The American Hockey League announced Tuesday morning that the league will be awarding the Colorado Eagles the 31st franchise in the league for the 2018-19 season.
This move allows the league to not have a sharing of franchises after the expansion of the NHL with the addition of the Las Vegas Golden Knights. The Eagles will be the top affiliate of the Colorado Avalanche and will continue to play in Loveland, Colorado.
In the first game of the 80th AHL season in Hershey Bears hockey history, goaltender Parker Milner would get the call as both Pheonix Copley and Vitek Vanecek were ruled out due to injuries. Milner would have to deal with a Phantoms team looking for revenge after the Bears knocked them out of the playoffs last season.
One of the most familiar faces at Giant Center was Ken Hatt’s. The former president and CEO of Hershey Entertainment and Resorts was one of the biggest supporters of the Hershey Bears and could be regularly found in the team’s suite at the north end of the arena.
Hatt passed away in late August at 93 years old.
One of the most popular television programs of the last decade has now been commemorated in the form of a hockey goalie mask.
The show “The Office” is based in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Also based in the same area are the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the American Hockey League. This season, goalie Casey DeSmith will be showing off his love for the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company in the form of artwork on his masks.
The Hershey Bears announced Thursday morning Jeremy Langlois has been signed to a one-year AHL contract for the 2017-18 season.
The former Worchester Shark spent last season with the Rockford IceHogs, scoring 14 points in 66 games for the Blackhawks affiliate. Langlois, 27, has appeared in 188 games in his AHL career.
Connor Hobbs introduced himself to the Hershey Bears fan base Saturday night with a huge hit on Wilkes-Barre defenseman Jeff Taylor. Hobbs stopped Taylor in is tracks, but the hit came after Taylor missed the puck, and it’s not something Hobbs is too proud about.
“I think tonight’s hit was a little bit – pretty dirty on my part,” he said after the game. “The puck was long gone. I just kind of decided to commit to it and keep going and just finish it anyway.”
Former Hershey Bear Ryan Bourque has signed an AHL contract with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers after agreeing to an AHL PTO earlier in the week.
After a career year with the Hershey Bears last year, Paul Carey signed in the offseason with the New York Rangers. Carey put forth a strong showing in the Blueshirts’ camp and has earned himself a spot on New York’s opening night roster.
I got the chance to sit down with Chris Bourque for our first edition of The Wrap Around earlier this week. Here is the extended version of our interview where we talk about his time during his nine seasons in Hershey, meeting fans, and his super awesome Montreal Expos hat.
At 90-years-old, the Hershey Bears all-time leading goal scorer, Duncan Fisher, has died. One week ago Friday, Fisher passed away. The former Bear sits in the top spot for goals scored with 260 in 511 games.
Fisher, a Regina, Saskatchewan native, returned to Hershey in 2014 to be inducted into the Hershey Bears Hall-of-Fame. Fisher spent nine years in Hershey from 1952-1960.
