Bears Pre-Season Schedule

In a little over two months, there will be Bears hockey. The Hershey Bears (on their website) announced the four pre-season games that they will play.

Date	Opponent	Where?	When?
Wednesday, Oct. 1st	at Lehigh Valley	PPL Center	7:05
Friday, Oct. 3rd	Lehigh Valley	Giant Center	7:00
Saturday, Oct. 4th	at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton	Mohegan Sun Arena	7:05
Sunday, Oct. 5th	Wilkes-Barre/Scranton	Giant Center	5:00

Hershey will play against the other two Pennsylvania AHL teams in these four games. Hershey will be the 1st team to play against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, and they'll be there for the 1st game in the new PPL Center in Allentown. Lehigh Valley and Hershey will come back two days later to play at Giant Center. To finish off the weekend, Hershey will have a home-and-home series with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Here is the link to the article on the Bears' website: http://www.hersheybears.com/news/detail.php?id=4431

Caps/Bears Draft Signing News

The Caps have signed a few people from their draft choices in the 2014 NHL Draft, but there is one that will probably make an impact on the Bears. The Caps announced that they signed forward Nathan Walker to a three year, entry-level contract. Even though he was just drafted and signed, fans of the Bears know Walker well. Last year, he was on a one year deal with the Bears. He played in 43 games, and he had 11 points (5 goals, 6 assists) to his credit. With how the Caps used a trade to move up in the draft to get him, don't be surprised if he could make an appearance with them.

Caps/Bears Free Agent Signing News #4

The Caps, in conjunction with the Bears, announced that they signed defenseman Nate Schmidt to a one year, two-way deal. Schmidt split his time between the Caps and the Bears last season. He played 29 games with the Caps, with 6 points (2 goals, 4 assists) to his credit. He also played 38 games for the Bears, with 13 points (2 goals, 11 assists) to his credit.

Other News

The AHL has made some changes when it comes to their overtime/shootout rules. The overtime period will now be 7 minutes long. It will be 4-on-4 hockey until the first whistle after 3 minutes of play (4 minutes remaining), in which it will then be 3-on-3 hockey. The shootout will now be only 3 players, just like the NHL.

Caps/Bears Free Agent Signing News #3

In the past couple days, the Caps (with the Bears) have only signed one player, so this will be a shorter post. They signed goalie Edward Pasquale, who they got the rights to in a NHL Draft trade, to a one year, two-way contract. Pasquale has been with the St. John's IceCaps for the past three seasons. Last season, he had a 17-13-1 record in 31 games, with a 2.43 goals against average. It looks like he will be the backup in Hershey, as Philipp Grubauer will be the number one.

Other News

The AHL announced the new alignment for the divisions, and there's a new team in the Bears' division. The Syracuse Crunch have been moved to the Northeast Division, and joining the East Division (Hershey, Binghamton, Norfolk, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton) are the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The Phantoms had been in the Northeast, but with the move from Glen Falls, NY to Allentown, PA, it made more sense for them to be the East Division. 

Caps/Bears Free Agent Signing News #2

Happy 4th of the July to all! The Caps, in conjunction with the Bears, announced that they signed both forwards Tim Kennedy and Kris Newbury to one year, two-way contracts. Kennedy split his time last year between the Phoenix Coyotes (now the Arizona Coyotes) and the Portland Pirates. In his time with the Pirates, he played in 30 games and had 15 points (4 goals, 11 assists) to his credit. Newbury split his time last year in the AHL between the Adirondack Phantoms and the Bears, with 4 games played for the Philadelphia Flyers. In his time in Hershey last season, he played in 17 games with 13 points (4 goals, 9 assists) to his credit.

Bears Name Head Coach and Assistant Coach

According to the Hershey Bears' website, it has been announced that former Bears assistant coach Troy Mann has been named the new head coach. It was also announced that former Bears player (and captain) Bryan Helmer will be the assistant coach. Here is the link to the article: http://www.hersheybears.com/news/detail.php?id=4419

Caps/Bears Free Agent Signing News #1

The Caps have been busy on this 1st day of free agency. Starting it off, let's talk about the one resigning. The Caps resigned forward Michael Latta to a two year deal. He played a few games with the Caps last season, but spent most of his time with the Bears. Latta played in 52 games for the Bears, with 34 points (14 goals, 20 assists) to his credit. The Caps signed three players that will most likely be Bears in the new season. First off, they signed forward Chris Conner to a one year, two-way contract. Conner split his time last season between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, so it looks like he could be a Bear for some amount of time this season.

The Caps signed two defensemen as part of those three players. They signed both Jon Landry and Mike Moore to one year, two-way contracts. Landry played 50 games for the Iowa Wild last season, with 18 points (all assists) to his credit. Moore played 72 games for the Providence Bruins last season (as the captain of the team), with 21 points (7 goals, 14 assists) to his credit. He has received the AHL Man of the Year Award three times in his career.

Side note: David Leggio has officially moved on from the Caps system. He signed a one year, two-way contract with the New York Islanders. Leggio lead the Bears in wins and games played for a goalie last season.