Hershey adds Morrison, McCallum and Beck on AHL contracts for 2026-27

Hershey added Cam Morrison, Landon McCallum and Noah Beck in one swing, signing all three to American Hockey League contracts for 2026-27. Bryan Helmer, the Bears’ vice president of hockey operations, made the announcement on July 14, and the package tells you plenty about how Hershey wants to protect its standard before camp even starts.

This is the kind of July work contenders do when they are trying to keep four lines and three pairings stocked for a 72-game season. Morrison and McCallum give the Bears more forward competition, Beck adds another option on the blue line, and the combination gives Hershey flexibility without forcing one prospect or one veteran to carry the whole summer.

Morrison has the clearest path to meaningful minutes. The 27-year-old returned to North America after a 2025-26 season with Stavanger Oilers in Norway, where he produced 30 points in 40 games. He also already knows the AHL grind, with 45 games for Charlotte in 2023-24 and 43 more for Rockford in 2021-22. That matters in Hershey, where a player does not need to be a star to earn real ice time, but he does need to show he can survive the nightly wear of the league. Morrison’s recent scoring track and prior AHL mileage give him the best shot of the trio to step into that kind of role quickly.

McCallum is the swing piece. The 22-year-old center/right wing spent most of 2025-26 with the Kansas City Mavericks, putting up 39 points in 65 ECHL games in 2024-25 before getting three AHL games with Coachella Valley last season. That profile says upside, but it also says he still has to turn ECHL production into something more durable at the AHL level. If he sticks, it will likely be because his offense starts to travel north with him.

Beck gives Hershey another practical body for the back end. The 6-foot-3, left-shot defenseman from Richmond Hill, Ontario was listed as a 2020 seventh-round pick of the San Jose Sharks, and he gives the Bears a low-cost option with organizational familiarity. For a team that expects recalls, injuries and lineup shuffles over the course of a long season, that kind of signing is not filler. It is insurance.

Helmer has held the hockey operations job since July 2016, and this is the same kind of roster management that has helped keep Hershey near the top of the AHL’s standard-setters. The Bears did not chase one July headline. They added three useful pieces at two positions, and that is how a contender keeps its season from fraying in January and February.