The University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs announced that goaltender Hunter Shepard signed an AHL deal with the Hershey Bears in a press release, Friday morning.
According to Pro Hockey Rumors, Shepard was “one of the top remaining undrafted college free agents on the market.”
The contract will begin next season (if it’s able to be played).
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Shepard is an award-winning goaltender who led the Bulldogs to back-to-back NCAA national titles in 2018 and 2019. Here’s a list of his accomplishments:
- He’s a two-time All-American (first team in 2018-19, and second team in 2019-20)
- Two-time NCHC Goaltender of the Year (2018-19 and 2019-20)
- Three-time Mike Richter Award Finalist
- A Three-time All-NCHC selection
- He owns the NCAA record for consecutive starts with 115, an ironman run that stretched between October 21, 2017 and March 7, 2020
- He is also UMD’s all-time leader in wins (he was 76-37-5 overall), goals against average (1.94), saves percentage (.922) and shut outs (17)
- He went undefeated in eight NCAA Tournament appearances (8-0 record, an 0.97 goals against average and a .953 saves percentage with one shutout).
- He’s the first goaltender to backstop his team to back-to-back NCAA national titles (2017-18 and 2018-19) in a half century
- He served as a team captain with the 2019-20 Bulldogs, the first goaltender to do so in 43 years.
Shepard’s signing could prove to be insurance for the Bears if Braden Holtby leaves the Capitals in the offseason as an unrestricted free agent.
Playing time may be hard to come by for Shepard as their current AHL tandem of Pheonix Copley and Vitek Vanecek are both signed through 2021-22. However, if Braden Holtby moves on, one of those two could presumably move up to the NHL level as Ilya Samsonov’s backup which would give Shepard a chance at earning the backup role with AHL Hershey.
Headline photo courtesy of umdbulldogs.com
