The day has finally arrived as Allen begins its 15th season tonight in Idaho. With new ownership, more resources and Chad Costello starting his second season as coach and general manager, the expectations are lofty.
- Ironically, Allen's last game was against Idaho 158 days ago (May 14) when the Steelheads eliminated the Americans in the second round of the Kelly Cup playoffs.
- It looks to be a tall task for the Americans in this two game road trip to Idaho, but an opportunity to turn around the struggles Allen had against the Steelheads last season. As a reminder, last season the Americans were 0-8-0-0 against Idaho in the regular season and 1-4 in the playoffs. You can be assured Allen's record against Idaho in 2023-24 will be improved though it won't be easy. The Americans play Idaho 11 times this season, however, eight of the 11 are in Idaho including five times in the next month (October 20, 21 and November 15, 17, 18).
- The Americans will be playing this weekend without captain Colton Hargrove (personal business) and Mikael Robidoux (serving the final two games of a three game suspension from the end of last season).
- There have been a lot of moving parts over the last couple of days including the publication of the season opening roster. It should be noted this roster is merely a starting point and changes can be made to the roster immediately after its publication through the daily transactions. Here is what has happened to the Allen roster over the last few days:
- October 17 - Allen trades with Kalamazoo (cash) for Brandon Yeamans (F)
- October 18 - Tryout players Zane Schartz (F) and Hunter Bersani (F) released, Dalton Gally and Colton Hargrove placed on reserve, Ty Farmer and Dalton Skelly placed on injured reserve.
- October 19 (morning) - Season opening rosters announced, with 23 total players.
- October 19 (afternoon transactions) - Philippe Daoust assigned from Belleville by Ottawa, Dalton Gally activated from reserve, Spencer Asuchak placed on reserve.
- I have had several questions about the three players assigned to Allen from Belleville on October 17th per AHL transactions. The three players were forward Philippe Daoust and defensemen Ryan MacKinnon and Donovan Sebrango. All three ended up in different situations which caused some confusion. MacKinnon was recalled by Belleville the same day he was loaned to Allen. Daoust arrived in Allen and traveled with the team to Idaho so he was included in transactions. Sebrango was meeting the team in Idaho and will be in transactions today.
- Here is the current Allen roster including jersey numbers and player status. The roster includes three goalies, nine defensemen and 13 forwards:
GOALIES
- #31 Mark Sinclair
- #34 Leevi Merilainen
- #35 Chase Perry (Stayed home)
DEFENSEMEN
- #2 Ty Farmer (injured reserve)
- #3 Ryan Gagnon
- #4 Kris Myllari
- #5 Stanislav Demin
- #20 Eric Williams
- #23 Matt Brassard
- #24 Dalton Skelly (injured reserve)
- #27 Donovan Sebrango (meeting team in Idaho)
- #52 Dalton Gally
FORWARDS
- #7 Colton Hargrove (reserve)
- #9 Chad Butcher
- #10 Philippe Doust
- #11 Brandon Yeamans
- #14 Jordan Ty-Fournier
- #15 Liam Finlay
- #19 Brandon Puricelli
- #21 Matt Marcinew
- #26 Spencer Asuchak (reserve)
- #29 Colby McAuley
- #32 Mikael Robidoux (suspended)
- #44 Andrew Durham
- #77 Grant Hebert
- The roster above is the oldest in the ECHL with an average age of 26.00. Ten players on the roster have AHL experience ranging from one to 259 games for a total of 611 AHL games. Here are the individual AHL games played:
- 259 - Colton Hargrove
- 135 - Donovan Sebrango
- 64 - Spencer Asuchak
- 41 - Matt Marcinew
- 41 - Colby McAuley
- 35 - Eric Williams
- 24 - Philippe Daoust
- 7 - Chad Butcher
- 4 - Leevi Merilainen*
- 1 - Mark Sinclair
*Also has two NHL games played
- It is hard to compare Idaho and Allen statistically when you consider nine of the 19 players on the trip to Idaho did not play with the Americans last season and five others played fewer than 40 games in Allen. It should be noted that Allen's top three scorers from last season will not be in the lineup. Hank Crone (105 points), Jack Combs (95 points) and Colton Hargrove (85 points) accounted for 48% of Allen's goals and 41% of the points last season.
- Idaho has also had turnover after a record setting season in 2022-23. A reminder the Steelheads had the #1 offense (4.03 goals scored per game) and the #1 defense (2.13 goals allowed per game) in the ECHL last season. Allen had the #8 offense (3.61) and #23 defense (3.65).
- Here are my keys to the game:
- Allen has to get off to a good start and avoid having to play from behind. Idaho had the best record in the league last season when scoring first (39-5-1-1). Idaho's home record last season was 32-4-0-0. It will be a long night for the Americans if they fall behind.
- Allen will not have the same high powered offense this weekend as they had last season. The Americans will have to be more defensive minded to be successful. Allen cannot afford to get outshot by a wide margin and expect to win the game. Last season Allen was ranked #23 in shots allowed per game (36.4) while Idaho was ranked #2 (28.8).
- Allen will have to win the special teams battle to earn points in Idaho. The Americans were excellent on special teams last season finishing #4 on the power play (23.9%) and #5 on the penalty kill (82.5%). You add the PP and PK percentages together and it totals 106.4%. Anything above 105% is considered outstanding special teams play.
- Allen will be in much better shape from a roster perspective for the home opener next week against Atlanta, but the goal this week against Idaho is too find a way to scratch out some points.
OTHER COMMENTS
- If you haven't seem the season opening rosters press release, here is the link with the rosters for all 28 teams: https://echl.com/news/2023/10/echl-announces-season-opening-rosters
- There are seven games on the schedule today. Here is the ECHL Today with previews of all of the games: https://echl.com/news/2023/10/echl-today-oct-20
- Here is a list of former Allen Americans on ECHL season opening rosters:
- Jeremy Brodeur - Adirondack
- Xavier Bernard - Fort Wayne
- Tanner Eberle - Greenville
- Lordanthony Grissom - Greenville
- Matt Register - Idaho
- Zane Franklin - Idaho
- Chase Lang - Indy
- Chaz Reddekopp - Kalamazoo
- Nico Blachman - Kalamazoo
- Josh Thrower - Norfolk
- Justin Young - Norfolk
- Zachary Massicotte - Orlando
- Ben Carroll - Orlando
- Connor Bleackley - Rapid City
- Tyson Fawcett - Reading
- Darian Skeoch - Savannah
- Cole Fraser - South Carolina
- Jackson Leppard - South Carolina
- Jakov Novak - Trois-Rivières
- Andrew Jarvis - Tulsa
- Tyler Poulsen - Tulsa
- Gavin Gould - Wichita
- Kelly Bent - Wichita
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