Allen Americans Update – Player Announcements, Qualifying Offers, Player Signings, Martinson Quotes, Transactions Worth Noting, CBA Details, NCAA Freshman Stats

 

Before Nancy and I depart on vacation, a small ship (90 passengers) cruise around Great Britain, I want to post this blog to cover the latest information I have on several topics. Here goes:

- Player announcements: No doubt, I get more questions about this topic than anything else. There will definitely be at least one player announcement this week, and it could be more than one. Tuesday is the most likely announcement day, but that could change.

- Player signings: Qualifying offers must be completed by the end of the day on Tuesday, and remember, only eight players can be qualified. General Manager Martinson has been busy trying to sign players he wants back from the season-ending roster.

- Here are the players from the season-ending roster who have already signed elsewhere for 2026-27. The only way to retain the ECHL rights to this group is with a qualifying offer. Caron is the one exception because he falls under the new CBA rule that players with more than 190 games can’t be qualified. 

• Harrison Blaisdell - Sweden
• Thomas Caron – Wales
• Anthony Costantini – Austria
• Ty Prefontaine – Northern Ireland
• Braden Simmons Fisher - Iowa Wild (AHL)

The other players from the season-ending roster that may need to be qualified are players looking for AHL deals and aren’t ready to sign an ECHL contract. I would put Andre Anania, Mark Duarte, and Sam Sedley in this group. All three could get AHL deals, and qualifying them will retain their ECHL rights.

When I asked Coach Martinson about the players he has signed. This is what he had to say: 

"We have some of our top players signed, as well as some depth players."

"We have some rookies signed."

"I am happy where we are right now."

"This coming week is a big week for recruiting because all AHL players under AHL-only contracts last season that were not re-signed became unrestricted free agents on July 1.

Other comments

I posted this on my ECHL stats page yesterday, and it is quite telling. There have been 87 ECHL transactions since June 19. Here is the breakdown:

• 33: signed with or rights moved through future considerations to other ECHL teams
• 24: signed overseas
• 20: signed with the same ECHL team*
• 5: signed AHL deals
• 3: retired
• 1: signed with a college team
• 1: signed with a Canadian protein

*Even though only 20 players have been announced as having re-signed with the same team, many more have been signed but not announced. A lot of teams hold off on announcements for marketing and other reasons. Because teams can only qualify/protect eight players and it must be done by Tuesday, July 7, coaches/general managers are busy trying to sign players off of their season-ending rosters. A conservative estimate is that at least 175 players have already been signed by their teams from last season.

- When looking at all of the transactions, here are a few worth noting:

Dylan Wells - former Allen goalie and key to Kansas City’s runner-up finish in the Kelly Cup has signed in Austria.

Bobo Carpenter - has retired after averaging 1.02 points per game in the regular season and leading Kansas City in goals in the playoffs, 10.

Blake Murray – former Alan Ford, who played in Fort Wayne last season, has signed in Austria for the same team as well.

Jake McGrew – former Allen player has resigned with Tahoe.

Anthony Beauregard – the 2020-21 ECHL MVP and Trois-Rivières' leading scorer last season has re-signed with the Lions.

Ryan Wagner - Rapid City's leading scorer last season has resigned with the Rush.

Aaron Luchuk – the longtime ECHL player and Orlando’s leading scorer last season has re-signed with the Solar Bears.

Ryan Mahshie - former Allen player has signed with Rapid City.

Brandon Hawkins – the two-time ECHL MVP has re-signed with Toledo.

- The new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is actually already in its second season and has still not been published with all of the details. The CBA runs from the 2025–26 season through the 2029–30 season. Here are some numbers:

Salary Cap (after 30 days)

• $17,000 – 2025–26
• $17,300 – 2026–27
• $17,612 – 2027–28
• $17,937 – 2028–29
• $18,275 – 2029–30

Affiliate Payment (per week)

• $600 – 2025–26
• $625 – 2026–27
• $637 – 2027–28
• $650 – 2028–29
• $675 – 2029–30

As a frame of reference, the salary cap in the final year of the last CBA (2024–25) was $14,600. The affiliate payment was $525 for many years. The 2013 CBA shows it at $525. The increases in the affiliate payment in the new CBA will cost teams with a lot of NHL/AHL contracted players more against the salary cap than in the past, but it is still a big advantage. 

- This is the ECHL stats post from yesterday. It shows the changes taking place in NCAA Division I hockey. Canadian major junior players (WHL, OHL, QMJHL) attending NCAA Division I colleges under the recent rule changes (effective in 2025–26) have had a big impact. What does this mean for the ECHL, and what do you think the long-term impact will be? Here are some possibilities 

– ECHL could get older and more experienced. Top major junior players who don't get NHL/AHL deals will opt for NCAA hockey rather than signing in the ECHL

- The number of first-year ECHL players may decline.

-  The NHL may rely more on the NCAA as its developmental league.

 

DID YOU KNOW: Seven ECHL teams have lost their leading scorer last season (2025-26) to Europe for 2026-27:

 

Keaton Mastrodonato, Greenville (Germany)

Zach Okabe, Kalamazoo (Switzerland)

Brooklyn Kalmikov, Maine (Slovakia)

Nicholas Zabaneh, Savannah (Finland)

Simon Pinard, South Carolina (Finland)

Danny Dzhaniyev, Utah (Sweden)

Peter Bates, Wichita (Northern Ireland