Hershey Bears Sign NCAA Scoring Leader Alex Gaffney to AHL Contract

The Hershey Bears signed forward Alex Gaffney to an American Hockey League contract for the 2026-27 season, adding an amateur tryout agreement that brings him to the roster for the remainder of the 2025-26 campaign. The announcement was made by vice president of hockey operations Bryan Helmer.

Gaffney, 23, completed his fifth season of collegiate hockey as a graduate transfer at the University of St. Thomas, where he led the Tommies in scoring with 40 points on 18 goals and 22 assists in 38 games and made an appearance in the CCHA title game. The championship game was against eventual champions Minnesota State. In doing so, Gaffney became the third player in St. Thomas DI program history to tally a 40-point season, finishing second in the CCHA in points and tied for second in the NCAA with three shorthanded goals.

The production was not a late-season surge. Gaffney was named the CCHA Forward of the Month in October, leading the conference in scoring during that stretch with 11 points on five goals and six assists. He had missed the majority of the 2024-25 season due to injury before returning and earning that October honor.

None of it came with the backing of an NHL organization. The West Orange, New Jersey native was undrafted, with his stock climbing each season at the collegiate level. Across 138 career NCAA games at St. Thomas and Harvard, the 5-foot-9, 177-pound forward produced 81 points on 40 goals and 41 assists. At Harvard, he helped the Crimson to an ECAC championship in 2021-22 alongside current Hershey goaltender Mitch Gibson, a connection that gives him at least one familiar face in the Hershey locker room.

Before arriving in college, Gaffney spent three seasons in the USHL, generating 84 points on 42 goals and 42 assists in 155 games with the Muskegon Lumberjacks, Omaha Lancers, and Waterloo Black Hawks. Rather than returning home after not making the U.S. national team roster, Gaffney stayed in Michigan to play for the USHL team in Muskegon, a choice that set the trajectory for a career built on making the most of every available opportunity.

His international resume adds another dimension. Gaffney has represented Greece at the 2024 and 2025 Challenger Series, and at last year's event in Montreal he helped Greece win the title while leading the entire series in scoring with 18 points on 10 goals and 8 assists in seven games.

Gaffney will wear number 56 for Hershey. He is the second player to sign an AHL contract with the Bears for 2026-27, following Grant Cruikshank. Gaffney was already on the ice for a Hershey practice this week as the Bears begin integrating their newest addition.

Hershey has seldom gone this route with college players, but the organization's track record when doing so is notable: Ethen Frank signed a similar AHL contract in 2021-22, skated in five games and scored his first AHL goal. Frank has since ascended from that AHL contract all the way to becoming an NHL regular this season, a blueprint Gaffney will be looking to follow as he steps into professional hockey.