ALLEN -- I was asked in a newspaper chat a few weeks back whom the best general manager in town was.

I said Jim Nill for the job he's done with the Stars.

Tim Cowlishaw was asked the same question in another chat and he gave the nod to Jon Daniels for the job he has done with the Rangers.

I've had some time to ponder the question a bit longer and I've come to the conclusion that the best GM in this town is neither Nill nor Daniels.

It's Steve Martinson. He's done something that Nill and Daniels haven't done yet -- build a championship team. And he's done it four times. His ECHL Allen Americans captured their fourth consecutive championship Thursday night with a 4-2 victory over the Wheeling Nailers.

Steve Martinson, coach of the Allen Americans hockey team of the Central Hockey League. 05312015xSPORTS (SCENEBYKIMBERLY.COM)

Martinson arrived in Allen in 2012 and promptly won the Central Hockey League championship in each of his first two seasons. The Americans stepped up in competition in 2014 when the CHL teams were absorbed by the ECHL and won titles in each of the next two seasons there.

Martinson also is a more versatile general manager than either Daniels or Nill. He drives the team bus, something the Rangers and Stars have not yet asked of Daniels and Nill.

Martinson shared driving duties in the ECHL final when the Americans made that 21-hour bus trek to West Virginia for Games 3-5 of the Kelly Cup finals. The Americans drove to Fort Wayne for the Western Conference finals, an 18-hour trek. They also made 31-hour bus rides to Idaho and 20-hour rides to South Dakota this season during the dead of winter.

Martinson also coaches the Americans, something the Rangers and Stars have not yet asked of Daniels and Nill. In short, he is what Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones has always aspired to be -- the one guy in the building who does it all.

Now understand the nature of hockey at the minor-league level. You essentially are starting from scratch with your roster each season.

Not a single player remains on the fourth champion from the first (2013) champ. Only six players played on both CHL and ECHL championship teams: defensemen Tyler and Trevor Ludwig and forwards Spencer Asuchak, Garrett Clarke, Greger Hanson and Jamie Schaafsma. Asuchak and Hanson are the only players who have played on the last three champions. Only nine players from the 2015 team returned to the 2016 team.

Martinson has won those four championships with three different goalies. Aaron Gens was the only holdover on the 2016 defensive corps from the unit that won the 2015 Kelly Cup.

In 2013, Martinson made a late-season trade for minor-league legend Todd Robinson, and he wound up scoring the overtime goal in the seventh game of the CHL finals for the first championship. In 2014, Martinson signed Chad Costello as a free agent and he went on to win consecutive ECHL scoring titles and both the league and Kelly Cup MVP awards in 2016.

Toward the end of the 2015 season Martinson asked Allen's NHL affiliate San Jose to trade for Vincent Arseneau in a minor-league deal and the Sharks accommodated his request. Martinson liked his size and his offense, and Arseneau wound up scoring seven goals in the playoffs on the way to that first Kelly Cup.

Toward the end of the 2016 season, Martinson added Michigan State goaltender Jake Hildebrand and a pair of University of Alberta defensemen, Jordan Rowley and Thomas Carr, at the conclusion of their college seasons. Hildebrand was a 2015 All-America and Rowley a 2016 All-Canadian.

Hildebrand provided two of the victories over Fort Wayne and one of the victories over Wheeling on the way to that second Kelly Cup. Rowley and Carr took regular shifts on the blue line as did Matt Register, another late-season trade acquisition. He was the ECHL Defenseman of the Year in 2015.

"You have to build as much depth as you can in this league," Martinson said, "because it is a game of attrition."

That's what's expected of any general manager -- find players who can fill the holes on your roster and win games. Martinson has been a minor-league coach for 20 seasons and has now won 10 championships. He both builds a team and coaches it. No one in this town does that better than Martinson. Much less drive the team bus.

Listen to Rick Gosselin at 10:50 a.m. Tuesdays on Sportsradio 1310 AM/96.7 FM The Ticket with Norm Hitzges and Donovan Lewis, and follow @RickGosselinDMN on Twitter