The Caps have a ‘really good situation’ with Hershey. They’re keeping it going.

Geographically, the Bears’s location in Hershey, Pa., just over two hours up Interstate 83 from D.C., makes the logistics of players moving between the two teams straightforward. But the long-term affiliation has much more to do with a shared philosophy than it does with a convenient location.

“Hershey’s goal, first and foremost, is to have a competitive team, a top team in the league and a team that competes every year for Calder Cups,” said Washington associate general manager Chris Patrick, who oversees the relationship between the Capitals and Hershey. “We have similar goals for our developmental team. We put a lot of emphasis on having our prospects playing in winning environments, have them playing on good teams, have them surrounded by good players.”

The Bears have won an AHL-best 12 Calder Cups in their history, and five of them have come while affiliated with Washington. That includes this past season, when current Capitals players Connor McMichael, Aliaksei Protas and Beck Malenstyn were all with Hershey.

The Bears won the 2023 Calder Cup with a Game 7 overtime victory against Coachella Valley — after trailing 2-0 in the second period. McMichael and Hendrix Lapierre, who has played 25 games in Washington this year and 13 in Hershey, scored the goals that forced overtime, and AHL veteran Mike Vecchione scored the winner in overtime.

“You will not find a more pressure-packed situation than overtime of Game 7 of a championship series in your league,” Patrick said. “There’s nothing that’s ever going to be bigger than that unless you’re doing it in the Stanley Cup finals. For those guys to have that now in their tool chest as they get ready to hopefully kind of take the reins a bit [in Washington], I think it’s just huge.”

This year’s Bears team has picked up where the Calder Cup-winning squad left off, with a 34-7-0-2 record that puts them atop the league. It took them just 39 games to reach 30 wins, breaking a franchise record. Lapierre, forward Ivan Miroshnichenko and defenseman Vincent Iorio, among other players that the Capitals hope will contribute at the NHL level down the line, are on exactly the kind of winning team that both Patrick and Bryan Helmer, Hershey’s vice president of hockey operations, want for their players.

“To put our young guys in that kind of environment is a goal of ours. It lines up with Hershey,” Patrick said. “We want to have a good team. We want to win. We want to be competing for Calder Cups from a development standpoint, so that alignment works really well. When you’re starting from the same page as far as what the goals are for the season, what the expectations are for the team, you end up building teams and putting together teams that fit both sides really well, both Hershey and Washington.”

Helmer, Patrick and Jason Fitzsimmons, the Capitals’ director of minor league operations, communicate regularly — once a week at a minimum, but often much more than that, as they discuss updates on players and keep tabs on who may be called up or sent down. Managing the relationship between both organizations requires close contact between the two front offices, and both Patrick and Helmer emphasized how positive the relationship is on both sides.

After the Bears won the Calder Cup, Patrick hosted Helmer and his family for a celebration — and cooked what Helmer called “dynamite” lobster tails.

“If you think about our larger group of us and Hershey, it’s a really good group that we can be honest with each other,” Patrick said. “We enjoy being around each other. It just makes it kind of fun to come to work. The coaching staffs as well. [Hershey Coach] Todd [Nelson] and [Washington Coach] Spencer [Carbery] talk and have a good relationship. They trust each other’s opinions, respect each other’s opinions, are kind of on the same page with players and what players need to be hearing. Overall, it’s just really good, both for the players and the staffs. It’s been a really good situation for us.”

The close nature — and high level of success — of the relationship between the Bears and the Capitals hasn’t gone unnoticed around the rest of the AHL. And with the affiliation set to continue, Helmer takes pride in the fact that other teams see Hershey and Washington as a model to follow.

“You talk to other people around the league and stuff and people notice the relationship that we have with Washington,” Helmer said. “They’re kind of envious, sometimes, of it. They always ask like, ‘What do you guys do?’ or try to pick your brain and [say], ‘See what can we do to try to emulate what you guys are doing, because the success that you’re having is incredible.’

“For me, that’s a proud moment. That’s what you want. You want people to ask you those questions, because you know you’re doing something right.”