Some 19 years after they final performed a preseason sport within the Hershey, Pa. residence of their AHL affiliate, the Caps made a triumphant and heartwarming preseason return in a 5-1 win over Philadelphia in entrance of a capability crowd at Large Middle final Thursday evening. The on-ice efficiency was dominant over each inch of the ice, and the person performances have been constantly sturdy all through the lineup.
Because the Caps and Bears mark the 20-year anniversary of the fruitful affiliation they’ve cast, Thursday’s sport offered a vibrant reminder of how and why the connection works so properly, and it comes as Hershey is on the cusp of a season marked with change.
With so lots of the gamers who introduced consecutive Calder Cup titles to Hershey in 2023 and 2024 now plying their commerce in different hockey ports of name, the Bears are sure to get an enormous inflow of ability and youth into their roster this season as a result of Washington has a big group of gamers prepared to begin their respective professional careers in 2025-26. As these gamers embark upon the subsequent section of their hockey careers in Hershey this season, they’ll accomplish that underneath the watchful eye of Derek King, employed on Aug. 4 because the twenty ninth coach in Hershey’s storied franchise historical past.
In Thursday’s exhibition in opposition to the Flyers, Washington performed a powerful 60-minute sport, and plenty of of its gamers stood out, together with these diligently vying for valuable few roster berths accessible. Along with the convincing victory, the Caps additionally delivered a heartwarming storyline with the presence of two units of brothers – Aliaksei and Ilya Protas and Dylan and Matt Strome – within the Washington lineup. That’s an NHL rarity that hasn’t occurred within the common season in additional than twenty years.
Even with all these constructive vibes, there was a bigger, extra overarching which means to Thursday’s sport, which comes because the AHL Hershey Bears are on the verge of starting their very own 2025 coaching camp. This late September preseason sport was additionally a celebration of the remarkably profitable 20-year affiliation between the Washington and Hershey franchises, and a cheerful homecoming for a slew of gamers and staffers who’ve lived and labored and performed in Chocolatetown over time.
Because the present Caps-Bears affiliation was cast in April of 2005, Hershey has gained 5 Calder Cup crowns; it superior to the Calder Cup Closing on two different events. Washington gained its first Stanley Cup in 2018 and has a .608 common season factors proportion over the identical span, second finest within the NHL over that span.
Caps coach Spencer Carbery is certainly one of many individuals who’ve ascended from Hershey to Washington over time, and he beams with delight and heat at any time when he speaks of the connection between the 2 franchises.
“It was wonderful, to return again right here to Large Middle, to stroll out to a full constructing,” mentioned Carbery after Thursday’s sport, standing on the podium and sporting a brown tie for the event. “Even driving in on the bus at the moment, I had some goosebumps at varied moments pulling up and strolling into this constructing; there’s numerous nice reminiscences right here, and it introduced me again to a couple.
“With the ability to go on the market and play the way in which that we did, I used to be actually, actually happy with our group. I do know it’s an exhibition sport, however this sport means somewhat bit extra for lots of men in our locker room and on our group. And to play the way in which that we did, so I used to be glad – actually blissful – we have been in a position to put that on show for the Bears followers.”
Of the 20 gamers clad in Washington sweaters for Thursday evening’s sport, 11 have performed in Hershey sooner or later of their profession and some extra are more likely to start their professional careers there this fall. 9 of the Caps who suited up on Thursday are latest Calder Cup champs from their Hershey days, and few of them are two-time champs who performed on each the ’22-23 and ’23-24 championship squads.
“It was enjoyable, it was enjoyable,” reiterates two-time Calder Cup champ Hendrix Lapierre, whose three assists in Thursday’s sport give him six factors (two objectives, 4 assists) in two preseason video games. “As quickly as you come into the constructing, there’s that odor that you simply simply know you’re in Hershey on the Large Middle. I felt it immediately, and it clearly brings again numerous good reminiscences.
“Earlier than the sport, I used to be on the bench trying on the empty stands and reminding myself of fine reminiscences right here. It was enjoyable; I’m glad we have been in a position to play a superb sport for them. These followers imply lots to me and lots of people right here, so I feel we’re fairly blissful.”
“The entire group is enjoying very well; we’re all gelling, and that’s the vital half,” says Caps defenseman Vincent Iorio, one other two-time champ who has turned in two sturdy preseason performances in his push for a roster berth. “There’s numerous guys significantly in Hershey, and that’s why it’s so cool being again right here. We’ve had numerous actually, actually good reminiscences right here and we needed to placed on a present for everyone.”
Gamers like Lapierre and Iorio encourage first-year execs reminiscent of Andrew Cristall and Ilya Protas, simply because the likes of Lapierre and Iorio are impressed by Connor McMichael and Aliaksei Protas, two members of the ’22-23 Hershey champs who’ve since developed to turn out to be key contributors for the Capitals, and cornerstone items of the puzzle transferring ahead.
Greater than two years faraway from his most up-to-date AHL sport and coming off a profession finest season in each class, McMichael was nonetheless intent upon returning to Hershey for a Large Middle encore, and he delivered as properly, with a stunning shorthanded aim adopted by a trademark Bears roar as he glided previous the bench afterwards.
“Immediately on the airplane, I advised the fellows, ‘If I rating, I’m going to convey out the roar yet another time for outdated occasions’ sake,’ recounts McMichael with a smile. “And I’m glad I received the possibility to do it.
“Proper after I came upon that this sport was occurring, I wished to play in it. It’s one thing I had marked on the calendar. It was numerous enjoyable to see the outdated faces from earlier than and I’m glad we received the win for them.”
And as he prepares to embark upon his first professional season, Cristall caught the vibe and rode with it. He scored the sport’s first aim – with assist from Lapierre, naturally – on a Washington energy play within the first interval.
“I used to be simply speaking about it; it was unbelievable,” says Cristall of enjoying at Large Middle for the primary time. “After that first aim, I wasn’t planning on cellying, however there was an enormous roar, so I assumed I’d give ’em one thing. However it was fairly unbelievable.”
It was a memorable evening for a lot of causes and in some ways. Thursday’s sport additionally comes at a crossroads for the Bears each on the ice and behind the bench. So lots of the members of Hershey’s consecutive championship groups have moved on to different groups, different organizations, different alternatives, different international locations. The upcoming 2025-26 season is just about sure to be the most important first-year class of Washington prospects launching careers in Hershey in a decade.
From final 12 months’s draft class, second-round defenseman Leon Muggli, third-round forwards Ilya Protas and Eriks Mateiko might start their skilled careers in North America this season. From the 2023 Draft, first-rounder Ryan Leonard embarks upon his first full season as a professional, as does second-round ahead Cristall, fourth-round ahead Patrick Thomas, fifth-round defenseman Cam Allen and seventh-round netminder Antoine Keller. And from the 2022 Draft, second-round defenseman Ryan Chesley, third-round ahead Ludwig Persson and seventh-round defenseman David Gucciardi will accomplish that.
That’s 11 first-year gamers, and so they gained’t all be in Hershey. Leonard is just about sure to play in Washington, and a few others could return to European professional leagues, and a few are more likely to filter all the way down to ECHL South Carolina.
It is too early to inform exactly which gamers will open on the Hershey roster and too murky when it comes to waiver clearance and different personnel/roster elements enjoying out in exhibitions, scrimmages and camps across the 32-team circuit, however the final time Hershey had a freshman class as giant as it’s more likely to have in 2025-26 was in 2015-16, when it superior to the Calder Cup Closing earlier than falling to Jared Bednar’s Lake Erie Monsters.
On the Hershey roster throughout that upstart 2015-16 season was veteran blueliner Aaron Ness, who was within the first season of his first of two stints in Hershey on the time. Ness has spent seven full seasons in Hershey, successful two Calder Cups and reaching the Closing thrice.
“It simply goes to point out you by no means know what’s going to occur, how a group goes to return collectively and the way a group goes to be made up,” says Ness of the ’15-16 group. “Everyone seems to be operating by coaching camp trying actually good [this year]. There’s numerous good expertise, numerous good younger expertise, and a superb mixture of veteran presence, I feel, for us. It’s going to be an thrilling 12 months, numerous enjoyable, and clearly a brand new coach, too. There’s lots happening – numerous transferring elements – and we’re excited to get rolling. We like what we see, and we’re excited to get began.”
Earlier this 12 months, the Capitals and the AHL Hershey Bears marked the twentieth anniversary of the present affiliation between the 2 groups. The connection received off to a right away sturdy begin when Bruce Boudreau led the Bears to a Calder Cup championship within the first season of the affiliation in 2005-06.
This season in Hershey, the Bears are sure to look considerably totally different with the departure of so many gamers from their back-to-back championship groups. And the change begins behind the bench the place coach Todd Nelson has moved to the western facet of Pennsylvania, returning to the NHL as an assistant coach with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
In early August, the Bears and Caps introduced King as Nelson’s substitute behind the bench in Hershey. King is taking the other route of Nelson; following a brief stint at interim coach of the Chicago Blackhawks in 2021-22, King stayed on as an assistant coach in Chicago for the final three seasons earlier than taking the top coach job in Hershey this summer season.
Within the early days of his personal professional profession with AHL Springfield – then a NY Islanders affiliate – within the late Nineteen Eighties, King performed in opposition to the Bears on the historic Hersheypark Area.
“With Springfield we went there and performed, and it was a tricky constructing to play in,” says King. “And there have been numerous powerful hockey gamers within the League again then. However at all times, the followers have been somewhat rowdy and loopy, however that’s what you need, particularly as a house group.
“In my interview, I advised them this was like getting a job with an Authentic Six group, and that’s what it’s. It’s a legendary place to play within the American Hockey League … it’s the thirty third NHL group, actually. And everyone [in the organization], with the way in which you’re handled and the way in which they act, they run it like an NHL group. And I’m trying ahead to getting down there and getting going with this group.”
King attended the Caps rookie camp in Annapolis this month, and he’s been on the ice and he has additionally been seen watching on from above as Washington’s coaching camp has progressed, familiarizing himself together with his gamers and workers with Hershey’s personal camp simply forward on the horizon.
His prior AHL teaching expertise consists of stops in Grand Rapids, Toronto and Rockford as an assistant coach, and three years as a head coach in Rockford. Early in his fourth season there, he ascended to Chicago, changing Jeremy Colliton as head coach. When the Hawks employed Luke Richardson as their coach in 2022-23, King stayed on workers as an assistant. He is aware of the challenges of dealing with a predominantly younger group, and the balancing act of conserving the Bears aggressive whereas the first-year guys are discovering and forging their manner into the League.
“I feel the large factor, and I’ve handled the younger prospects – particularly somewhat bit with Marlies – and it wasn’t so dangerous, as a result of we had some good vets. However Rockford, after I was teaching in Rockford, we had numerous younger youngsters. It was extra simply educating them good habits and educating them be a professional. It wasn’t as a lot of the sport or the hockey a part of it, it is extra, ‘How are you doing off the ice? Who’s doing all of your laundry?’ and serving to them out with that, the place to buy groceries. It’s these little issues that assist a younger participant I feel these days develop lots simpler as a result of they’re snug of their environment.”
Hershey is thought for its dedication to successful, which might often conflict with the event side of issues. However King has been within the teaching sport repeatedly for a decade and a half now, so he’s properly conscious of that problem.
“It’s at all times a problem,” he says. “However watching these guys and attending to know them, I feel the children are up for the problem. I feel we’ll have a superb secure veteran core, and that’s going to assist these youngsters and push these youngsters to be higher every single day. However it’s going to be as much as myself and the remainder of the workers to be sure that we’re pushing them in the appropriate path and that they arrive to work every single day desirous to get higher.”
Considerably mockingly, when King first dabbled in teaching in 2002-03 with the AHL Grand Rapids Griffins, he and Nelson have been assistant coaches along with the Griffins, underneath head coach Danton Cole. The one distinction was that Nelson was a bench assistant coach whereas King was a player-assistant coach, a job he held for 2 seasons in Grand Rapids. Nelson was additionally a player-assistant coach in his personal first foray into teaching; he was a enjoying assistant coach underneath Cole with the UHL Muskegon Fury the season earlier than King joined him.
(Additionally considerably mockingly – all these years later – Cole was initially elevated from Muskegon to Grand Rapids as a result of the Griffins’ 2001-02 coach – Bruce Cassidy – gained the Louis A.R. Pieri Award because the AHL coach of the 12 months, and that led to him being employed as Washington’s coach in June of 2002, changing Ron Wilson.)
Previous to his teaching profession, King loved a profitable 14-year, 830-game NHL enjoying profession during which he totaled 261 objectives and 612 factors. King’s enjoying profession took on the form of a bell curve; he spent elements of every of his first three professional seasons at AHL Springfield earlier than establishing himself as a full-time NHL participant. King additionally performed within the AHL through the bottom of his enjoying profession, ending up as a participant in Grand Rapids in 2003-04; he stepped away from teaching for some time after these preliminary two seasons as a enjoying assistant.
King returned to the teaching sport in 2009-10 as an assistant with the AHL Toronto Marlies, underneath then-head coach Dallas Eakins, a former Caps draft selection (tenth spherical, 2008th total in 1985 NHL Entry Draft).
“Clearly, he’s been across the sport a very long time,” says Caps senior vice chairman and basic supervisor Chris Patrick. “He’s been a head coach on the AHL stage, he’s been a head coach on the NHL stage, an assistant coach at each ranges.
“I feel he’s performed a superb job with younger gamers, and only a actually well-respected man. You don’t should spend an excessive amount of time speaking to him; I feel you’ll actually see he matches the mildew of the coaches we wish to have down there. He’s going to be nice locally, he’s going to be a superb consultant of the Capitals and the Hershey Bears, and he’s going to make our younger gamers higher and hopefully win some Calder Cups.”
Nelson gained two Calder Cups in his three seasons on the helm, and several other of the gamers who performed on one or each of these championship groups are on the ice for Washington’s coaching camp this fall whereas one veteran – defenseman John Carlson – stays within the group from Hershey’s prior set of back-to-back Calder Cup titles in 2008-09 and ’09-10.
Lots of the gamers who performed on both or each of these Calder Cup Hershey squads in 2022-23 and 2023-24 have moved on for alternatives elsewhere, however 14 of them are in camp with the Caps this fall, and two of them – forwards Connor McMichael and Aliaksei Protas, each 2019 draftees – are the place the remaining are looking for to get; they’re common NHL gamers coming off breakout seasons.
King was employed late in the summertime, which is much from ideally suited, however Nelson was really employed every week later – on Aug. 11, 2022 – three years earlier, and the Bears gained all of it in every of his first two seasons behind the bench. Nobody is anticipating King to work miracles of that magnitude in Hershey this season, however as famous earlier, the Bears did advance to the Cup Closing the final time that they had such a youthful squad.
This 12 months’s mannequin has some strong veterans like Ness strategically scattered throughout its roster, and it has some sturdy institutional data available in assistant coach Nick Bootland and affiliate goalie coach Juha Lehtola, each of whom have Calder Cup rings from these two back-to-back titles.
“It’s positively a studying expertise,” says Ness. “Skilled hockey at this stage, particularly with a few of the world class gamers on this group, you’ll be able to soak up lots; I’m nonetheless taking in lots for the way these guys put together and the way they follow and play the sport. And in the end, you simply attempt to go that on to the youthful gamers so that they perceive what it takes to play at this stage, to be at this stage constantly day in and time out.”
Final season, Ness was appointed group captain after earlier captain Dylan McIlrath ascended to the NHL, spending everything of final season with the Capitals. Ness has labored with many coaches over the course of his profession, and as he begins his sixteenth professional season, he is aware of his experience could also be wanted greater than typical with a brand new coach and a big crop of first 12 months execs headed to Hershey this fall.
“Once you get a coach like that with the expertise and the data he has, clearly if he ever wants something, I’ll be there for him,” says Ness. “However he is aware of the sport so properly and he’s so educated, and such a terrific man from the little I’ve talked to him. I’m actually excited to work with him and it’s going to be numerous enjoyable this 12 months.”
King was in a position to watch Thursday’s preseason sport from a Large Middle suite, however with Hershey’s camp getting underway over the weekend, he’s again on the ice and within the thick of educating, teaching and getting acclimated to the world, on and off the ice.
In his personal enjoying profession, King mustered some maturity early to ascend from the AHL to the NHL. And when he landed again within the AHL in his thirties, he embraced the expertise – he performed a season as a professional in Germany late in his profession, too – and people experiences are what make him a superb coach.
“Getting mature after which clearly having my profession and ending within the minors, I nonetheless wished to play,” says King. “I knew I used to be sort of performed after I went to St. Louis [in 1999-00]; the sport was getting sooner, and I wasn’t. That’s not a superb factor.
“Happening to the minors was really the rationale I received into teaching,” says King. “I’d speak to those younger guys on a regular basis on the bench. They might ask me questions, and I used to be really teaching them, and I actually loved it.”
Many gamers would have merely retired if that they had been assigned to the AHL on the age of 33 following a prolonged and profitable NHL profession. King’s need to maintain enjoying is what in the end led to his subsequent profession, and he’s now beginning his nineteenth season within the teaching sport.
“I actually didn’t assume I used to be going to get into teaching whereas I used to be [playing] within the NHL,” he says. “It was kind of after I went all the way down to the minors and I knew I used to be going to be there, and I wished to proceed my enjoying profession. I didn’t really feel like I wanted to retire but; my physique was nonetheless holding up; I simply wasn’t as quick as I used to be after I was youthful.
“However it was the conversations on the bench or conversations after video games or on the bus, and telling tales of after I performed, and younger guys coming as much as me and asking me for assist with this, or this, after which working with all of them, particularly the forwards, with selecting pucks off the boards and taking pictures pucks. And that’s after I received somewhat little bit of a bug, like I might do that for a dwelling, and I simply tried to maintain it going.”
With almost twenty years of teaching expertise following a prolonged and numerous enjoying profession that included a stint in Europe and each early- and late-career stints within the minors, King has been within the sport longer than his gamers have been on the earth. He has seen the sport evolve, and he has developed with it.
“I feel the gamers these days want data,” says King. “Clearly the expertise with video and breaking down video games and watching your shifts after and the way a lot element goes into it – particularly as a coach – and seeing and watching them work right here within the workplace, breaking down the sport already, it is a positive artwork now.
“Going again to after I first began, the coaches have been extra like therapists. They only knew handle gamers. I feel we discovered the sport much more from one another, speaking amongst and studying from the older gamers, them serving to you, bringing you together with them. And the video wasn’t [so predominant]; the VHS tapes have been poor high quality, so half the time it was in all probability me turning the puck over, however you could not actually inform as a result of it was blurry, so I denied it. However I feel that is the largest distinction, is simply how superior the sport is now, video sensible and construction.”
King has a dry wit and a pointy thoughts, and each will serve him properly in his new place with the Bears. He has performed for quite a lot of teaching legends alongside the way in which – together with the likes of Al Arbour and Pat Quinn – and he has taken in lots since ascending from juniors to the professionals. We puzzled how King the coach would counsel King the participant, and what would coach King inform an impressionable, 20-year-old Derek King as he launched into his personal enjoying profession?
“I don’t assume I’ve ever been requested that,” he says. “I’ve requested myself that. I feel simply studying to be a greater professional and taking it somewhat extra severe; I feel that might be my greatest recommendation to myself after I was 20. I nonetheless had the ‘junior’ in me after I was 20, and it was enjoyable. However it wasn’t about [being on] a hockey card and getting your identify on a stick; there’s extra to the NHL sport than simply that. And I feel I wanted to be somewhat higher, taking it extra critically whether or not it was consuming proper, taking care of myself, or coaching in the summertime. That may be the largest factor.”
Now, the largest factor for King is the Hershey Bears. He’s able to impart his many years of hockey knowledge to an upstart crop of younger and impressionable hockey hopefuls who’ve designs on reaching and staying within the NHL. Right here’s hoping this King’s reign in Hershey will likely be lengthy and affluent, as the connection between the Bears and the Capitals has been these previous twenty years.
