With the ECHL season opening this past weekend, there were plenty of Maritimers suiting up across the 30-team league. One of the players returning for his sophomore pro season was Grand Bay-Westfield, New Brunswick’s Lynden Breen.
But before looking at this season, let’s back up a bit…
Breen rose to prominence through the NCAA’s Maine Black Bears program, where he and fellow New Brunswickers Bradly and Josh Nadeau helped Maine have one of their best season’s in over a decade during the 2023-24 campaign.
After wrapping up his NCAA career at the tail end of the 2024-25 season, Lynden was a sought-after name, quickly inking a deal with the AHL’s Hershey Bears and then was immediately assigned to the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays, where he put up an impressive 4 points in 5 games to finish the regular season.
Heading into his rookie campaign last year, Breen was one of the players that we at Maritime Hockey were super excited about. Unfortunately for Lynden, Hershey was such a deep team that he never got the opportunity to show his talent at the AHL level.
Finishing the year with a respectable 25 points (4G,21A) in 59 games, Breen played a middle-six forward role with the Stingrays as they were a contender themselves in the ECHL, finishing with a 45-23-4 record and going to the second round of the playoffs before falling to the eventual champs, the Florida Everblades.
During the summer, the 25-year-old inked a deal with the newly expanded New Mexico Goatheads in the ECHL. With the move, Breen will have the opportunity to play more minutes and also make history with the club… and that he did…
Now fast-forward to this past weekend.
During the teams very first regular season game on Friday night against the Idaho Steelheads, Breen assisted on the very first goal in franchise history in front of a sold-out crowd at Rio Rancho Events Center.
In Saturday night’s rematch against the Steelheads, Lynden had the fans on their feet once again as he scored the game-tying goal with a second remaining on the clock.
On Sunday, Breen finished the three games in three nights by opening the scoring for New Mexico en route to a 5-2 loss to Idaho.
With one second left on the clock, Lynden Breen found twine to force overtime as the New Mexico Goatheads lost 4-3 against the Idaho Steelheads in overtime.
— Maritime Hockey (@HockeyMaritime) October 18, 2026
With 2 points through his first 2 games with the club, you couldn't ask for much more from the 25-year-old.#ECHL…
