Daniel Sprong ready for a fresh opportunity in Chocolate Town

Daniel Sprong found out right at Monday’s trade deadline he would be heading across the country from San Diego to Hershey in a trade that brought him to the Washington Capitals organization. 

“I was really excited,” said Sprong after Thursday’s practice. “It’s a winning culture here in Washington and Hershey. I remember playing here with Wilkes. I love playing in this rink, and now being on the home side is really cool.”

The former Penguin has plenty of experience scoring in Giant Center, putting up 16 points against Hershey in ten games during the 2017-18 season. But even as an opponent, Sprong admired Hershey’s puck-possession style of hockey.

“I’m an offensive guy. Over the last year and a half being in Anaheim and the NHL last year and San Diego this year, I was working on my two-way game. The eight games I was up this year I thought I played really well both sides of the puck. I’m just trying to keep working on that.”  

While Hershey is looking to continue their success at the top of the Atlantic Division, head coach Spencer Carbery’s goal is to help get Sprong back to the NHL. 

“The organization brought in a really good young prospect that’s played in the National Hockey League,” said Carbery. “What my job and his job coming into this organization is: where are you at in your career, what’s keeping you out of the NHL, and how can we help get you there. It’s more ‘What do we need to do to help Daniel Sprong?’ Then we’ll integrate him into the lineup and into spots to set him up to have success and ultimately help our team win hockey games.”

Sprong’s first game with Hershey will be against his former team Wilkes-Barre on Saturday at Giant Center. “Both teams have a winning culture,” commented Sprong. “Both pride themselves in the NHL and American League on winning. I still have a couple of buddies that I’ve played with in Wilkes that are still there now…they texted me and I texted them ‘I’ll see ya Saturday and we’ll catch up.’

“I’m ready to get things going. It’s been a good week of practice, and I can’t wait to play.”