Hartford Wolf Pack

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This article is about the AHL team once known as the Connecticut Whale. For the Premier Hockey Federation team currently known as the Connecticut Whale, see Connecticut Whale (PHF).
Hartford Wolf Pack
2022–23 AHL season
Hartford-Wolf-Pack-Logo.svg
City Hartford, Connecticut
League American Hockey League
Conference Eastern
Division Atlantic
Founded 1926, in the CAHL
Home arena XL Center
Colors Blue, red, white
              
Owner(s) Madison Square Garden, Inc.
General manager Ryan Martin
Head coach Kris Knoblauch
Captain Jonny Brodzinski
Media MSG Network
AHL.TV (Internet)
Affiliates New York Rangers (NHL)
Jacksonville Icemen (ECHL)
Franchise history
1926–1976 Providence Reds
1976–1977 Rhode Island Reds
1977–1980 Binghamton Dusters
1980–1990 Binghamton Whalers
1990–1997 Binghamton Rangers
1997–2010 Hartford Wolf Pack
2010–2013 Connecticut Whale
2013–present Hartford Wolf Pack
Championships
Regular season titles 1: (1999–00)
Division Championships 4: (1999–00, 2003–04, 2008–09, 2014–15)
Conference Championships 1: (1999–00)
Calder Cups 1: (1999–00)
File:Lehigh Valley Phantoms Hartford Wolf Pack December 14 2019 2.jpg
Hartford takes on the Lehigh Valley Phantoms at PPL Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania, December 2019

The Hartford Wolf Pack are a professional ice hockey team based in Hartford, Connecticut. A member of the American Hockey League (AHL), they play their home games at the XL Center. The team was established in 1926 as the Providence Reds. After a series of relocations, the team moved to Hartford in 1997 as the Hartford Wolf Pack. It is one of the oldest professional hockey franchises in existence, and the oldest continuously operating minor league hockey franchise in North America.

The franchise was renamed the Connecticut Whale in October 2010, in honor of the former Hartford Whalers of the National Hockey League (NHL) but reverted to their current name after the 2012–13 AHL season. The Wolf Pack is the top affiliate of the NHL's New York Rangers and is one of the four professional hockey teams in Connecticut.

History

The franchise that became the Wolf Pack was founded in 1926 in Providence, Rhode Island as the Providence Reds, one of the five charter members of the Canadian-American Hockey League. In 1936, the Northeast-based CAHL merged with the Midwest-based International Hockey League to form the International-American Hockey League, which dropped the "International" from its name in 1942.

The Reds —known as the Rhode Island Reds in their later years— folded after the 1976–77 season. Shortly afterward, the owners of the Broome Dusters of the North American Hockey League bought the Reds franchise and moved it to Binghamton, New York as the Binghamton Dusters. After securing an affiliation with the Hartford Whalers in 1980, the team changed its name to the Binghamton Whalers. An affiliation change to the Rangers in 1990—one that continues to this day—brought another new name, the Binghamton Rangers.

After the 1996-97 NHL season, the Whalers moved to Raleigh, North Carolina as the Carolina Hurricanes. Soon after the Whalers' departure, the Binghamton Rangers relocated to Hartford and began to play at the vacated Hartford Civic Center (today known as the XL Center).

Following a "name-the-team" contest, the franchise became the Hartford Wolf Pack, a reference to a submarine class as well as the tactic known as "wolfpacking". With Connecticut being home to both the main builder of submarines (General Dynamics Electric Boat) and the US Navy's primary submarine base, honoring the state's naval tradition was the paramount goal. The name Seawolf, a reference to the Seawolf-class submarine was considered to have been the ideal name for the team, however, it had already been taken by the Mississippi Sea Wolves of the ECHL. Following the submarine theme, the mascots were named "Sonar" and "Torpedo".

The Wolf Pack's first coach was E.J. McGuire, and their first home game was played in front of a sold-out crowd on October 4, 1997. P. J. Stock scored the (home game) goal in Wolf Pack history. The first franchise goal was scored the night prior in Providence, RI, by Johann Witehall. The team reached the playoffs during the first 12 years of their existence and won the Calder Cup in 2000, defeating the Rochester Americans in the Cup finals. Brad Smyth and Derek Armstrong both amassed 23 points in 23 games.

The Connecticut Whale logo, used from 2010 to 2013
The Connecticut Whale logo, used from 2010 to 2013

In the summer of 2010, the Rangers entered into a business relationship which gave former Whalers owner Howard Baldwin and his company, Hartford Hockey LLC (doing business as Whalers Sports & Entertainment), control of the team's business operations.[1] On September 20, 2010, Baldwin announced the Wolf Pack would change their name to the Connecticut Whale in honor of the Whalers.[2] The name change took place on November 27, 2010; the final game with the "Wolf Pack" name came on November 26, 2010. The opponent was Connecticut's other AHL team, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. The Sound Tigers won 4–3, in a shootout. On November 27, 2010, the team played their first game under the new "Whale" name. The opponent was, again, the Sound Tigers. The Whale won 3–2, in a shootout. The attendance for the debut game was 13,089, which is the third-largest crowd in franchise history.[3] On January 1, 2011, the Whale debuted new home jerseys featuring light blue instead of green, however, the color was shelved for the 2011–12 season.

The Whale were hosts and participants in the 2011 AHL Outdoor Classic, the Whale Bowl, held at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Connecticut. Connecticut fell to the Providence Bruins, 5–4, in a shootout.

In June 2012, after just 21 months, the New York Rangers terminated their business relationship with Baldwin[1] after he and his company ran up a debt of almost $3 million and had about 15 court cases against him.[4]

In April 2013, just two and a half seasons after rebranding as the Whale, the team decided it would revert to the nickname "Wolf Pack" for the following season.[5] Global Spectrum, the group now marketing the team and managers of the XL Center arena, announced in May 2013 that the franchise had officially returned to the Hartford Wolf Pack identity.[6]

Although the Wolf Pack does not officially acknowledge its past in Providence and Binghamton (or claim the Reds' four Calder Cups), it is the only AHL franchise to have never missed a season since the league's founding in 1936. In one form or another, the franchise has iced a team every year since 1926. The Wolf Pack and Abbotsford Canucks—the descendants of another charter AHL member, the Springfield Indians—are the oldest minor-league hockey franchises in North America. However, the Indians were inactive for three seasons in the 1930s, making the Wolf Pack the oldest continuously operating minor-league hockey franchise in North America. The only professional hockey franchises older than the Wolf Pack and the Canucks are the NHL's Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins.

Team information

Mascots

The Wolf Pack started in 1997 with one mascot, a wolf named Sonar. The name was chosen to keep with the submarine theme that the team had used in their naming and logo. Shortly after, the team added a second wolf mascot named Torpedo; this mascot has since been retired. In 2010, with the renaming of the team to the Connecticut Whale, Sonar was joined as a mascot by former Whalers mascot Pucky the Whale. Sonar took the 2012–13 season off while Pucky was the sole mascot. When the naming arrangement ended, Sonar came back while Pucky was retired.

Season-by-season results

Regular season Playoffs
Season Games Won Lost Tied OTL SOL Points PCT Goals
for		 Goals
against		 Standing Year Prelims 1st
round		 2nd
round		 3rd
round		 Final
1997–98 80 43 24 12 1 — 99 .619 272 227 2nd, New England 1998 — W, 3–0, BNH W, 4–3, WOR L, 1–4, SJF —
1998–99 80 38 31 5 6 — 87 .544 256 256 2nd, New England 1999 — W, 3–0, SPR L, 0–4, PRO — —
1999–00 80 49 22 7 2 — 107 .669 249 198 1st, New England 2000 — W, 3–2, SPR W, 4–1, WOR W, 4–3, PRO W, 4–2, RCH
2000–01 80 40 26 8 6 — 94 .588 263 247 2nd, New England 2001 — L, 2–3, PRO — — —
2001–02 80 41 26 10 3 — 95 .594 249 243 2nd, East 2002 BYE W, 3–2, MAN L, 1–4, HAM — —
2002–03 80 33 27 12 8 — 86 .538 255 236 3rd, East 2003 L, 0–2, SPR — — — —
2003–04 80 44 22 12 2 — 102 .638 198 153 1st, Atlantic 2004 BYE W, 4–1, POR W, 4–0, WOR L, 3–4, WBS —
2004–05 80 50 24 — 3 3 106 .663 206 160 2nd, Atlantic 2005 — L, 2–4, LOW — — —
2005–06 80 48 24 — 6 2 104 .650 292 231 2nd, Atlantic 2006 — W, 4–3, MAN L, 2–4, POR — —
2006–07 80 47 29 — 3 1 98 .613 231 201 2nd, Atlantic 2007 — L, 3–4, PRO — — —
2007–08 80 50 20 — 2 8 110 .688 266 198 2nd, Atlantic 2008 — L, 1–4, POR — — —
2008–09 80 46 27 — 3 4 99 .619 243 216 1st, Atlantic 2009 — L, 2–4, WOR — — —
2009–10 80 36 33 — 6 5 83 .519 231 251 6th, Atlantic 2010 — Did not qualify
2010–11 80 40 32 — 2 6 88 .550 221 223 3rd, Atlantic 2011 — L, 2–4, POR — — —
2011–12 76 36 26 — 7 7 86 .566 210 208 2nd, Northeast 2012 — W, 3–0, BRI L, 2–4, NOR — —
2012–13 76 35 32 — 6 3 79 .520 213 222 2nd, Northeast 2013 — Did not qualify
2013–14 76 37 32 — 1 6 81 .533 202 220 3rd, Northeast 2014 — Did not qualify
2014–15 76 43 24 — 5 4 95 .625 221 214 1st, Northeast 2015 — W, 3–2, PRO W, 4–2, HER L, 0–4, MAN —
2015–16 76 41 32 — 3 0 85 .559 202 199 6th, Atlantic 2016 — Did not qualify
2016–17 76 24 46 — 4 2 54 .355 194 280 7th, Atlantic 2017 — Did not qualify
2017–18 76 34 33 — 6 3 77 .507 208 252 6th, Atlantic 2018 — Did not qualify
2018–19 76 29 36 — 7 4 69 .454 209 266 8th, Atlantic 2019 — Did not qualify
2019–20 62 31 20 — 6 5 73 .589 171 173 4th, Atlantic 2020 — Season cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2020–21 24 14 9 — 1 0 29 .604 82 74 2nd, Atlantic 2021 — No playoffs were held
2021–22 72 32 32 — 6 2 72 .500 205 225 7th, Atlantic 2022 — Did not qualify

Players

Current roster

Updated July 23, 2022.[7][8]

# Nat Player Pos S/G Age Acquired Birthplace Contract
16 United States Easton Brodzinski RW R 28 2022 Blaine, Minnesota Wolf Pack
96 Canada Cristiano DiGiacinto LW L 28 2021 Hamilton, Ontario Wolf Pack
– United States Ty Emberson D R 24 2022 Eau Claire, Wisconsin Rangers
11 Canada Tanner Fritz C R 33 2021 Grande Prairie, Alberta Wolf Pack
– United States Parker Gahagen G L 31 2022 Amherst, New York Wolf Pack
4 United States Zach Giuttari D R 28 2020 Warwick, Rhode Island Wolf Pack
– Canada Louka Henault D L 23 2022 Montreal, Quebec Wolf Pack
– United States Blake Hillman D L 28 2022 Cohasset, Minnesota Wolf Pack
– United States Zach Jordan RW R 28 2022 Collinsville, Illinois Wolf Pack
55 United States Patrick Khodorenko C L 26 2020 Walnut Creek, California Rangers
– United States Ryan Lohin C L 28 2022 Chadds Ford Township, Pennsylvania Wolf Pack
– United States Luke Martin D R 26 2022 St. Louis, Missouri Wolf Pack
21 United States Austin Rueschhoff RW R 27 2021 Wentzville, Missouri Rangers
44 Canada Brandon Scanlin D L 25 2022 Hamilton, Ontario Rangers
20 United States Hunter Skinner D R 23 2021 Wyandotte, Michigan Rangers
10 United States Bobby Trivigno F L 25 2022 Setauket, New York Wolf Pack
8 United States Alex Whelan RW R 27 2020 Ramsey, New Jersey Wolf Pack

Team captains

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Retired numbers

Hartford Wolf Pack retired numbers
No. Player Position Career No. retirement
12 Ken Gernander RW 1997–2005 October 8, 2005[13]

Notable alumni

The following players have played both 100 games in Hartford and 100 games in the National Hockey League:

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Team records

Single season
Goals: 50, Brad Smyth (2000–01)
Assists: 69, Derek Armstrong (2000–01)
Points: 101, Derek Armstrong (2000–01)
Penalty Minutes: 415, Dale Purinton (1999–2000)
GAA: 1.59, Jason LaBarbera (2003–04)
SV%: .936, Jason LaBarbera (2003–04)
Shutouts: 13, Jason LaBarbera (2003–04)
Goaltending Wins: 34, Jason LaBarbera (2003–04)
Career
Goals: 184, Brad Smyth
Assists: 204, Derek Armstrong
Points: 365, Brad Smyth
Penalty Minutes: 1077, Dale Purinton
Shutouts: 21, Jason LaBarbera
Goaltending Wins: 91, Jason LaBarbera
Games: 599, Ken Gernander

References

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  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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