“The Mayor of Hershey” Dean Arsene pulls on the Bears jersey one more time at Alumni Game

For six seasons, Dean Arsene was known as “The Mayor”. The Murrayville, British Columbia native became the ceremonial Mayor of Chocolate Town, USA with a fan-friendly personality and a rugged playing style on the Bear blueline.

“It felt like I never left with some of the guys there,” said Arsene after Friday’s alumni game. “We keep in touch when we can, but everybody’s got busy lives. So to come back and sit in the locker room, it felt like we never left.”

The 37-year-old is apart of a special group that attended the Alumni game, being one of six former Hershey captains that played in the game that included Mike McHugh, Boyd Kane, Quintin Lang, Andrew Joudrey, and Bryan Helmer.

Arsene helped lay the groundwork for one of the greatest dynasties in AHL history, winning two Calder Cup with Hershey in 2006 and 2009. “It’s such a cliche, but we were a family. “We were really close. Especially the winning teams, you spend so much time in the battles, the back and forth. You remember the funny things, like the little pranks in the hotel rooms on the road trips and what have you. But obviously winning the Cup and sharing it with those guys is what I remember the most.”