A reminder when players go to waivers, the 31 other teams have a chance to claim them within 24 hours. If none of them do, they clear and head to the minors. Washington Capitals prospects Chase Priskie and Riley Sutter both cleared and as a result get assigned to the Hershey Bears.
The Capitals have three preseason games left. Tomorrow they’re in Boston playing the Bruins. Thursday they are in Columbus against the Blue Jackets before the Blue Jackets come back here to DC to finish off the preseason on Saturday night.
The Hershey Bears have a preseason game at the Wilkes Barre Scranton Penguins On Wednesday morning at 10:30 a.m. On Friday night at 7 p.m. those two teams will meet again this time in Chocolate Town. The Bears wrap up the preseason Sunday afternoon at 1:05 p.m. at the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
Their regular season begins at home on Oct. 14 against the Belleville Senators at Giant Center where they will raise the Calder Cup championship banner.
There are several faces from that Calder Cup team that will not be returning as they got hockey opportunities elsewhere. Some of those opportunities came in the AHL while other opportunities came overseas.
Riley Sutter will be returning. After spending time with the Everett Silvertips early on in his hockey career at the WHL, he joined the Bears in 2019 20. He spent the last four seasons in Hershey and was a key player in their 12th championship.
In the regular season he recorded five goals and seven assists for 12 points in 69 games. In the playoffs he added six points in 20 games with two goals and four assists.
Chase Priskie is one of the new faces on the Bears. He has journeyed around to different NHL organizations but returned to his roots in the offseason as the Caps were the team who drafted him back in 2016.