Allen Roster Update, Americans Embark on 18 Game Challenge, ECHL Rookie and Assigned Players Stats and More

 

I got home from a great late season pheasant hunt in North Dakota Tuesday night and attended Allen Americans practice yesterday. Several changes since my last blog post. 

Marco Costantini - Marco was released on December 2 and from what I understand it was at his request. ECHL teams don't release players before they attempt to trade them. I assume what happened is coach Adams wanted to accommodate Marco's request to play elsewhere, tried to trade him, but there were no takers. Marco was released and was not claimed off waivers and became a free agent, so he could sign with any ECHL team. Costantini signed with the Indy Fuel on Monday. Ironically Indy's first game since signing Marco is tomorrow night at home against the Allen Americans. There is no doubt Costantini is lobbying to play against his old team and if history is any indicator, former Allen players always seem to play well against the Americans. It will be a great story line if Marco gets the start. As a reminder, in Marco's one start this season for Allen, on November 30 against Rapid City, he was named the #1 star of the game giving up one goal while saving 35 of 36 shots for a .972 save percentage.

 

Logan Neaton - To replace Costantini the Americans made a trade with Kalamazoo for Neaton. He was with Kalamazoo for less than a month and made two starts. He lost both games with a combined 5.10 GAA and .857 save percentage. Neaton was on the opening day roster for Norfolk, but was released on October 22 without playing a game. Last week Allen played three games in three days with travel to Wichita for game three. Anson Thornton was in goal for all three games. The Americans have three games in three days again this week. They travel to Indy for one game tomorrow night and then go to Fort Wayne for games on Saturday and Sunday. You have to believe Neaton will get his first start for Allen in one of the games in Fort Wayne.

- JC Brassard - Allen signed defenseman Brassard on December 4. He was playing in France to start the season. I haven't gotten the story but looking at Brassard's background, Robbie Baillargeon had to have something to do with recruiting him to Allen. Both players grew up in Massachusetts so I am sure they have known each other since they were kids. Professionally they both played for South Carolina in 2017-18 and in the EIHL (Nottingham) in 2021-22. They played in France in 2023-24, but for different teams. I will get the whole story after practice one day.

 

- Cole Fraser - There has been rumors of Cole signing with the Americans for several weeks as he lives in the area and has been attending games. That finally game to fruition on Tuesday when it was announced Allen had signed Fraser and immediately put him on 14-day injured reserve. I assume that was done to allow Cole to skate with the team and get in playing shape before he gets into games. Cole played with Allen in 2019-20 and part of 2020-21. In 2019-20 Fraser led the Americans with seven fighting majors. 

 

- Riley Ginnell - Yesterday Ginnell was traded to Worcester to complete the future considerations deal that brought Artyom Kulakov to Allen on October 15. The way these future considerations deal typically work is Allen had to provide a list of names (usually 3-5) depending on what was negotiated to Worcester. Typically the list can't include goalies or veterans and players on the list must have played a minimum number of games for Allen (5-10). Once Worcester got the list it had a choice of which player to take and the Railers pick Ginnell.  

 

- Ginnell will not be the last player Allen will lose to satisfy a future considerations deal. In addition to all of the things above that are negotiated at the time of the trade, the date to satisfy the futures deal is also agreed upon. Sometimes it is agreed the date will be at the end of the season. The deadline this season is June 20. Other times the date to satisfy the future considerations deal is before the new year. According to my records Allen has received two players from Orlando (Brian Chambers and Ryan Mahshie), so that might be the next team Allen owes a player. 

 

- Will Gavin - Gavin was assigned to Allen on October 23 and placed on injured reserve on November 9. He has begun skating wearing the no contact green jersey. Look for him to return to the lineup sometime after Christmas.

 

- The Allen is about to embark on the most challenging portion of their schedule. The Americans record with 26% of the season completed is 7-8-4-0 which is a point percentage of .474. 

Over the next month Allen will play 18 games starting in Indy tomorrow night and ending at Wichita on January 15. Of the 18 games, 11 will be on the road. None of teams the Americans will play in this stretch have a point percentage below .523.

Here are point percentages of the six teams Allen will play over the next 18 games. The number of games Allen will face each team is in parenthesis, broken down by home games (H) and away games (A).

.696 - Kansas City (4 games, 2H, 2A)

.605 - Fort Wayne (2 games, 2A)

.595 - Tulsa (3 games, 1H, 2A)

.568 - Idaho (1 game, 1H)

.529 - Indy (1 game, 1A)

.523 - Wichita (7 games, 3H, 4A)

 

 

OTHER COMMENTS

 

- The hottest teams in the Mountain Division right now are the two teams at the top of the standings. Kansas City is on a five game winning streak and Tahoe has won four straight. The two teams at the bottom of the standings are struggling. Utah is 0-9-1-0 in the last ten games and Rapid City is on a five game losing streak (0-4-1-0).  

 

 

 

- Hank Crone and Matt Register, two former Allen players who now play for Idaho are tied for the ECHL lead in assists. They both have 19 assists in 22 games played. Hank also leads Idaho in points with 28 which is #2 in the league, one point behind  Kansas City's Cade Borchardt. Borchardt leads the league in goals. Against Utah last week he had three goals in one game and four in the next. In the history of the ECHL just 14 players have scored back to back hat tricks. Three times players have scored hat tricks in three straight games, but all were in the high scoring era (1989, 1992, 1994).

 

 

 

- Dalton Skelly, former Allen defenseman, is playing for the Knoxville Ice Bears of the SPHL this season and having a great season. He was the SPHL Player of the Week and is tied for second on his team with four goals. 

 

 

 

DID YOU KNOW: The ECHL Stats post today has Allen included twice. The Americans are on the fewest contract players assigned list (3) and the most rookies list (13). Pay particular attention to the rookie numbers. You can see winning in the ECHL with lots of rookies is very difficult. Four of the five teams on the most rookies list have point percentages below .500. The teams with the fewest rookies all have point percentages above .500 including the #1 team in points in the South (Florida), Central (Toledo) and Mountain (Kansas City) Divisions. Norfolk in the North Division is #2 in points.

 

ECHL rosters with most and fewest NHL/AHL contracted players and rookies. What impact do these numbers have on team success? Teams with point percentages below .500 are marked with an asterisk:

 

NHL/AHL CONTRACTED PLAYERS

Most

14: WHL

11: SAV, SC

10: *CIN, GVL

9: KC, TAH

 

Fewest

1: *ATL, IA

3: *ALN, TOL, TUL

4: ADK, FW, IDH, JAX, ORL

 

 

ROOKIES

Most

15: *BLM

14: IA, *UTA

13: *ALN, *RC

 

Fewest

5: TOL

6: JAX, IND

7: FLA, FW, IDH, KC, NOR