Frederic Cassivi Out of Retirement, Signs with Reading Royals
At 41-years-old, former Hershey Bear and AHL Hall of Famer Frederic Cassivi has come out of retirement to sign with the Reading Royals. Cassivi signs as an emergency back-up goaltender as the Royals are without Mark Dekanich, who played one game for the Chocolate and White last year and signed with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms this offseason.
Cassivi was the 2006 Calder Cup Playoffs Most Valuable Player and spent six seasons with the Bears (1999-2002, 2005-2008) before finishing his career with two seasons in Germany and Austria. In 2015, Cassivi was inducted into the AHL Hall of Fame. Currently, the Sorel, Quebec native is a guest radio color commentator on Hershey Bears home games.
Full press release from the Reading Royals:
Reading, PA – The Reading Royals of the ECHL, affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League, today announced that Frederic Cassivi has been signed as the team’s Emergency Back-Up Goaltender. In a separate transaction, the Royals placed goaltender Mark Dekanich on the ECHL’s Reserve List.
This marks the second time that Cassivi (6’4 / 222) (41), who was born in Sorel, Quebec, but currently resides in Central Pennsylvania, has come out of retirement to join the Royals. During the Royals 2012-13 Kelly Cup Championship season, Cassivi, who had retired as a pro player in 2010, not only signed with Reading but started and made 21 saves in the team’s 5-3 loss to the Trenton Titans on February 24, 2013, at then-Sovereign Center in Reading in the only ECHL game in which he has ever appeared.
In a storied pro career that spanned fifteen seasons, Cassivi played over 650 pro games, primarily in the American Hockey League, spending six full seasons with the Hershey Bears. In 2005-06, Cassivi played sixty-one regular season games with the Bears—followed by twenty-one post-season contests, which ended with Hershey capturing the Calder Cup Championship and Cassivi receiving the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the AHL playoff’s most valuable player. The following season, Cassivi, who was a ninth round pick of the Ottawa Senators in 1994, led the Bears back to the Calder Cup championship finals where they were defeated by the Carey Price-led Hamilton Bulldogs. During his career, Cassivi has racked up 232 career AHL wins, which is fifth all-time in the league. His twenty-four career AHL shutouts are tied for eighth all-time. Cassivi, who appeared in thirteen NHL games with the Atlanta Thrashers and Washington Capitals, concluded his pro career in 2009-10 when he logged fifty-one games with Vienna Capitals in Austria.