Photo: Kyle Mace
The Hershey Bears captain for the second half of the 2014-15 season has jumped ship for a new organization. Steve Oleksy, after three seasons in the Washington Capitals organization, the defenseman has joined forces with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Photo: Kyle Mace / Chocolate Hockey
Wednesday marks the beginning of the 2015 Free Agency period for hockey, which means it’s time for the Bears to bring in new players to fill out next season’s roster. Currently, Hershey has 15 possible players for next season (excluding the two RFA offers from Washington to Stan Galiev and Chris Brown.)
But the Bears still need a few key parts to fill out their roster, and there’s one player in the back of every Bears fans mind that they would love to see back in a Chocolate and White sweater: Chris Bourque.
Patrick Wey looks on during a game in the 2013-14 season (Kyle Mace / Chocolate Hockey, 2014)
After a second concussion suffered at the beginning of the 2014-15 season, Patrick Wey has chosen to retire from the game of hockey. On October 24th in a game against Lehigh Valley, Wey took a high to the head from Jay Rosehill, who would be suspended three games for the hit. This resulted in a consussion for Wey only three games into his season.
After starting out the season with the Washington Capitals, 20-year-old rookie Liam O’Brien came to Chocolate Town, USA to join the Hershey Bears. After posting up only eight points in 45 games, O’Brien had a breakout playoffs scoring three goals and three assists in ten games for the Bears.
O’Brien will rejoin the Capitals organization next year after signing a three-year contract with Washington at the beginning of the season.
Many fans might not remember the fact that defenseman Mike Moore played only ten games before he was injured at the beginning of the season. Moore would miss almost three months of the season before returning to the line-up on February 1st against Norfolk. Only two days games later would Moore get his first goal, an OT game winner against Wilkes-Barre. The 30-year-old defenseman appeared in 41 games for the Chocolate and White with a stat line of 3-11-14. He is set to be an unrestricted free agent.
In his first year as Head Coach in Hershey, Troy Mann accomplished many feats which had not been since he was an assistant coach with the team during the 2010 Calder Cup run. With new assistant coaches Bryan Helmer and Ryan Murphy, the Bears won their first division title since 2010, closed out a 100 point regular season for the first time since 2011, and finished the season with a 46-22-5-3 record. Mann lead the team to their first second round appearance in the playoffs since 2010.
Spending the first half of the season in Washington after making the Capitals opening night roster, Nate Schmidt returned to Hershey for what was planned to be just two games against Norfolk in January. An unexpected injury would sideline Schmidt for six weeks, before he would return on February 27th against Binghamton where he had one assist.
His play in Hershey would earn him three more recalls to Washington, two of which came in the post season, when he lead the league in scoring as a defenseman at the time of Hershey’s exit (4-5-9 in eight playoff games). Schmidt will be a restricted free agent this summer.
After spending parts of two seasons in Washington, defenseman Steve Oleksy started the season out with the Hershey Bears, this time wearing an alternate captains patch. The 29-year-old played a key part in Hershey’s strong defensive corps, earning him a call up to Washington in a game in February against the LA Kings where he logged 12 minutes of ice time against the Kings in a Capitals loss.
Oleksy would return to have that ‘A’ changed to a ‘C’ as he was named the 42nd captain in Bears history after injury forced Dane Byers out for the rest of the season. Oleksy with four goals and 15 points (4-11-15) in the regular season and three assists in the post season. Oleksy is set to go on the free agency market as an unrestricted free agent this summer.
There are a few Washington Capitals super fans that most everybody knows about if they attend Verizon Center for a game (Horn Guy, Goat, Capstronaut). For the Hershey Bears, that’s Cotton Eyed Joe guy, better known as DJ Jones.
HERSHEY, PA – Jakub Vrana holds up the puck for his first goal with the Hershey Bears on Friday night. (Kyle Mace / Chocolate Hockey)
When Jakub Vrana arrived in Hershey late in the regular season, little was known about the 19-year-old Czech would bring to Hershey. After spending the first part of this season with Linkopings HC, playing along side with former Bear Jeff Taffe, Vrana joined the Chocolate and White and immediately became a force to be reckoned with. In only three regular season games, the Prague native assisted on five goals.