University of Maine graduate student center and co-captain Lynden Breen will begin his pro career with the South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL this week after signing a contract with the American Hockey League’s Hershey Bears for the 2025-26 season.
The Bears and the Stingrays are affiliated with the National Hockey League’s Washington Capitals.
Breen is in Charleston, South Carolina, and is looking forward to beginning his pro career.
“It’s great. When you’re growing up, it’s definitely a dream to be part of an organization. Hershey is a great spot and it’s the same here,” said Breen. “Everybody has been super welcoming.”
Breen feels he was well-prepared for a pro career at UMaine.
He said head coach Ben Barr and his staff do everything in a professional manner “which sets you up to make the transition” and that he is “excited to see how it goes” as a professional.
“There will definitely be a lot of work to do this summer but I’m up for that,” Breen added.
The 23-year-old Breen wound up 41st on UMaine’s all-time scoring list with 115 points on 49 goals and 66 assists in 144 career games.
The Grand Bay-Westfield, New Brunswick, native missed 16 games this past season after breaking his fibula in a 6-0 win over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Nov. 30.
He returned for the final nine games of the season and had two goals and an assist in UMaine’s three Hockey East tournament victories that supplied the Black Bears with their first league tournament title since 2004.
Breen finished with seven goals and six assists in 22 games. He had a career-best .522 face-off winning percentage.
The swift-skating and tenacious Breen helped lead UMaine to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances after the program had gone without once since the 2011-12 season.
Breen was the team’s third-leading point-getter a year ago behind the Nadeau brothers, Bradly and Josh, with 30 points on 9 goals and 21 assists.
The 5-foot-9, 172-pound Breen, who played much bigger than his size, was the team’s leading scorer in 2022-23 and 2021-22.
In 2022-23, he had a career-high 21 goals and 36 points and was chosen to the All-Hockey East second team. He led the nation with four shorthanded goals.
The previous year, he had nine goals and 16 assists in 33 games.
Breen was the team’s second-leading point-producer in the Black Bears’ COVID-shortened 2020-21 campaign with three goals and eight assists in 16 contests.
He concluded his UMaine career with four game-winning goals, four shorthanded goals and 11 power play tallies and he won 1,298 faceoff draws.
