The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins have signed defenseman Will O’Neill, as well as forwards Ryan Haggerty, Patrick McGrath and Cameron Brown to American Hockey League contracts for the 2018-19 season.
O’Neill returns to the Penguins, where he played 74 games and was an AHL All-Star during the 2015-16 campaign, after two seasons in the Philadelphia Flyers organization.
Last year with the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms, O’Neill recorded six goals and 13 assists for 19 points in 59 regular-season games, and also made his NHL debut appearing in one game with the Flyers.
A seventh-year pro, O’Neill has played 396 AHL games with Lehigh Valley, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and St. John’s, totaling 40 goals and 167 assists for 207 points. He reached the Calder Cup Finals with the IceCaps in 2014.
Haggerty, 25, established career highs with 16 goals, 21 assists, 37 points and a plus-20 rating in just 47 games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton last season.
Entering his fifth pro campaign in 2018-19, Haggerty has compiled 51 goals and 55 assists for 106 points in 217 career AHL games with the Penguins, Rockford and Hartford.
McGrath, a native of nearby Shavertown, Pa., enters his sixth season in the Wilkes-Barre organization. He scored two goals and amassed 95 minutes in penalties in 19 games with the Penguins last season.
In 70 career AHL games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, McGrath has totaled three goals and four assists for seven points.
Brown appeared in 14 AHL games between Springfield and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in his first professional season in 2017-18, recording one goal and one assist. He also notched 17 goals and 36 assists for 53 points in 55 games with Wheeling in the ECHL.
The 25-year-old Brown turned pro in the spring of 2017 after four seasons at the University of Maine.
