Allen Americans Make Coaching Change

When the Allen Americans hired B.J. Adams to be the team’s new head coach and general manager last summer, they were coming off a Mountain Division semifinals loss to the Idaho Steelheads in the post-season.

The start to Adams’ first season has been anything but rosy, and the club announced Thursday that he has been dismissed as head coach and GM.

“We appreciate Coach Adams’ contributions,” Americans owner Myles Jack said in a statement. “But we needed to make a change.”

The briefness of that statement says it all. Allen has struggled out of the gate from the get-go this season. They currently reside in sixth place in the division with a 10-17-5 record, 14 games out of a possible playoff berth. Curiously, Allen has been better on the road (7-8-1) than on home ice (3-10-4).

Adams joined the Americans in June after two seasons as head coach of the Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters. He also served as Erie’s associate coach from 2015-20.

During his time with the Otters, Adams helped craft an OHL Championship team in 2016 and 2017. He was responsible for developing numerous current NHL players including Jamie Drysdale of the Philadelphia Flyers, the Washington Capitals’ Dylan Strome, Alex DeBrincat of the Detroit Red Wings, and Anthony Cirelli of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Adams began his coaching career in the former IHL, serving two seasons as an assistant at Port Huron. He also spent five seasons at Canisius College in Buffalo, overseeing a staff of six that included hockey operations, analytics, video operations, work studies and recruiting.

Adams was the fourth head coach in the team’s 16-year history that includes four league championships (2013 and 2014 in the CHL, 2015 and 2016 in the ECHL). They’ve also made five trips to the finals over that span.

That kind of winning pedigree comes with high expectations. Although the season is less than half over, Adams’ removal clearly indicates the dropoff in production was too great to wait for a turnaround.

The Americans are in the midst of a busy week. After a 5-3 victory at home over the Wichita Thunder Wednesday night, they travel to Wichita for a two-game series Friday and Saturday before heading to Tulsa for a Sunday tilt against the Oilers.