
FORWARDS
- Liam Finlay
- Jordan Ty-Fournier
- Colton Hargrove
- Grant Hebert
- Colby McAuley
- Mikael Robidoux
- Coach Costello confirmed that he has been cleared to play in the 3ICE championship which takes place in Philadelphia on August 12. Four teams will compete for the Patrick Cup which Chad's team won last season. It will be an uphill battle for Costello's team (Team Johnston) as they enter the championship weekend as the #4 seed and will play the #1 seed (Team Murphy) that includes Hank Crone, Colton Hargrove and Matt Register. I heard a couple of players from Team Murphy had to leave for Europe so that may help. FYI, Hank Crone finished the 3ICE regular season in a familiar spot, leading the league in scoring. Hank had 15 points (11G, 4A) in six games. Colton Hargrove assisted on many of the Crone goals as he finished #2 in the league averaging 1.17 assists per game. Hargrove also finished #2 in 3ICE in blocked shots with seven blocked shots in six games.
- The second semi-final game is between #2 seed Team Patrick and #3 seed Team Bourque. Team Patrick scored the most goals in the regular season (31) and allowed the fewest (18) so should be favored to make the finals. If all goes as planned Team Murphy should meet Team Patrick for the championship but as ECHL fans know very well, upsets happen all of the time.
Love all your posts Barry - however, with this article, I feel that you missed the mark a bit by not highlighting one of our best and most solid defensemen, Kris Myllari. He was given a one sentence remark with his award, which was a great achievement and says a lot about him - but that was it. No mention of stats such as the fact that he played in all 72 games, led all D-men in goals this year with 8, was second in assists with 23, led all D-men in +/- with 10, and is a top leader in blocks. Don’t get me wrong - we have other great D-men on the team worth highlighting. I just felt that Myllari deserved more than a single sentence in this post.
ReplyDeleteRyan Gagnon may have led all DMen in points, but he was also the worst (+/-) on the team with a -30.
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