Thursday, June 16, 2016

Allen's Season Ending Roster - What It Is, What It Means and What It Tells Us


Below is a portion of the news release issued by the Allen Americans last night that includes their  season ending roster. There are just 17 names on the list. I am sure this list is confusing when you compare it to the Americans playoff roster. Thought I would take a crack at explaining what is going on from my perspective. Hopefully this will answer some of the questions you may have about the list. Here is the press release:

Allen Americans Head Coach and GM Steve Martinson announced today the club did not protect Jordan Rowley and Thomas Carr, along with goalie Jake Hildebrand. Hildebrand signed an American Hockey League deal today with Rockford. Rowley and Carr are both pursuing deals in Europe.   

Below is the list of protected players for Allen. The official name for this list is "season ending roster" but it it often referred to as the protected list.

Forwards - Gary Steffes, Chad Costello, Greger Hanson, Tristan King, Casey Pierro-Zabotel, Dyson Stevenson, J.P. LaFontaine, Ian Schultz, Kyle Neuber, Chance Braid.

Defensemen – Eric Roy, Aaron Gens, David Makowski, Matt Register, Ayrton Nikkel.

Goalies – Riley Gill and Jamie Murray.

- As a reminder, each team's season ending roster can include up to 20 players. Any player not included on the season ending rosters submitted today is now a free agent. Until June 30, the rights for the players on the season ending roster remain with Allen but on June 30, coach Martinson has to submit to the league a list of no more than eight players he wants to protect. These eight names do not include players that have already signed. Because only eight players can be protected there is incentive to get as many players signed by June 30 as possible. The eight players will be given qualifying offers which for the most part must be 5% above their salary from this past season. The qualifying offer period is from June 30 to August 1st. Any player on the season ending roster who does not sign a new contract or receive a qualifying offer by June 30 becomes an unrestricted free agent.

The following might answer some of your questions. 

- Why weren't Rowley, Carr and Hildebrand added to the season ending roster? Many times when players are signed late in the season after they finish their collegiate eligibility (like these three) their agents negotiate into their contracts that they not be protected, which gives them maximum flexibility on where they can sign for their first full year of professional hockey next season. That is my guess as to what happened with Rowley, Carr and Hildebrand. 

- Players on AHL contracts are also not included. That is why Rumpel, Crane, Pinkston, Arseneau, Federico, Asuchak, and Jevpalovs aren't on the list. If these players don't have AHL deals for next season they can sign ECHL deals with any team. I would expect most would return to Allen if they don't have or get AHL deals.

- Jamie Murray was signed to an ECHL contract by Allen so that is why he is on the list.

- Schultz, Nikkel and Braid are on the list because Allen still has their ECHL rights. It is not likely they will be signed or given qualifying offers at the end of the month. 

- The one player not accounted for is Justin Courtnall. There can be only two reasons for him not being on the season ending list. He has either already been signed to a contract for next season or he has been traded. Since "future considerations" trades had to be completed earlier this week my guess is Courtnall has been sent to one of the teams that Allen owed future considerations. UPDATE: Justin Courtnall was traded to Brampton and is on their season ending roster.

- Coach Martinson will only be able to make eight qualifying offers to the 17 players on the list above. His next goal is to try and sign as many players as possible before qualifying offers are due June 30. 

- The submission of the season ending rosters yesterday marks the end of the 2015-16 ECHL season. The 2016-17 season officially begins today as it is the first day players can be signed to a Standard Player's Contract (SPC) for next season. You won't see any announcements from the Allen Americans today but you could see player signing announcements from other teams around the ECHL.

- The season ending rosters for all ECHL teams can be found at the ECHL website. They are scheduled to be posted at 11:00 am EDT today (Thursday). Here is a link to the ECHL website: http://www.echl.com/





DID YOU KNOW:  What a difference a year makes. Here is the season end roster for Allen from last year. Riley Gill, Aaron Gens, Justin Baker, Nolan Descoteaux, Trevor Ludwig, Kevin Young, Garrett Clarke, Tyler Ludwig, Kyle Follmer, Chad Costello, Gerger Hanson, Jamie Schaafsma, Spencer Asuchak, Patrik Valcak, Brian McMillin, Jesse Messier, Ian Schultz, Gary Steffes, Tanner Eberle, Austin Smith.  







5 comments:

  1. What an accomplishment for Hildy. We wish him all the very best. He will be missed.

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  2. Europe is attractive. Fewer games, bigger ice, less physical, better pay, see another country, great deal.

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  3. Kevin, Jamie Murray is a goalie who played in four games in Allen in mid March while he was on break from college (Babson). He returned to school to finish his degree. He played 208 minutes and had a GAA of 1.44 and save % of .963.

    ReplyDelete