The Capitals and the American Hockey League’s Hershey Bears have agreed to extend their affiliation agreement through the 2013-14 season, the organizations announced on Wednesday.
Washington and Hershey have been together since the 2005-06 season. Hershey has qualified for the playoffs every season and won three Calder Cups during that time. Fourteen players who appeared in a postseason game with the Caps this spring had spent some time in Hershey. Former Washington coach Bruce Boudreau led the Bears to one of those titles, and two Calder Cup finals, before coaching the Caps for four years and parts of five seasons.
“It’s not unusual,” Washington general manager George McPhee said last week when asked why a renewal hadn’t been announced before the end of the season. “The relationship we have, things are fine there.”
The facilities are a bonus. The Bears play at Giant Center, an arena built in 2002, and drew an AHL-best 375,146 fans. That is the sixth year in a row Hershey has topped the AHL in attendance. Giant Center is just 140 miles north of the District. No other current AHL city is closer.
The Bears will play a game at Verizon Center in the District next season, a game tentatively scheduled for Dec. 6 against the Norfolk Admirals, this year’s AHL Eastern Conference champions.
Hershey and Washington were previously affiliated from 1977 to 1984. The Bears also won the 1980 Calder Cup during that stretch.
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