Anthony Bardaro, 32, has officially signed an ECHL Standard Player Contract with the Orlando Solar Bears for the upcoming 2024-25 season. With a wealth of experience in professional hockey, Bardaro has spent seven seasons competing in Italy and France. Most recently, in the 2023-24 season, he played in 33 games with Angers of Ligue Magnus in France, where he achieved a total of 27 points, consisting of six goals and 21 assists.
Career Highlights
During the 2017-18 season, Bardaro achieved an impressive total of 56 points and earned the title of MVP in the Alps Hockey League playoffs while playing for Asiago in Italy. Bardaro concluded the regular season with an impressive tally of 31 goals and 25 assists across 39 games, contributing to Asiago’s league-leading record of 30 wins, six losses, three overtime losses, and one shootout loss. During the 2018-19 season, Bardaro reached a personal milestone by scoring a total of 68 points, comprised of 31 goals and 37 assists.
His outstanding performance also earned him the opportunity to represent Italy at the IIHF World Championships. Bardaro has participated in three IIHF World Championships in total, accumulating a total of eight points over 21 games. In the 2021 tournament, he scored four points with two goals and two assists, while in 2022, his contributions were two points from one goal and one assist. He matched this point total once again in the 2023 championship, recording two assists.
Bardaro joined HC Bolzano in the ICE Hockey League for the 2019-20 season and had a strong performance, accumulating 46 points with 16 goals and 30 assists in 49 games. In the following season (2020-21), he scored 32 points from 13 goals and 19 assists in 38 games. The 2021-22 season saw him improve to 38 points, including 16 goals and 22 assists over 43 games. In the 2022-23 season, Bardaro matched his best scoring performance, again totaling 46 points with 19 goals and 27 assists in 48 games.
Throughout his career, Bardaro has participated in a combined 293 professional league matches, amassing a total of 280 points, which includes 123 goals and 157 assists.
College Career
Bardaro competed for four seasons at the University of British Columbia (USports), where he topped his team’s scoring chart for three consecutive years. He garnered USports West Second Team All-Star honors in the 2016-17 season. Over four seasons with UBC Thunderbirds, Bardaro played in 110 U SPORTS regular season games, concluding his career with 36 goals and 66 assists, totaling 102 points. He topped the scoring charts for the ‘Birds during both of his final seasons at UBC and made a valuable contribution of 14 points across 14 playoff games.
The Solar Bears will kick off their season on the road against the Greenville Swamp Rabbits on Friday, October 18th.
