Hershey re-signs defenseman Jon McDonald for 2026-27 season
Hershey kept a trusted playoff piece in the fold, returning Jon McDonald after he backed the Bears through another postseason and their 2024 repeat title chase.
Hershey did not add flash to its blue line. It kept a player the organization already trusted when the games mattered most, re-signing defenseman Jon McDonald to a one-year American Hockey League contract for the 2026-27 season.
The move, announced June 3 by vice president of hockey operations Bryan Helmer, gives the Bears another season of familiarity and lineup stability on a roster built to survive the long grind of an AHL season. McDonald, 27, finished his second year in Hershey with 12 points, scoring three goals and adding six assists in 60 regular-season games, then added one assist in five playoff appearances. For a team that has made continuity part of its identity, that is the kind of return that matters: a defenseman who knows the room, knows the pace and can step into pressure without changing the shape of the lineup.
Hershey’s confidence in McDonald has already shown up in the biggest moments on the calendar. He was a Black Ace during the Bears’ 2024 Calder Cup run, a sign the club wanted him close to the group when the championship picture tightened. That spring ended with Hershey lifting its 13th Calder Cup on June 24, 2024, after a 5-4 overtime win over the Coachella Valley Firebirds in Game 6 before a franchise-record crowd of 11,013 at GIANT Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The Bears became the first AHL team to successfully defend the Calder Cup since their own repeat in 2009-10, reinforcing the standard that McDonald is now helping preserve.
McDonald’s path fits the kind of player Hershey tends to keep around. He has appeared in 91 career AHL regular-season games with the Bears and has 18 points in that stretch. Before that, he built pro experience with 86 ECHL games between Toledo and South Carolina, then earned his way into the AHL after signing with the Toledo Walleye on March 23, 2023. With South Carolina in 2023-24, he produced 17 points, including four goals and 13 assists, in 64 games, then had nine points in 12 games the following season.
His resume also includes a strong college track at UMass Lowell, where he was a Hockey East Third Team All-Star in 2023, a four-time Hockey East All-Academic Team honoree and a 2022 Hockey East Distinguished Scholar. Hershey is betting that profile, and the trust it has already shown in McDonald, will keep paying off when injuries, travel and playoff pressure start thinning out the roster again.
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