Photo Courtesy of the Idaho Steelheads The Allen Americans [https://thehockeynews.com/echl/latest-news/allen-americans-announce-promotional-nights-for-2025-26-season], along with Head Coach and GM Steve Martinson, announced Thursday the signing of defensemen Matt Register and Kevin Spinozzi for the 2025-26 season. Register spent the past three seasons with the Idaho Steelheads [https://thehockeynews.com/echl/players/steelheads-forward-announces-retirement]. This will be a fourth return to Allen for him, as he joined the Americans as a rookie in 2011-12, then back in 2015-16, where he raised the Kelly Cup in the first of back-to-back ECHL [https://thehockeynews.com/echl/]titles for the Americans. Register also played for the Americans in the 2019-20 season, as well as 2020-21. He won three Kelly Cup Championships in a row in 2016, 2017, and 2018. The Americans also signed the highly-skilled Spinozzi, who joins the club after playing four years in France. The 6-foot-2, 200-pound blueliner averaged nearly 30 points per season during his time in Europe. He has 21 games of pro hockey experience in the American Hockey League [https://thehockeynews.com/ahl/]with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. He also played with Wheeling [https://thehockeynews.com/echl/latest-news/nailers-sign-penn-state-forward], Toledo [https://thehockeynews.com/echl/latest-news/the-mayor-is-returning-to-toledo], and Rapid City [https://thehockeynews.com/echl/latest-news/drikos-promoted-to-associate-coach-of-rapid-city-rush]in the ECHL. Martinson draws a comparison of Register’s game to Brent Burns. “He led the league in scoring for Defensemen while with the Steelheads, but was also Idaho’s top plus/minus player three years running,” Martinson explained. “With Idaho, he had 173 points while being nearly a plus 100. Last year his plus 24, for a non-playoff team, is literally unheard of. Reggie (Matt Register) will be a player coach for us until he’s ready to retire and then will seamlessly step behind our bench.” The addition of Spinozzi gives the Americans the one-two punch that Register and Les Lancaster had a few years ago, according to Martinson. “He has a bomb from the point but is also tough, and can play a hard game against the league’s top players,” Martinson noted. “These two give us proven scoring that will be a lot of fun to watch.” The Americans open the regular season on the road in Wichita against the Thunder [https://thehockeynews.com/echl/latest-news/ramsay-agrees-to-contract-extension-with-wichita]on Saturday, Oct. 18, with the home opener less than a week later, on Friday, Oct. 24 when the Kansas City Mavericks [https://thehockeynews.com/echl/community/latest-news/mavericks-wrap-up-busy-week-in-kc-community]visit Allen.
