Arlington Native Signs AHL Contract

Ryan Hegarty, a 21-year-old Arlington native, recently signed a contract to play for the Syracuse (N.Y.) Crunch of the American Hockey League for the remainder of this season, according to the Bangor Daily News.

“It’s very exciting,” Hegarty, a senior defenseman on the University of Maine squad that went 23-14-3 and qualified for the NCAA Tournament this past winter, told the Maine newspaper. “It was bittersweet leaving the campus [Thursday]. Everybody has been so great to me at Maine.”

Hegarty was expected to join the Crunch, an affiliate of the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks, on Saturday for the team’s final six games. He signed an “amateur tryout contract” but is hoping to stay with the team next year, he told the Daily News.

The 6-foot-1, 210-pound Hegarty was the Ducks’ fourth-round draft pick (113th overall) in 2008.

This past season, he had two goals and 12 assists in 40 games in what was his best season with the Black Bears, according to the article. His coach, Tim Whitehead, called him a “shutdown defenseman” in the article.

Hegarty attended Pioneer High School in Michigan.

Read the Bangor Daily News article.

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