Chicago Wolves

Chicago Wolves
2017–18 AHL season
City Rosemont, Illinois
League American Hockey League
Conference Western
Division Central
Founded 1994 (In the IHL)
Home arena Allstate Arena
Colors Burgundy, Gold, Black, White
                   
Owner(s) Don Levin, Buddy Meyers
General manager Wendell Young
Head coach Rocky Thompson
Media The U Too
ESPN Chicago 1000 AM
Affiliates Vegas Golden Knights (NHL)
Quad City Mallards (ECHL)
Franchise history
1994–present Chicago Wolves
Championships
Regular season titles 1 IHL 1999–2000
Division Championships 4 IHL 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01
6 AHL 2004–05, 2007–08, 2009–10, 2011–12, 2013–14, 2016–17
Conference Championships 3 IHL 1997–98,
1999–2000, 2000–01
3 AHL
2001–02, 2004–05, 2007–08
Turner Cups 2 1997–98, 1999–2000
Calder Cups 2 2001–02, 2007–08

The Chicago Wolves are a professional ice hockey team playing in the Central Division of the Western Conference of the American Hockey League. The Wolves play home games at the Allstate Arena in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois and are owned by Chicago business owners Don Levin and Buddy Meyers. They are the minor league affiliate of the Vegas Golden Knights.

Originally a member of the International Hockey League, the Wolves joined the AHL after the IHL folded in 2001.

History

The Wolves won the Turner Cup twice (1998, 2000) in the IHL and the Calder Cup twice (2002, 2008). The Wolves qualified for all but five postseasons (2005–06, 2008–09, 2010–11, 2012–13, and 2015–16 seasons), appearing in six league championship finals (1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2008) in their 22-year history.

The team's great star was forward Steve Maltais, who until his retirement after the 2004–05 season, had played every season of the franchise and holds most of its scoring records. Other notable players include goaltender Wendell Young, ex-Pittsburgh star Rob Brown, long time Chicago Blackhawks stars Troy Murray, Chris Chelios, Al Secord, and defenseman Bob Nardella. The Wolves had their best season start in their 14-year history, during the 2007–08 season, winning 13 of the first 14 games, with an overtime loss. The Wolves finished the season with 111 points, and first in the Western Conference.

The Wolves were the AHL affiliate of the Atlanta Thrashers from 2001 to 2011. The Thrashers relocated to Winnipeg in June 2011 and added the St. John's IceCaps (formerly the Manitoba Moose) as their new AHL affiliate, leaving the Wolves and the NHL's Vancouver Canucks to find new affiliates. On June 27, 2011, the Wolves and Canucks agreed to a two–year affiliation agreement.[1]

On April 23, 2013, the Wolves and St. Louis Blues reached a three-year affiliation agreement. The deal was struck after the Canucks decided not to renew their existing affiliation agreement and purchased the Peoria Rivermen franchise from the Blues creating the Utica Comets.[2] In November 2016, it was first reported the Blues would not renew their affiliation with the Wolves and were planning to move their affiliation to Kansas City for 2017.[3] However, this was unconfirmed and then denied by the announced potential owner in Kansas City, Lamar Hunt Jr., in a press release from his ECHL team in the area, the Missouri Mavericks,[4] and further denied by AHL commissioner, David Andrews, after the January 2017 Board of Governors meeting.[5]

After the 2016–17 season, the Wolves became the first affiliate of the NHL's expansion team, the Vegas Golden Knights.[6] The Blues did not re-sign with the Wolves to be their primary NHL affiliate for the 2017–18 season. However, Blues' general manager Doug Armstrong confirmed they would still send prospects to the Wolves for that season.[7]

Television

The Wolves are the only AHL team with a full television package. All 76 regular-season games, plus playoffs, are broadcast on Comcast cable, WPWR-TV (channel 50), and WCIU-DT2 (26.2, U Too). As the Chicago Blackhawks' late owner Bill Wirtz had refused to allow Blackhawks home games to be televised locally, the Wolves were viewed and embraced as an alternative; the Wolves took advantage of this, going so far as to promote themselves with the slogan "We Play Hockey The Old-Fashioned Way: We Actually Win". After Judd Sirott served as the team's play-by-play announcer for its first 12 seasons, starting in the 2006–07 season broadcast announcers were long-time Blackhawks commentators Pat Foley and Bill Gardner; Foley ultimately returned to the Blackhawks for the 2008–09 season.[8] Since 2008, Jason Shaver has handled the play-by-play duties for the Wolves, along with Gardner.

Season-by-season results

This is a partial list of the last five seasons completed by the Wolves. For the full season-by-season history, see List of Chicago Wolves seasons

Players

Current roster

Updated July 1, 2017.[9][10]

# Nat Player Pos S/G Age Acquired Birthplace Contract
22 Russia Barbashev, IvanIvan Barbashev C L 21 2015 Moscow, Russia Blues
35 Canada Binnington, JordanJordan Binnington G L 24 2014 Richmond Hill, Ontario Blues
17 Canada Blais, SamuelSamuel Blais LW L 21 2016 Montmagny, Quebec Blues
10 Canada Bleackley, ConnerConner Bleackley C R 21 2016 High River, Alberta Blues
25 United States Butler, ChrisChris Butler (C) D L 30 2014 St. Louis, Missouri Blues
27 Canada Caron, JordanJordan Caron RW L 26 2015 Sayabec, Quebec Blues
39 Canada Duke, ReidReid Duke C R 21 2017 Calgary, Alberta Golden Knights
6 Canada Dunn, VinceVince Dunn D L 20 2016 Peterborough, Ontario Blues
26 Canada Gervais, BryceBryce Gervais RW R 25 2016 Battleford, Saskatchewan Wolves
30 Finland Husso, VilleVille Husso G L 22 2016 Helsinki, Finland Blues
14 Finland Lindbohm, PetteriPetteri Lindbohm D L 23 2014 Helsinki, Finland Blues
38 United States Loney, TyTy Loney RW R 25 2017 Valencia, Pennsylvania Wolves
15 United States MacEachern, MacKenzieMacKenzie MacEachern LW L 23 2016 Bloomfield Hills, Michigan Blues
7 Canada McParland, StevenSteven McParland RW L 26 2017 Schreiber, Ontario Wolves
12 United States Megan, WadeWade Megan C L 27 2016 Canton, New York Blues
28 Czech Republic Musil, AdamAdam Musil C R 20 2017 Delta, British Columbia Blues
3 United States Nightingale, JaredJared Nightingale D R 34 2016 Jackson, Michigan Wolves
23 United States Sanford, ZachZach Sanford LW L 22 2017 Salem, Massachusetts Blues
24 United States Schmaltz, JordanJordan Schmaltz D R 23 2015 Verona, Wisconsin Blues
36 United States Selman, JustinJustin Selman C L 23 2016 Upper Saddle River, New Jersey Blues
29 United States Sterling, BrettBrett Sterling W L 33 2016 Los Angeles, California Wolves
2 Canada Tansey, KevinKevin Tansey D L 24 2016 Hammond, Ontario Wolves
32 United States Thompson, TageTage Thompson C R 19 2017 Phoenix, Arizona Blues
21 United States Vaughan, ScooterScooter Vaughan RW R 28 2015 Placentia, California Wolves
37 Canada Walman, JakeJake Walman D L 21 2017 Toronto, Ontario Blues
20 United States Wisniewski, JamesJames Wisniewski D R 33 2017 Canton, Michigan Wolves

Retired numbers

Wolves retired numbers and honored personnel

Team captains

Honored personnel

Team records

Single season

Some of the Wolves banners hanging in the Allstate Arena
Type Amount Player Season
Goals 60 Steve Maltais 1996–97 [12]
Assists 91 Rob Brown 1995–96 [12]
Points 143 Rob Brown 1995–96 [12]
Penalty minutes 390 Kevin MacDonald 1994–95 [12]
Hat-tricks 5 Steve Maltais 1996–97 [12]
Power Play Goals 27 Steve Maltais 1995–96 & 1996–97 [13]
Short-Handed Goals 7 Ben Simon 2002–03 [13]
Plus-Minus +47 Arturs Kulda 2009–10 [13]
Wins 38 Kari Lehtonen 2004–05 [13]
Shutouts 7 Jake Allen 2013–14 [14]

Career

Type Amount Player
Goals 454 Steve Maltais [12]
Assists 497 Steve Maltais [12]
Points 951 Steve Maltais [12]
Penalty minutes 1061 Steve Maltais [12]
Hat-tricks 18 Steve Maltais [12]
Power Play Goals 195 Steve Maltais [12]
Short-Handed Goals 21 Derek MacKenzie [13]
Game Winning Goals 67 Steve Maltais [12]
Games played 839 Steve Maltais [15]
Wins 169 Wendell Young [16]
Shutouts 16 Wendell Young [17]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Canucks enter new AHL affiliation agreement with Chicago". The Sports Network. Retrieved 27 June 2011.
  2. ↑ Blues Announce Affiliation with Wolves: Chicago Wolves will serve as the Blues' AHL affiliate for at least three seasons, NHL.com (April 23, 2013)
  3. ↑ "Report: Blues AHL affiliation to move to Kansas City". KMOV. November 30, 2016.
  4. ↑ "Missouri Mavericks Deny Reports on AHL and Kansas City". Arena Digest. December 2, 2016.
  5. ↑ "Blue Notes: Reaves moving to third line, at least to start". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. January 30, 2017.
  6. ↑ "WOLVES, GOLDEN KNIGHTS ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP". AHL. May 16, 2017.
  7. ↑ "Armstrong statement on AHL affiliation". St. Louis Blues. May 16, 2017.
  8. ↑ "Pat Foley returns to Hawks". Chicago Sun-Times. June 16, 2008. Retrieved on June 16, 2008.
  9. ↑ "Chicago Wolves Roster". Retrieved February 16, 2015.
  10. ↑ "Chiacago Wolves Roster". Elite Prospects. Retrieved February 16, 2015.
  11. ↑ "Wolves, Anderson Agree to Part Ways". OurSports Central. June 2, 2016.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Skelnik 2012, pp. 124
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 Skelnik 2012, pp. 125
  14. ↑ LaTour, Paul (2014-04-19). "Wolves win AHL's Midwest Division". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2014-04-28.
  15. ↑ "Wolves to retire Maltais' No. 11.(Sports)". Daily Herald  – via HighBeam Research (subscription required) . 2006-01-27. Retrieved 2013-01-02.
  16. ↑ Spellman, Mike (2001-11-30). "Ring master Wolves will honor former goalie Young by retiring his No. 1.(Sports)". Daily Herald  – via HighBeam Research (subscription required) . Retrieved 2013-01-02.
  17. ↑ Shapiro, Mark (2000-11-07). "Wolves' Young Blanks Grizzlies". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
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