Hartford Wolf Pack

This article is about the AHL team once known as the Connecticut Whale. For the NWHL team currently known as the Connecticut Whale, see Connecticut Whale (NWHL).

Hartford Wolf Pack
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. Global Spectrum
General manager	Chris Drury
Head coach	Kris Knoblauch
Captain	Steven Fogarty
Media	MSG Network 1410 AM WPOP AHL.TV (Internet)
Affiliates	New York Rangers (NHL) Maine Mariners (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 titles	4: (1999–00, 2003–04, 2008–09, 2014–15)
Conference titles	1: (1999–00)
Calder Cups	1: (1999–00)
Current season

The Hartford Wolf Pack is 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 extant, 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 in the first game, the team won 2–0 against the neighboring Springfield Falcons. P. J. Stock scored the first goal in Wolf Pack history. 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.

The Connecticut Whale logo, used from 2010–13

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. On September 20, 2010, Baldwin announced the Wolf Pack would change their name to the Connecticut Whale in honor of the Whalers. 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. On January 1, 2011 the Connecticut 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 after he and his company ran up a debt of almost $3 million and had about 15 court cases against him.

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. 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.

Although the Wolf Pack does not officially acknowledge its past in Providence and Binghamton (or the Reds' four Calder Cups), it is the only AHL team 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 Utica Comets—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 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 COVID-19

Players

Current roster

Updated July 14, 2020.

Team roster

No.	Nat	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace	Contract
39		Matt Beleskey	LW	L	36	2018	Windsor, Ontario	Rangers
30		Jean-Francois Berube	G	L	32	2020	Repentigny, Quebec	Rangers
10		Greg Chase	LW	R	29	2018	Sherwood Park, Alberta	Wolf Pack
16		Ryan Dmowski	LW	L	27	2019	East Lyme, Connecticut	Wolf Pack
59		Jake Elmer	RW	R	25	2019	Calgary, Alberta	Rangers
37		Gabriel Fontaine	C	L	27	2016	Montreal, Canada	Rangers
44		Mason Geertsen	D	L	29	2019	Drayton Valley, Alberta	Wolf Pack
11		Ryan Gropp	LW	L	27	2017	Kamloops, British Columbia	Rangers
35		Adam Huska	G	L	27	2019	Zvolen, Slovakia	Rangers
8		Nick Jones	RW	R	28	2019	Edmonton, Alberta	Wolf Pack
23		Patrick Khodorenko	C	L	25	2020	Walnut Creek, California	Rangers
5		Vincent LoVerde (A)	D	R	35	2019	Chicago, Illinois	Wolf Pack
20		Shawn McBride	F	L	28	2019	Victoria, British Columbia	Wolf Pack
13		Patrick Newell	RW	L	28	2019	Thousand Oaks, California	Rangers
15		Boo Nieves (A)	C	L	30	2016	Baldwinsville, New York	Rangers
43		Mike O'Leary	LW	L	26	2020	Halifax, Nova Scotia	Wolf Pack
7		Ty Ronning	RW	R	26	2017	Burnaby, British Columbia	Rangers
57		Yegor Rykov	D	L	27	2019	Vidnoe, Russia	Rangers
2		Jeff Taylor	D	L	30	2019	Clifton Park, New York	Wolf Pack

Team captains

• Ken Gernander, 1997–05
• Craig Weller, 2005–07
• Andrew Hutchinson, 2007–08
• Greg Moore, 2008–09
• Dane Byers, 2009–10
• Wade Redden, 2011–12
• Aaron Johnson, 2013–14
• Ryan Bourque, 2015–16
• Mat Bodie, 2016–17
• Joe Whitney, 2017–18
• Cole Schneider, 2018
• Steven Fogarty, 2019–

Retired numbers

Hartford Wolf Pack retired numbers

No.	Player	Position	Career	No. retirement
12	Ken Gernander	RW	1997–2005	October 8, 2005

Notable alumni

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

• Artem Anisimov
• Derek Armstrong
• Nigel Dawes
• Dan Girardi
• Jason LaBarbera
• Lauri Korpikoski
• J. T. Miller
• Al Montoya
• P. A. Parenteau
• Corey Potter
• Tom Pyatt
• Wade Redden
• Michael Sauer
• P. J. Stock
• Cam Talbot
• Dale Weise
• Craig Weller

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

External links

• Hartford Wolf Pack Official Website
• The Internet Hockey Database – Hartford Wolf Pack
• Franchise History Timeline
• American Hockey League