The Hershey Bears were the first team in the AHL to clinch a 2025 Calder Cup Playoff spot, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t still making moves to put themselves in the best spot for May.
Here’s a look at the moves Hershey has been making:
Chesley, Gucciardi sign amateur tryout agreements
This amateur tryout agreement, to those who don’t know, allow players to play professionally without losing their amateur status. It allows young players to taste the AHL without jeopardizing amateur eligibility, and are usually short-term contracts.
This deal is not out of that norm, as Ryan Chesley and David Gucciardi are both on contract for the remaining eight games in the regular season. Chesley, a 21-year-old, played for University of Minnesota, a captain for the Golden Gophers. He scored a career-best 20 points (8 goals, 12 assists) in 40 games as a defender. He was an all-Big Ten honorable mention, blocking 73 shots. He scored 38 points overall in his career, and helped the team to an NCAA Frozen Four runner-up finish in 2022-23, his freshman year.
Chesley also played for Team USA twice at the IIHF World Junior Championships, earning Bronze in 2023 and winning Gold in 2024. He was drafted 37th overall by the Capitals in the 2022 NHL Draft. Chesley will sport the #13 jersey.
Gucciardi signed a two-year entry level contract earlier this week with the Capitals that starts in the 2025-26 season, and the “ATO” means he won’t need to burn a year from his “ETC.” He was the Capitals’ seventh round selection, 213th overall, in the 2022 NHL Draft.
Like Chesley, Gucciardi is a defender and played in the Big Ten. He scored six goals and ten assists in 37 games at Michigan State this season. The Toronto native recorded 45 points in his 139 games with the Spartans. He will wear #48 in the Chocolate and White.
SPENCER SMALLMAN SIGNS TWO-YEAR, TWO-YEAR CONTRACT
The Capitals re-signed Smallman to a deal that extends through the 2026-27 season, they announced on Tuesday. Financially, the deal will pay $775,000 at the NHL level and $380,000 at the AHL level.
In his first season in Hershey, Smallman has scored nine goals, a personal-best 29 assists, which is tied for second on the Bears.
Smallman was a part of the 2022 AHL Champion Chicago Wolves team, the last non-Hershey club to win a Calder Cup. He contributed 27 points to that team off ten goals, 17 assists. One of the 17 assists was the assist on the Calder Cup winning goal for the Wolves.
The AHL vet spent last season with the Colorado Eagles.
HUDSON THORNTON LOANED TO ORLANDO
Thornton appeared in just one game for the Bears during his recall, making his AHL debut on March 19 in Springfield.
He has scored 14 points for the Orlando Solar Bears of the ECHL this season, and is heading back to Florida to continue with the team. The Solar Bears are an affiliate of the Tampa Bay Lightning, but have a history of loaning players back and forth with the Capitals’ organization.
Thornton has also skated in seven games for the South Carolina Stingrays this season, the Caps’ ECHL affiliate.
LYNDREN BREEN SIGNS 2025-26 DEAL
Breen will play for the Stingrays in the ECHL for the remainder of this season after signing the one-year contract.
He was the co-captain of University of Maine this season, and played his final game PPL Center in Allentown, home of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. In the 5-1 loss to Penn State, Breen fired two shots and went five for 11 in faceoffs. His season was injury shortened, but scored 13 points off seven goals and six assists. Overall, he scored 115 points (49 goals, 66 assists) in 144 games across five years for Maine.
Breen also played for the Central Illinois and Fargo Force in the USHL. He was Fargo’s team MVP in 2019-20.
The Bears season continues on Friday night at PPL Center in Allentown, in a meeting with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. It’s a 7:05 PM start against an Allentown team that sits fifth in Atlantic Division standings. So far, four teams have clinched playoff spots in the Atlantic Division, including Hershey, Charlotte, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Providence. Hershey has dropped to fourth in overall AHL standings, with Colorado, Rochester and Laval in front.
The Chocolate Roar 
[…] For the first time this season- The Chocolate Roar made a road trip. I was in Allentown tonight as the Bears took on their cross state rivals in the Phantoms. The Bears acquired some major reinforcements over the last week, which Luke Brown talked about in his article here. […]
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