Hershey Bears

Liam O’Brien, and His Fists, are Back For Another Year

(Caps Outsider)

For the second year in a row, the Washington Capitals signed forward Liam O’Brien to a one-year, two-way contract worth $650,000 at the NHL level. Initial reports did not have what his AHL salary would be.

O’Brien is an offensive presence for the Hershey Bears, ranking in the top-10 in points each of the past two seasons. He has featured in 17 games at the big club, with all of his goals and assists coming back in 2014-15 during his first stint with the Capitals. Where he makes his mark most often comes when he drops the gloves.

This season marked the first of his professional career where O’Brien finished with under 100 penalty minutes. As tracked by hockeyfights.com, he only fought twice for the Bears and once for Washington this season. Two fights marked his lowest totals in a full season since having one fight with Rimouski Oceanic in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League in 2010-11.

His first NHL fight came against Ryan Reaves, then with the Pittsburgh Penguins. O’Brien and Reaves both stand at 6′ 2″, but the Nova Scotian gives up 20 pounds in size to the Manitoban who went on to join Vegas for the playoffs.

O’Brien fought twice for the Bears this season, once against the 6′ 6″ Jarred Tinordi for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

Riley Barber and O’Brien, both signed to the same two-way terms, need to clear waivers to be sent from Washington to Hershey.

Max Wolpoff

Churchill High School graduate (2015) and current Boston University journalism student. Follow me on Twitter (@Max_Wolpoff) for game-day tweets or my random musings about being a college student.

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