The Hershey Bears announced their Opening Night roster for the 2025-26 AHL season on Friday morning.<\/p>\n
To start the year, the club will carry 32 total players: 20 forwards, 9 defensemen, and 3 goaltenders. Of those 32 players, 22 are signed to NHL contracts, nine are signed to AHL contracts, and one is signed to a professional try-out agreement.<\/p>\n
The Bears begin their season at home against the Syracuse Crunch on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
10 Ivan Miroshnichenko
11 Spencer Smallman
12 Henrik Rybinski
13 Eriks Mateiko
14 Zac Funk (injury rehab)
15 Jalen Luypen
19 Grant Cruikshank
20 Andrew Cristall
22 Luke Toporowski
25 Ryan Hofer
26 Ludwig Persson
28 Ethen Frank
32 Justin Nachbaur
37 Dalton Smith
39 Patrick Thomas
40 Ilya Protas
41 Alex Suzdalev
44 Bogdan Trineyev
45 Matt Strome
56 Sheldon Rempal
92 Graeme Clarke<\/p>\n
2 Cam Allen
4 Nicky Leivermann
5 Ryan Chesley
7 Louie Belpedio
27 Aaron Ness
34 Leon Muggli
43 Calle Rosen
47 Jon McDonald
48 David Gucciardi<\/p>\n
The Bears are bringing back 20 players who played in at least one regular-season or playoff game for the team last year. They\u2019ll be led by new head coach Derek King, who joined the organization over the offseason after Todd Nelson departed to take an NHL job with the Pittsburgh Penguins.<\/p>\n
Among the returning players are the team\u2019s lone 20-goal scorers from the 2024-25 campaign, Ivan Miroshnichenko (23) and Ethen Frank (20). Other key forwards back for another year in Chocolatetown include Matt Strome, Bogdan Trineyev, Spencer Smallman, and Henrik Rybinski.<\/p>\n
Aaron Ness returns as the club\u2019s captain for a second season after he took over the leadership role from Dylan McIlrath last year. Ness is one of five players on the Bears\u2019 roster considered AHL veterans (321 or more professional games in the AHL, NHL, or elite European leagues), with Smallman the lone player who qualifies for veteran-exempt status (261-320 professional games).\u00a0AHL teams can only dress a maximum of six skaters with more than 260 professional games in each game.<\/p>\n
The Capitals will see many of their top prospects play a full pro season in North America on the Bears this year, including Eriks Mateiko, Andrew Cristall, Ludwig Persson, Patrick Thomas, Ilya Protas, Cam Allen, Ryan Chesley, Leon Muggli, and David Gucciardi.<\/p>\n
Clay Stevenson is expected to be the leading man in net for Hershey, taking the full-time reins for the first time after primarily playing second fiddle to Hunter Shepard the past two seasons.<\/p>\n
HERSHEY BEARS ANNOUNCE 2025 OPENING NIGHT ROSTER
\nClub opens 88th season in American Hockey League Saturday versus Syracuse under new head coach Derek King<\/p>\n
(Hershey, PA \u2013 October 10, 2025) \u2013 The Hershey Bears have announced the club\u2019s 2025 Opening Night Roster. Hershey takes the ice to open its 88th season of American Hockey League competition tomorrow, Saturday, Oct. 11 at GIANT Center when it hosts the Syracuse Crunch at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n
Forwards (20):
Graeme Clarke, Andrew Cristall, Grant Cruikshank, Ethen Frank, Ryan Hofer, Jalen Luypen, Eriks Mateiko, Ivan Miroshnichenko, Justin Nachbaur, Ludwig Persson, Ilya Protas, Sheldon Rempal, Henrik Rybinski, Spencer Smallman, Dalton Smith, Matt Strome, Alex Suzdalev, Patrick Thomas, Luke Toporowski, Bogdan Trineyev<\/p>\n
Defensemen (9):
Cam Allen, Louie Belpedio, Ryan Chesley, David Gucciardi, Nicky Leivermann, Jon McDonald, Leon Muggli, Aaron Ness, Calle Ros\u00e9n<\/p>\n
Goaltenders (3):
Garin Bjorklund, Antoine Keller, Clay Stevenson<\/p>\n
Hershey\u2019s 2025 Opening Night Roster features 20 players who dressed for the Bears during the 2024-25 regular season and\/or the 2025 Calder Cup Playoffs. Up front, returning players include Ivan Miroshnichenko, who led Hershey with 23 goals last season; Ethen Frank, whose 80 career goals as a Bear leads active players; Matt Strome, who scored the Calder Cup-clinching goal overtime of Game 6 of the 2024 Calder Cup Finals; Spencer Smallman, who enjoyed a career-high 34 points last season in his first year as a Bear; Bogdan Trineyev, who returns for his third season in North America and led Hershey in the 2025 Calder Cup Playoffs with five goals and seven points; and Henrik Rybinski, back for his fourth season after developing into one of the club\u2019s top two-way forwards.<\/p>\n
On the blue line, captain Aaron Ness returns for his eighth season with the club, along with Nicky Leivermann and Jon McDonald, who played valuable minutes last season in their first full campaign with Hershey, and Ryan Chesley, David Gucciardi, and Leon Muggli, Washington Capitals defensive prospects who each made their pro debuts with the Bears late last season.<\/p>\n
Between the pipes, goaltender Clay Stevenson is back for his third full season in net for the Chocolate and White, and will form a netminding duo with Garin Bjorklund.<\/p>\n
13 players enter the 2025-26 season classified as AHL rookies, while five players (Belpedio, Ness, Rempal, Ros\u00e9n, Smith) enter the campaign as veteran players (321 or more professional games in the AHL, NHL, or elite European leagues), and Spencer Smallman enters the season as a veteran exempt player (261-320 professional games in the AHL, NHL, or any elite European leagues).<\/p>\n
The roster also features forward Jaylen Luypen, who has signed a professional try-out agreement (PTO) with Hershey after attending the club\u2019s 2025 Training Camp as a tryout invitee.<\/p>\n
Additionally, forward Zac Funk remains in Hershey to continue his injury rehabilitation, but he cannot be officially added to Hershey\u2019s roster until he is healthy.<\/p>\n
Bears Roster by Contract Status:
NHL contract: 22
AHL contract: 9
Professional try-out: 1<\/p>\n
Bears Roster by NHL Draft Status:
1st Round: Miroshnichenko (1)
2nd Round: Chesley, Cristall, Muggli, Ness, Smith (5)
3rd Round: Belpedio, Clarke, Mateiko, Persson, Protas, Suzdalev (6)
4th Round: Strome, Thomas, Trineyev (3)
5th Round: Allen, Rybinski, Smallman (3)
6th Round: Bjorklund, Hofer (2)
7th Round: Gucciardi, Keller, Leivermann, Luypen (4)
Undrafted: Cruikshank, Frank, McDonald, Nachbaur, Rempal, Ros\u00e9n, Stevenson, Toporowski (8)<\/p>\n
Bears Roster by Country of Birth:
Canada: Allen, Bjorklund, Clarke, Cristall, Gucciardi, Hofer, Luypen, Nachbaur, Rempal, Rybinski, Smallman, Smith, Stevenson, Strome, Thomas (15)
United States: Belpedio, Chesley, Cruikshank, Frank, Leivermann, McDonald, Ness, Toporowski (8)
Russia: Miroshnichenko, Suzdalev, Trineyev (3)
Sweden: Persson, Ros\u00e9n (2)
Belarus: Protas (1)
France: Keller (1)
Latvia: Mateiko (1)
Switzerland: Muggli (1)<\/p>\n
Bears Roster Average Age:
24 years, 10 months, 29 days<\/p>\n
Oldest Player on Bears Roster:
Aaron Ness, 35 years, 4 months, 23 days<\/p>\n
Youngest Player on Bears Roster:
Ilya Protas, 19 years, 2 months, 23 days<\/p>\n
Bears Roster Average Height:
6\u20191\u201d<\/p>\n
Tallest Player on Bears Roster:
6\u20196\u201d: Eriks Mateiko, Ilya Protas<\/p>\n
Shortest Player on Bears Roster:
5\u201910\u201d: Andrew Cristall, Jaylen Luypen, Aaron Ness<\/p>\n
Bears Roster Average Weight:
194.7 lbs.<\/p>\n
Bears Roster Lightest Player:
Antoine Keller, 170 lbs.<\/p>\n
Bears Roster Heaviest Player:
Ilya Protas, 225 lbs.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s Opening Night starts the 2025-26 season, presented by Penn State Health. Fans are invited to join the club\u2019s pre-game Red Carpet Arrival Event with players starting to arrive at 4 p.m. outside of GIANT Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Hershey Bears announced their Opening Night roster for the 2025-26 AHL season on Friday morning. To start…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-214728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}