Capitals Sign Ryan Stanton

It was announced that the Capitals have signed defenseman Ryan Stanton to a one-year, two-way deal. It seems that he will probably play for the Bears in the upcoming season. Stanton has played for the Vancouver Canucks the past two seasons. Last year, in 54 games, he had 3 goals and 8 assists. In 119 career NHL games (all but one with Vancouver), he has 27 points (4 goals, 23 assists) to his credit. He has not played in the AHL since the 2012-13 season. In 224 career AHL games (all with the Rockford IceHogs), he has 60 points (9 goals, 51 assists) to his credit. If you would like to read the article on the Caps' official website about the deal, here is the link: http://capitalstoday.monumentalnetwork.com/2015/07/24/capitals-sign-ryan-stanton

Capitals Signing/Resigning

It was announced recently that the Capitals made deals with two players that should be a part of the Bears this season. The signing (one-year, two-way) was forward Zack Sill. Last season, he played 63 games with Pittsburgh and Toronto. In total, he had one goal and three assists in those games. In his 83 career NHL games, he has those four points from last season to his credit. In 277 career AHL games (all with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton), he had 77 points (33 goals, 40 assists). The resigning (two-year, two-way) was forward Chris Brown. Last season, he spent most of his time with the Bears, although he had five games with the Caps (where he scored one goal). In his 22 career NHL games, with Washington and Arizona (Phoenix at the time), he has 3 points (2 goals, 1 assist). He played in 64 games with the Bears last season, and had 28 points (17 goals, 11 assists) to his credit. He had 5 points (3 goals, 2 assists) in the playoffs. In 195 career AHL games, with Hershey and Portland, he has 115 points (62 goals, 53 assists). If you like to read about the signings on the Capitals' official website, here are the links:
Chris Brown resigning: http://capitalstoday.monumentalnetwork.com/2015/07/16/capitals-re-sign-chris-brown
Zach Sill signing: http://capitalstoday.monumentalnetwork.com/2015/07/16/capitals-sign-zach-sill

AHL Rule Changes

The AHL Board of Governors voted on some changes to the rules for the 2015-16 season. The biggest changes come from the schedule for the league, and how the playoff teams will be decided. Each team will play 76 games, except for the five new teams in California. Those five teams (Bakersfield, Ontario, San Diego, San Jose, Stockton) will play 68 games. That leads to part of the new rules for playoff teams. The format is now switched back to a division format of deciding playoff teams. The playoff teams will be decided by points percentage (which is the number of points earned divided by the number of points available), due to the fact that the Pacific Division will have teams that will play differing amounts of games (five of them play 68 games, two play 76 games). Each division will have 4 playoff teams, except for an exception: the fifth-place team in the division in each conference with 8 teams (Atlantic for Eastern, Central for Western) can cross over and be the 4th team in the other division (North for Eastern, Pacific for Western) if they have a better points percentage. To read about those rules (if my explanations were confusing) and other rules changes, here is the link from the official AHL website: http://theahl.com/board-of-governors-approves-changes-for-15-16-p198633

Capitals Sign Paul Carey

It was announced today that the Capitals have signed forward Paul Carey to a one-year, two-way deal. It is likely that he will spend most of his time this season with the Bears. Last season, he split his time between two organizations (Colorado and Boston). In 60 AHL games (with Lake Erie and Providence), he had 34 points (15 goals, 19 assists) to his credit. In the playoffs with Providence, he had one goal. In 10 games with the Colorado Avalanche, he had one assist. In 22 career NHL games, all with the Avalanche, he has that one assist. In 188 career AHL games (all but 17 with Lake Erie), he has 96 points (42 goals, 54 assists) to his credit. If you would like to read the article on the Bears' official website about the deal, here is the link: http://www.hersheybears.com/news/detail.php?id=4713

Capitals Sign Dan Ellis

The goalie situation got a little clearer today. It was announced that goalie Dan Ellis has been signed by the Caps to a one-year, two-way deal. Ellis spent most of his time with the San Antonio Rampage last season, but did play for the Florida Panthers for a portion of it. In 8 games with the Panthers, he was 4-3-1 with a 2.35 GAA. In 37 regular season games with the Rampage, Ellis went 22-12-3 with a 2.71 GAA. In the playoffs for the Rampage, he went 0-2 with a 2.44 GAA. Ellis has played in 212 career NHL games, going 87-79-18. In 195 career AHL games, he has gone 91-86-7. If you would like to read the article on the Bears' official website about the deal, here is the link: http://www.hersheybears.com/news/detail.php?id=4709

Capitals Trade and Bears Goalie Situation

The goalie situation for the Bears has changed a bit. It was announced today that the Capitals have traded Troy Brouwer, Pheonix Copley, and a 2016 third-round pick to the St. Louis Blues for T.J. Oshie. Copley was looking to be Hershey's number one goalie this season after Philipp Grubauer was signed to a one-way deal. He was 17-4-3 with a 2.17 GAA in the regular season, and was 3-1 with a 1.83 GAA in the playoffs. Now that he is gone, and with Grubauer looking to be the backup in Washington, it's looking that the goalies for Hershey could be Justin Peters (he will have to be put on waivers first) and Vitek Vanecek, who the Capitals drafted in the 2014 draft. We'll have to see if that is what ends up happening.

Capitals Sign Chris Bourque

It was announced today that the Capitals have signed Chris Bourque to a two-year, two-way deal. That name should sound familiar to anyone who followed the teams that made the Calder Cup final 4 out of 5 seasons. Last season, Bourque played for the Hartford Wolf Pack. In 73 games, he had 66 points (29 goals, 37 assists) to his credit. In the playoffs, he had 17 points (4 goals, 13 assists) and was a key contributor for Hartford in their series against Hershey. In 51 career NHL games, he has recorded 8 points (2 goals, 6 assists). In 510 career AHL games (392 being with the Bears), he has 499 points (171 goals, 328 assists) to his credit. If you would like to read the article on this deal from the Caps' official website, here is the link: http://capitalstoday.monumentalnetwork.com/2015/07/02/capitals-sign-chris-bourque

Caps/Bears Free Agent Signings (7/1/15)

The Capitals were busy yesterday with getting some depth for their team, which means the Bears got some players for the next season. Four players were signed to one-year, two-way contracts. The first one is the resignee of the group, defenseman Mike Moore. Injuries kept Moore from being on the ice as much, but he was able to play in 41 games for the Bears, with 14 points (3 goals, 11 assists) in those games. In the playoffs, Moore had one assist. Moore has played in 6 career NHL games, all for the San Jose Sharks in the 2010-11 season (one goal in those games). In 419 career AHL games, he has 123 points (29 goals, 94 assists) to his credit.




Forward Carter Camper is the first of the new signees. He played for the Binghamton Senators last season. In 75 games for the team, he had a career-high 52 points (15 goals, 37 assists) to his credit. He has played 3 career NHL games, all with the Boston Bruins in the 2011-12 season (one goal in those games). In 264 career AHL games, he has 200 points (56 goals, 144 assists) in those games.




The second of the new signees is forward Sean Collins (not to be confused with former Bear defenseman Sean Collins). He split time last season between the Columbus Blue Jackets and their AHL team, the Springfield Falcons. In 8 games with the Blue Jackets, he had two assists. In 19 career NHL games (all with the Blue Jackets), he had 3 assists in those games. In 64 games with the Falcons, he had 36 points (17 goals, 19 assists) to his credit. In 203 career AHL games (all with the Falcons), he has recorded 113 points (45 goals, 68 assists).




The final new signee of the group is defenseman Aaron Ness. He played for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers last season. In 74 games, he had 45 points (8 goals, 37 assists) to his credit. Ness has played in 29 career NHL games, all with the New York Islanders (last played with them in the 2013-14 season). In those games, he had 3 points (1 goal, 2 assists). In 280 career AHL games (all with the Sound Tigers), Ness has recorded 123 points (23 goals, 100 assists).




Note: When all the players that were with the Bears last season have a contract, I will post a chart detailing where each player went and what their contract is.

Capitals Resign Stanislav Galiev

The Capitals have announced that they have resigned Stanislav Galiev to a two-year contract. The contract during the first season (2015-16) is two-way, and is one-way during the second season (2016-17). Galiev played two games for the Caps last season (his NHL debut), and scored his 1st NHL goal in the 2nd game. For the Bears last season, he played in 67 games and had 45 points (25 goals & 20 assists) in those games. He was first in the AHL in power-play goals (15). In the playoffs for the Bears, he had one goal. In Galiev's career for the Bears (100 games), he had 52 points (28 goals, 24 assists) in those games. If you would like to read the article on this deal from the Caps' official website, here is the link: http://capitalstoday.monumentalnetwork.com/2015/07/01/capitals-re-sign-stanislav-galiev