HERSHEY, Pa. – Defending a championship is perhaps the hardest aspect of winning a Calder Cup. Ask teams like the Chicago Wolves, who were fleeced after winning the title in 2022 and were unable to make it to the postseason entirely in 2023, and they’ll tell you that it’s no joke how hard it is to ice a winner. For the Hershey Bears, as an organization, they know what it takes to go back-to-back in their history having accomplished the feat twice amongst an American Hockey League best 12 Calder Cup titles. In order to even contend for another championship, it starts with one word: stability, something the Bears have in spades going into the 2023-24 campaign.
For starters, it doesn’t appear as though the Bears will have to go through the process of hiring a new head coach for the first time in a while with Todd Nelson and his staff staying behind the bench in the Sweetest Place on Earth. The Bears have gotten into a rhythm of hiring new coaches and staff after seeing their bench bosses promoted over the course of the last two years, with Spencer Carbery and Scott Allen now leading the charge with their National Hockey League affiliate, the Washington Capitals. Nelson entered his tenure looking to break Hershey’s 13-year championship drought, and now has the possibility of going back-to-back, one of the most extraordinary feats in professional hockey.
The Bears have the benefit of having their entire leadership group under contract, a process that began earlier this spring with Mike Vecchione and Aaron Ness signing two-year extensions with the Bears. It’s a genius move in hindsight to have both players under contract, not mentioning that Vecchione scored a Calder Cup winning goal weeks later in Palm Springs, but having the foundation of a championship team makes it easier to endure personnel changes. Hershey has already seen players depart and other new ones take their place this summer, but players like Vecchione and Ness establish the standard of what Hershey Bears hockey is all about.
Washington took it one step further by re-signing Mike Sgarbossa and captain Dylan McIlrath, two players who further set the standard. Both players were pending unrestricted free agents when July 1 rolled around, but the Capitals got Sgarbossa under contract during the postseason and McIlrath early on in the summer for two more years each. Despite the fact that the Bears have seen a slew of players depart over the weeks since hoisting the Holy Grail of the AHL, this group is in place to make the transition as seamless as possible. It’s a luxury the Bears haven’t had a lot of over the years to have a captain stick around, with McIlrath being the first player in Bears history to have a bobble head of his likeness and return in the next season, bucking an unusual trend in a lengthy tradition for the team. A lot of the heavy lifting has been done in free agency in terms of filling out the major parts of Hershey’s roster.
The Bears have a returning depth core with a trio of important signings at the AHL level, with forward Matt Strome as well as defensemen Logan Day and Jake Massie returning for 2023-24. Day’s contributions to the team in the Calder Cup Playoffs need no introduction, leading all defenders and finishing second overall on the Bears in terms of points with 14 (three goals, 11 assists) with six of those helpers in the final round. Day memorably made a gutsy move in Game Five of the Finals to knock down a clearing attempt at the blue line that eventually led to the game-winner in overtime. Massie similarly loomed large when called upon in nine games of the playoffs, suiting up in all four rounds and making several key shot blocks in an extended two-man disadvantage in Game Six of the Eastern Conference Final. Strome played essential minutes on the fourth line and the penalty kill during the regular season, with the Bears boasting a mark of 23-8-2-1 when he was in the lineup.
Hershey is fortunate to have their Calder Cup MVP back in the organization in netminder Hunter Shepard, who signed a two-year extension as a pending unrestricted free agent to suit back up with the Bears. He’ll be paired with a known element but a new one in Clay Stevenson, who played three games for the Chocolate and White back in December and impressed in addition to a stellar year with the South Carolina Stingrays. The organization’s goaltending pipeline is one of its biggest strengths, and Stevenson’s promotion is just the latest example of it bearing fruit at the AHL level.
Hershey has a fair amount of returning players, even with promotions to the Washington Capitals looming as not just an expectation, but a reality. That list includes top players like Beck Malenstyn, Connor McMichael, and Aliaksei Protas, who general manager Brian MacLellan named as those likely to make the jump to the big club in the fall. There will be a lot of changes, particularly with so many integral players to the 2023 championship no longer with the team. It leaves room for young players to take the reins in addition to a slew of free agent acquisitions, and the Bears will be counting on that mix to lead them to another Calder Cup title with a chance to earn the organization’s third set of back-to-back titles. It’s safe to say the foundation of that team is in good hands as the core of a championship team remains in the Sweetest Place on Earth.
