Some 19 years after they last played a preseason game in the Hershey, Pa. home of their AHL affiliate, the Caps made a triumphant and heartwarming preseason return in a 5-1 win over Philadelphia in front of a capacity crowd at Giant Center last Thursday night. The on-ice performance was dominant over every inch of the ice, and the individual performances were consistently strong throughout the lineup.
As the Caps and Bears mark the 20-year anniversary of the fruitful affiliation they’ve forged, Thursday’s game provided a vibrant reminder of how and why the relationship works so well, and it comes as Hershey is on the cusp of a season marked with change.
With so many of the players who brought consecutive Calder Cup titles to Hershey in 2023 and 2024 now plying their trade in other hockey ports of call, the Bears are certain to get a massive influx of skill and youth into their roster this season because Washington has a large group of players ready to start their respective pro careers in 2025-26. As those players embark upon the next phase of their hockey careers in Hershey this season, they’ll do so under the watchful eye of Derek King, hired on Aug. 4 as the 29th coach in Hershey’s storied franchise history.
In Thursday’s exhibition against the Flyers, Washington played a strong 60-minute game, and many of its players stood out, including those diligently vying for precious few roster berths available. In addition to the convincing victory, the Caps also delivered a heartwarming storyline with the presence of two sets of brothers – Aliaksei and Ilya Protas and Dylan and Matt Strome – in the Washington lineup. That’s an NHL rarity that hasn’t occurred in the regular season in more than two decades.
Even with all those positive vibes, there was a larger, more overarching meaning to Thursday’s game, which comes as the AHL Hershey Bears are on the verge of beginning their own 2025 training camp. This late September preseason game was also a celebration of the remarkably successful 20-year affiliation between the Washington and Hershey franchises, and a happy homecoming for a slew of players and staffers who’ve lived and worked and played in Chocolatetown over the years.
Since the current Caps-Bears affiliation was forged in April of 2005, Hershey has won five Calder Cup crowns; it advanced to the Calder Cup Final on two other occasions. Washington won its first Stanley Cup in 2018 and has a .608 regular season points percentage over the same span, second best in the NHL over that span.
Caps coach Spencer Carbery is one of many people who’ve ascended from Hershey to Washington over the years, and he beams with pride and warmth whenever he speaks of the relationship between the two franchises.
“It was amazing, to come back here to Giant Center, to walk out to a full building,” said Carbery after Thursday’s game, standing at the podium and sporting a brown tie for the occasion. “Even driving in on the bus today, I had some goosebumps at various moments pulling up and walking into this building; there’s a lot of great memories here, and it brought me back to a few.
“Being able to go out there and play the way that we did, I was really, really proud of our group. I know it’s an exhibition game, but this game means a little bit more for a lot of guys in our locker room and on our team. And to play the way that we did, so I was glad – really happy – we were able to put that on display for the Bears fans.”
Of the 20 players clad in Washington sweaters for Thursday night’s game, 11 have played in Hershey at some point in their career and a few more are likely to begin their pro careers there this fall. Nine of the Caps who suited up on Thursday are recent Calder Cup champs from their Hershey days, and few of them are two-time champs who played on both the ’22-23 and ’23-24 championship squads.
“It was fun, it was fun,” reiterates two-time Calder Cup champ Hendrix Lapierre, whose three assists in Thursday’s game give him six points (two goals, four assists) in two preseason games. “As soon as you come into the building, there’s that smell that you just know you’re in Hershey at the Giant Center. I felt it right away, and it obviously brings back a lot of good memories.
“Before the game, I was on the bench looking at the empty stands and reminding myself of good memories here. It was fun; I’m glad we were able to play a good game for them. These fans mean a lot to me and a lot of people here, so I think we’re pretty happy.”
“The whole team is playing really well; we’re all gelling, and that’s the important part,” says Caps defenseman Vincent Iorio, another two-time champ who has turned in two strong preseason performances in his push for a roster berth. “There’s a lot of guys particularly in Hershey, and that’s why it’s so cool being back here. We’ve had a lot of really, really good memories here and we had to put on a show for everybody.”
Players like Lapierre and Iorio inspire first-year pros such as Andrew Cristall and Ilya Protas, just as the likes of Lapierre and Iorio are inspired by Connor McMichael and Aliaksei Protas, two members of the ’22-23 Hershey champs who’ve since evolved to become key contributors for the Capitals, and cornerstone pieces of the puzzle moving forward.
More than two years removed from his most recent AHL game and coming off a career best season in every category, McMichael was still intent upon returning to Hershey for a Giant Center encore, and he delivered as well, with a dazzling shorthanded goal followed by a trademark Bears roar as he glided past the bench afterwards.
“Today on the plane, I told the guys, ‘If I score, I’m going to bring out the roar one more time for old times’ sake,’ recounts McMichael with a smile. “And I’m glad I got the chance to do it.
“Right when I found out that this game was happening, I wanted to play in it. It’s something I had marked on the calendar. It was a lot of fun to see the old faces from before and I’m glad we got the win for them.”
And as he prepares to embark upon his first pro season, Cristall caught the vibe and rode with it. He scored the game’s first goal – with help from Lapierre, naturally – on a Washington power play in the first period.
“I was just talking about it; it was unbelievable,” says Cristall of playing at Giant Center for the first time. “After that first goal, I wasn’t planning on cellying, but there was a big roar, so I thought I’d give ’em something. But it was pretty incredible.”
It was a memorable night for many reasons and in many ways. Thursday’s game also comes at a crossroads for the Bears both on the ice and behind the bench. So many of the members of Hershey’s consecutive championship teams have moved on to other teams, other organizations, other opportunities, other countries. The upcoming 2025-26 season is virtually certain to be the largest first-year class of Washington prospects launching careers in Hershey in a decade.
From last year’s draft class, second-round defenseman Leon Muggli, third-round forwards Ilya Protas and Eriks Mateiko could begin their professional careers in North America this season. From the 2023 Draft, first-rounder Ryan Leonard embarks upon his first full season as a pro, as does second-round forward Cristall, fourth-round forward 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 forward Ludwig Persson and seventh-round defenseman David Gucciardi will do so.
That’s 11 first-year players, and they won’t all be in Hershey. Leonard is virtually certain to play in Washington, and some others may return to European pro leagues, and some are likely to filter down to ECHL South Carolina.
It’s too early to tell precisely which players will open on the Hershey roster and too murky in terms of waiver clearance and other personnel/roster factors playing out in exhibitions, scrimmages and camps around the 32-team circuit, but the last time Hershey had a freshman class as large as it is likely to have in 2025-26 was in 2015-16, when it advanced to the Calder Cup Final before falling to Jared Bednar’s Lake Erie Monsters.
On the Hershey roster during that upstart 2015-16 season was veteran blueliner Aaron Ness, who was in the first season of his first of two stints in Hershey at the time. Ness has spent seven full seasons in Hershey, winning two Calder Cups and reaching the Final three times.
“It just goes to show you never know what’s going to happen, how a team is going to come together and how a team is going to be made up,” says Ness of the ’15-16 team. “Everyone is running through training camp looking really good [this year]. There’s a lot of good talent, a lot of good young talent, and a good mix of veteran presence, I think, for us. It’s going to be an exciting year, a lot of fun, and obviously a new coach, too. There’s a lot going on – a lot of moving parts – and we’re excited to get rolling. We like what we see, and we’re excited to get started.”
Earlier this year, the Capitals and the AHL Hershey Bears marked the 20th anniversary of the current affiliation between the two teams. The relationship got off to an immediate strong start when Bruce Boudreau led the Bears to a Calder Cup championship in the first season of the affiliation in 2005-06.
This season in Hershey, the Bears are certain to look significantly different with the departure of so many players from their back-to-back championship teams. And the change starts behind the bench where coach Todd Nelson has moved to the western side of Pennsylvania, returning to the NHL as an assistant coach with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
In early August, the Bears and Caps announced King as Nelson’s replacement behind the bench in Hershey. King is taking the opposite route of Nelson; following a short stint at interim coach of the Chicago Blackhawks in 2021-22, King stayed on as an assistant coach in Chicago for the last three seasons before taking the head coach job in Hershey this summer.
In the early days of his own pro career with AHL Springfield – then a NY Islanders affiliate – in the late 1980s, King played against the Bears at the historic Hersheypark Arena.
“With Springfield we went there and played, and it was a tough building to play in,” says King. “And there were a lot of tough hockey players in the League back then. But always, the fans were a little rowdy and crazy, but that’s what you want, especially as a home team.
“In my interview, I told them this was like getting a job with an Original Six team, and that’s what it is. It’s a legendary place to play in the American Hockey League … it’s the 33rd NHL team, really. And everybody [in the organization], with the way you’re treated and the way they act, they run it like an NHL team. And I’m looking forward to getting down there and getting going with this team.”
King attended the Caps rookie camp in Annapolis this month, and he’s been on the ice and he has also been seen watching on from above as Washington’s training camp has progressed, familiarizing himself with his players and staff with Hershey’s own camp just ahead on the horizon.
His prior AHL coaching experience includes 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, replacing Jeremy Colliton as head coach. When the Hawks hired Luke Richardson as their coach in 2022-23, King stayed on staff as an assistant. He knows the challenges of handling a predominantly young team, and the balancing act of keeping the Bears competitive while the first-year guys are finding and forging their way into the League.
“I think the big thing, and I’ve dealt with the young prospects – especially a little bit with Marlies – and it wasn’t so bad, because we had some good vets. But Rockford, when I was coaching in Rockford, we had a lot of young kids. It was more just teaching them good habits and teaching them how to be a pro. It wasn’t as much of the game or the hockey part of it, it’s more, ‘How are you doing off the ice? Who’s doing your laundry?’ and helping them out with that, where to go shopping. It’s those little things that help a young player I think nowadays develop a lot easier because they’re comfortable in their surroundings.”
Hershey is known for its commitment to winning, which can occasionally clash with the development aspect of things. But King has been in the coaching game continuously for a decade and a half now, so he’s well aware of that challenge.
“It’s always a challenge,” he says. “But watching these guys and getting to know them, I think the kids are up for the challenge. I think we’ll have a good stable veteran core, and that’s going to help these kids and push these kids to be better every day. But it’s going to be up to myself and the rest of the staff to make sure that we’re pushing them in the right direction and that they come to work every day wanting to get better.”
Somewhat ironically, when King first dabbled in coaching in 2002-03 with the AHL Grand Rapids Griffins, he and Nelson were assistant coaches together with the Griffins, under head coach Danton Cole. The only difference was that Nelson was a bench assistant coach while King was a player-assistant coach, a role he held for two seasons in Grand Rapids. Nelson was also a player-assistant coach in his own first foray into coaching; he was a playing assistant coach under Cole with the UHL Muskegon Fury the season before King joined him.
(Also somewhat ironically – all these years later – Cole was originally elevated from Muskegon to Grand Rapids because the Griffins’ 2001-02 coach – Bruce Cassidy – won the Louis A.R. Pieri Award as the AHL coach of the year, and that led to him being hired as Washington’s coach in June of 2002, replacing Ron Wilson.)
Prior to his coaching career, King enjoyed a successful 14-year, 830-game NHL playing career in which he totaled 261 goals and 612 points. King’s playing career took on the shape of a bell curve; he spent parts of each of his first three pro seasons at AHL Springfield before establishing himself as a full-time NHL player. King also played in the AHL during the backside of his playing career, finishing up as a player in Grand Rapids in 2003-04; he stepped away from coaching for a while after those initial two seasons as a playing assistant.
King returned to the coaching game in 2009-10 as an assistant with the AHL Toronto Marlies, under then-head coach Dallas Eakins, a former Caps draft choice (10th round, 2008th overall in 1985 NHL Entry Draft).
“Obviously, he’s been around the game a long time,” says Caps senior vice president and general manager Chris Patrick. “He’s been a head coach at the AHL level, he’s been a head coach at the NHL level, an assistant coach at both levels.
“I think he’s done a good job with young players, and just a really well-respected guy. You don’t have to spend too much time talking to him; I think you’ll really see he fits the mold of the coaches we like to have down there. He’s going to be great in the community, he’s going to be a good representative of the Capitals and the Hershey Bears, and he is going to make our young players better and hopefully win some Calder Cups.”
Nelson won two Calder Cups in his three seasons at the helm, and several of the players who played on one or both of those championship teams are on the ice for Washington’s training camp this fall while one veteran – defenseman John Carlson – remains in the organization from Hershey’s prior set of back-to-back Calder Cup titles in 2008-09 and ’09-10.
Many of the players who played on either or both of those Calder Cup Hershey squads in 2022-23 and 2023-24 have moved on for opportunities elsewhere, but 14 of them are in camp with the Caps this fall, and two of them – forwards Connor McMichael and Aliaksei Protas, both 2019 draftees – are where the rest are seeking to get; they’re regular NHL players coming off breakout seasons.
King was hired late in the summer, which is far from ideal, but Nelson was actually hired a week later – on Aug. 11, 2022 – three years earlier, and the Bears won it all in each of his first two seasons behind the bench. No one is expecting King to work miracles of that magnitude in Hershey this season, but as noted earlier, the Bears did advance to the Cup Final the last time they had such a youthful squad.
This year’s model has some solid veterans like Ness strategically scattered across its roster, and it has some strong institutional knowledge on hand in assistant coach Nick Bootland and associate goalie coach Juha Lehtola, both of whom have Calder Cup rings from those two back-to-back titles.
“It’s definitely a learning experience,” says Ness. “Professional hockey at this level, especially with some of the world class players in this organization, you can take in a lot; I’m still taking in a lot for how these guys prepare and how they practice and play the game. And ultimately, you just try to pass that on to the younger players so they understand what it takes to play at this level, to be at this level consistently day in and day out.”
Last season, Ness was appointed team captain after previous captain Dylan McIlrath ascended to the NHL, spending the entirety of last season with the Capitals. Ness has worked with many coaches over the course of his career, and as he starts his 16th pro season, he knows his expertise may be needed more than usual with a new coach and a large crop of first year pros headed to Hershey this fall.
“When you get a coach like that with the experience and the knowledge he has, obviously if he ever needs anything, I’ll be there for him,” says Ness. “But he knows the game so well and he’s so knowledgeable, and such a great guy from the little I’ve talked to him. I’m really excited to work with him and it’s going to be a lot of fun this year.”
King was able to watch Thursday’s preseason game from a Giant Center suite, but with Hershey’s camp getting underway over the weekend, he’s back on the ice and in the thick of teaching, coaching and getting acclimated to the area, on and off the ice.
In his own playing career, King mustered some maturity early to ascend from the AHL to the NHL. And when he landed back in the AHL in his thirties, he embraced the experience – he played a season as a pro in Germany late in his career, too – and those experiences are what make him a good coach.
“Getting mature and then obviously having my career and finishing in the minors, I still wanted to play,” says King. “I knew I was kind of done when I went to St. Louis [in 1999-00]; the game was getting faster, and I wasn’t. That’s not a good thing.
“Going down to the minors was actually the reason I got into coaching,” says King. “I would talk to these young guys all the time on the bench. They would ask me questions, and I was actually coaching them, and I really enjoyed it.”
Many players would have simply retired if they had been assigned to the AHL at the age of 33 following a lengthy and successful NHL career. King’s desire to keep playing is what ultimately led to his next career, and he is now starting his 19th season in the coaching game.
“I really didn’t think I was going to get into coaching while I was [playing] in the NHL,” he says. “It was more or less when I went down to the minors and I knew I was going to be there, and I wanted to continue my playing career. I didn’t feel like I needed to retire yet; my body was still holding up; I just wasn’t as fast as I was when I was younger.
“But it was the conversations on the bench or conversations after games or on the bus, and telling stories of when I played, and young guys coming up to me and asking me for help with this, or this, and then working with them all, especially the forwards, with picking pucks off the boards and shooting pucks. And that’s when I got a little bit of a bug, like I could do this for a living, and I just tried to keep it going.”
With nearly two decades of coaching experience following a lengthy and diverse playing career that included a stint in Europe and both early- and late-career stints in the minors, King has been in the game longer than his players have been on the earth. He has seen the game evolve, and he has evolved with it.
“I think the players nowadays need information,” says King. “Obviously the technology with video and breaking down games and watching your shifts after and how much detail goes into it – especially as a coach – and seeing and watching them work here in the office, breaking down the game already, it’s a fine art now.
“Going back to when I first started, the coaches were more like therapists. They just knew how to manage players. I think we learned the game a lot more from each other, talking amongst and learning from the older players, them helping you, bringing you along with them. And the video wasn’t [so predominant]; the VHS tapes were poor quality, so half the time it was probably me turning the puck over, but you couldn’t really tell because it was blurry, so I denied it. But I think that’s the biggest difference, is just how advanced the game is now, video wise and structure.”
King has a dry wit and a sharp mind, and both will serve him well in his new position with the Bears. He has played for a number of coaching legends along the way – including the likes of Al Arbour and Pat Quinn – and he has taken in a lot since ascending from juniors to the pros. We wondered how King the coach would counsel King the player, and what would coach King tell an impressionable, 20-year-old Derek King as he embarked on his own playing career?
“I don’t think I’ve ever been asked that,” he says. “I’ve asked myself that. I think just learning to be a better pro and taking it a little more serious; I think that would be my biggest advice to myself when I was 20. I still had the ‘junior’ in me when I was 20, and it was fun. But it wasn’t about [being on] a hockey card and getting your name on a stick; there is more to the NHL game than just that. And I think I needed to be a little better, taking it more seriously whether it was eating right, looking after myself, or training in the summer. That would be the biggest thing.”
Now, the biggest thing for King is the Hershey Bears. He’s ready to impart his decades of hockey wisdom to an upstart crop of young and impressionable hockey hopefuls who have designs on reaching and staying in the NHL. Here’s hoping this King’s reign in Hershey will be long and prosperous, as the relationship between the Bears and the Capitals has been these past two decades.