Chicago Wolves

	Chicago Wolves
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:	Bob Nardella
Captain:	Chris Terry
Media:	My50; The U; AHL.TV (Internet)
Affiliates:	Carolina Hurricanes (NHL)
Franchise history
1994–present:	Chicago Wolves
Championships
Regular Season Titles:	1 IHL (1999–2000); 1 AHL (2021–22)
Division Championships:	4 IHL (1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–00, 2000–01); 10 AHL (2004–05, 2007–08, 2009–10, 2011–12, 2013–14, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19, 2020–21, 2021–22)
Conference Championships:	3 IHL (1997–98, ; 1999–00, 2000–01); 5 AHL; (2001–02, 2004–05, 2007–08, 2018–19, 2021–22)
Turner Cups:	2 (1997–98, 1999–2000)
Calder Cups:	3 (2001–02, 2007–08, 2021–22)

The Chicago Wolves are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL) and are affiliated with the Carolina Hurricanes of the National Hockey League (NHL). 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.

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 thrice (2002, 2008, and 2022). The Wolves qualified for all but five postseasons (2005–06, 2008–09, 2010–11, 2012–13, and 2015–16 seasons), appearing in eight league championship finals (1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2019 and 2022) in their 22-year history.

The team's most notable player 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 and long time Chicago Blackhawks stars Troy Murray, Chris Chelios and Al Secord. 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 and Wolves 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]

During the first season of their affiliation with Vegas, the Wolves set a pair of franchise records in earning points in 14 straight games from December 9 to January 6^[8] and 13 consecutive home wins from December 6 to February 15.^[9] In the 2018–19 season, the Wolves made the Calder Cup Finals, in which they lost to the Charlotte Checkers in five games.^[10] During the 2019–20 season, the Golden Knights stated it was looking to own and operate its own AHL team in the Las Vegas region in 2020–21, but it would not be the Wolves.^[11] The Golden Knights agreed to purchase the San Antonio Rampage franchise and move it to the Las Vegas area as the Henderson Silver Knights.^[12] On September 10, 2020, the Wolves announced an affiliation agreement with the Carolina Hurricanes.^[13] In addition, the Wolves added a temporary secondary NHL affiliate in the Nashville Predators for the 2020–21 season as the Predators' affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals, opted out of the COVID-19 pandemic-shortened season.^[14] For the 2020–21 season, the teams' home games were at their training facility at the Triphahn Center in Hoffman Estates due to arena restrictions for fans during the pandemic.^[15]

During the 2023–24 season, the Wolves played as independent AHL team, becoming the first independent AHL team since the 1994–95 season.^[16] On May 2, 2024, the team renewed its affiliation with the Carolina Hurricanes for a three-year term beginning with the 2024–25 season.^[17]

Television[]

The Wolves once were the only AHL team with a full television package. 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 after Bill Wirtz died and his son Rocky took over the team, reversing many of his father's policies, one of which allowed the Blackhawks' games to be aired locally on TV.^[18] Since 2008, Jason Shaver has handled the play-by-play duties for the Wolves, along with Gardner.

Today, select regular-season home games are broadcast on WPWR-TV (My50), and WMEU-CD (The U), and all games are streamed on AHLTV.

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

Regular season											Playoffs
Season	Games	Won	Lost	OTL	SOL	Points	PCT	Goals for	Goals against	Standing	Year	1st round	2nd round	3rd round	Finals
2019–20	61	27	26	5	3	62	.508	155	175	4th, Central	2020	Season cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2020–21	33	21	9	1	2	45	.682	132	94	1st, Central	2021	No playoffs were held
2021–22	76	50	16	5	5	110	.724	261	194	1st, Central	2022	W, 3–0, RFD	W, 3–1, MIL	W, 4–2, STO	W, 4–1, SPR
2022–23	72	35	29	5	3	78	.542	227	244	6th, Central	2023	Did not qualify
2023–24	72	23	35	7	7	60	.417	192	253	7th, Central	2024	Did not qualify

Players[]

Current roster[]

Updated April 25, 2024.^[19]^[20]

#	Nat	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace	Contract
89	Canada	Conacher, CoryCory Conacher	7.0 RW	L	34	2023	Burlington, Ontario	Wolves
3	United States	Dello, ToryTory Dello	2.0 D	R	27	2023	Crystal Lake, Illinois	Wolves
46	United States	Donovan, MattMatt Donovan (A)	2.0 D	L	34	2023	Edmond, Oklahoma	Wolves
83	Canada	Elynuik, HudsonHudson Elynuik	3.0 F	L	26	2023	Calgary, Alberta	Wolves
32	United States	Fensore, DomenickDomenick Fensore	2.0 D	L	23	2023	Bronxville, New York	Wolves
20	United States	Fitzgerald, CavanCavan Fitzgerald (A)	2.0 D	L	28	2020	Boston, Massachusetts	Wolves
21	United States	Franco, DominicDominic Franco	7.0 RW	R	28	2023	Scituate, Rhode Island	Wolves
22	United States	Green, AlexAlex Green	2.0 D	R	26	2022	Chicago, Illinois	Wolves
91	United States	Grimaldi, RoccoRocco Grimaldi (A)	7.0 RW	L	31	2023	Rossmoor, California	Wolves
30	United States	Kinkaid, KeithKeith Kinkaid	1.0 G	L	35	2023	Farmingville, New York	Devils
36	Canada	Marino, KyleKyle Marino	4.0 C	R	29	2023	Niagara Falls, Ontario	Wolves
37	United States	Melnick, JoshJosh Melnick (A)	4.0 C	R	29	2022	Rahway, New Jersey	Wolves
2	Canada	Mendel, GriffinGriffin Mendel	2.0 D	L	25	2022	Kelowna, British Columbia	Hurricanes
35	Finland	Raanta, AnttiAntti Raanta	1.0 G	L	35	2023	Rauma, Finland	Hurricanes
23	Canada	Ratcliffe, IsaacIsaac Ratcliffe	6.0 LW	L	25	2023	London, Ontario	Wolves
31	United States	Scheel, AdamAdam Scheel	1.0 G	L	25	2023	Lakewood, Ohio	Wolves
10	United States	Schneider, ColeCole Schneider (A)	6.0 LW	L	34	2023	Williamsville, New York	Wolves
14	United States	Sucese, NateNate Sucese	6.0 LW	L	28	2022	Fairport, New York	Wolves
25	Canada	Terry, ChrisChris Terry (C)	6.0 LW	L	35	2023	Brampton, Ontario	Wolves
13	United States	Wagner, RyanRyan Wagner	6.0 LW	L	28	2023	Park Ridge, Illinois	Wolves
15	United States	Wise, JakeJake Wise	4.0 C	L	24	2024	Naples, Florida	Wolves

Team captains[]

Steve Maltais; 1994–96, 1997–2000, 2001–05
Troy Murray; 1996–97
Kevin Dahl; 2000–01
Derek MacKenzie; 2005–06
Darren Haydar; 2007–08, 2012–13
Jamie Rivers; 2008–09
Jason Krog; 2009–11
Nolan Baumgartner; 2011–12
Taylor Chorney; 2013–14
Brent Regner; 2014–15
Pat Cannone; 2015–16
Chris Butler; 2016–17
Paul Thompson; 2017–18
Andrew Poturalski; 2021–22
Max Lajoie; 2022–23
Chris Terry; 2024

Notable alumni[]

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

Retired numbers[]

Wolves retired numbers and honored personnel

Chicago Wolves retired numbers
No.	Player	Position	Career	No. retirement
1	Wendell Young	G	1994–2001	December 1, 2001^[21]
11	Steve Maltais	LW	1994–2005	April 15, 2006^[21]

Team records[]

Single season[]

Wolves Banners — Some of the Wolves banners hanging in the Allstate Arena

Type	Number	Player	Season
Goals	60	Steve Maltais	1996–97^[22]
Assists	91	Rob Brown	1995–96^[22]
Points	143	Rob Brown	1995–96^[22]
Penalty minutes	390	Kevin MacDonald	1994–95^[22]
Hat-tricks	5	Steve Maltais	1996–97^[22]
Power play goals	27	Steve Maltais	1995–96 & 1996–97^[23]
Short-handed goals	7	Ben Simon	2002–03^[23]
Plus–minus	+47	Arturs Kulda	2009–10^[23]
Wins	38	Kari Lehtonen	2004–05^[23]
Shutouts	7	Jake Allen	2013–14^[24]

Career[]

Type	Number	Player
Goals	454	Steve Maltais^[22]
Assists	497	Steve Maltais^[22]
Points	951	Steve Maltais^[22]
Penalty minutes	1061	Steve Maltais^[22]
Hat-tricks	18	Steve Maltais^[22]
Power play goals	195	Steve Maltais^[22]
Short-handed goals	21	Derek MacKenzie^[23]
Game winning goals	67	Steve Maltais^[22]
Games played	839	Steve Maltais^[25]
Wins	169	Wendell Young^[26]
Shutouts	16	Wendell Young^[27]

References[]

↑ Canucks enter new AHL affiliation agreement with Chicago. TSN. The Canadian Press (June 27, 2011).
↑ Blues Announce Affiliation with Wolves (en-US) (April 23, 2013).
↑ Schaeffer, Brenden (November 30, 2016). Report: Blues AHL affiliation to move to Kansas City.
↑ Spedden, Zach (December 2, 2016). Missouri Mavericks Deny Reports on AHL and Kansas City.
↑ Timmermann, Tom. "Blue Notes: Reaves moving to third line, at least to start", January 31, 2017.
↑ WOLVES, GOLDEN KNIGHTS ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP (May 16, 2017).
↑ Armstrong statement on AHL affiliation (May 16, 2017).
↑ Hoffman, Samantha (January 11, 2018). Gulls Stop Wovles' Point Streak at 14 Games.
↑ Special Teams Power Wolves to Franchise-Record 13th Consecutive Home Win (en) (February 15, 2018).
↑ Smith, Michael (June 8, 2018). Charlotte Checkers win Calder Cup.
↑ Schoen, David (January 27, 2020). Golden Knights looking to buy AHL club and move it to Las Vegas.
↑ Dietz, John (February 7, 2020). Golden Knights purchase AHL franchise, Wolves owner confident team will find new NHL partnership.
↑ Wolves forge partnership with Carolina Hurricanes (September 10, 2020).
↑ Wolves take on Predators as second affiliate for 2020-21 (January 7, 2021).
↑ GAMEDAY: OUR 27TH OPENER! (February 5, 2021).
↑ Chicago Wolves To Play As An Independent AHL Team. Pro Hockey Rumors (April 5, 2023).
↑ Chicago Wolves (May 2, 2024). Together Again: Wolves and Canes Forge New Partnership. Press release.
↑ Pat Foley returns to Hawks (June 16, 2008).
↑ Chicago Wolves Roster.
↑ Chicago Wolves Roster.
↑ ^21.0 ^21.1 All-Time favorite Chicago Wolves moment (February 3, 2016).
↑ ^22.00 ^22.01 ^22.02 ^22.03 ^22.04 ^22.05 ^22.06 ^22.07 ^22.08 ^22.09 ^22.10 ^22.11 Skelnik 2012, pp. 124
↑ ^23.0 ^23.1 ^23.2 ^23.3 ^23.4 Skelnik 2012, pp. 125
↑ LaTour, Paul (April 19, 2014). Wolves win AHL's Midwest Division. Chicago Tribune.
↑ Wolves to retire Maltais' No. 11.(Sports) (January 27, 2006).
↑ Spellman, Mike. "Ring master Wolves will honor former goalie Young by retiring his No. 1.(Sports)", November 30, 2001. ^{[dead link]}
↑ Shapiro, Mark. "Wolves' Young Blanks Grizzlies", November 7, 2000.

Bibliography[]

(2012) 2012–13 Chicago Wolves Media Guide.

External links[]

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Chicago Wolves. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ice Hockey Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA).

[1] Canucks enter new AHL affiliation agreement with Chicago. TSN. The Canadian Press (June 27, 2011).

[2] Blues Announce Affiliation with Wolves (en-US) (April 23, 2013).

[3] Schaeffer, Brenden (November 30, 2016). Report: Blues AHL affiliation to move to Kansas City.

[4] Spedden, Zach (December 2, 2016). Missouri Mavericks Deny Reports on AHL and Kansas City.

[5] Timmermann, Tom. "Blue Notes: Reaves moving to third line, at least to start", January 31, 2017.

[6] WOLVES, GOLDEN KNIGHTS ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP (May 16, 2017).

[7] Armstrong statement on AHL affiliation (May 16, 2017).

[8] Hoffman, Samantha (January 11, 2018). Gulls Stop Wovles' Point Streak at 14 Games.

[9] Special Teams Power Wolves to Franchise-Record 13th Consecutive Home Win (en) (February 15, 2018).

[10] Smith, Michael (June 8, 2018). Charlotte Checkers win Calder Cup.

[11] Schoen, David (January 27, 2020). Golden Knights looking to buy AHL club and move it to Las Vegas.

[12] Dietz, John (February 7, 2020). Golden Knights purchase AHL franchise, Wolves owner confident team will find new NHL partnership.

[13] Wolves forge partnership with Carolina Hurricanes (September 10, 2020).

[14] Wolves take on Predators as second affiliate for 2020-21 (January 7, 2021).

[15] GAMEDAY: OUR 27TH OPENER! (February 5, 2021).

[16] Chicago Wolves To Play As An Independent AHL Team. Pro Hockey Rumors (April 5, 2023).

[17] Chicago Wolves (May 2, 2024). Together Again: Wolves and Canes Forge New Partnership. Press release.

[18] Pat Foley returns to Hawks (June 16, 2008).

[19] Chicago Wolves Roster.

[20] Chicago Wolves Roster.

[moment-21] 21.0 ^21.1 All-Time favorite Chicago Wolves moment (February 3, 2016).

[p124-22] 22.00 ^22.01 ^22.02 ^22.03 ^22.04 ^22.05 ^22.06 ^22.07 ^22.08 ^22.09 ^22.10 ^22.11 Skelnik 2012, pp. 124

[p125-23] 23.0 ^23.1 ^23.2 ^23.3 ^23.4 Skelnik 2012, pp. 125

[24] LaTour, Paul (April 19, 2014). Wolves win AHL's Midwest Division. Chicago Tribune.

[25] Wolves to retire Maltais' No. 11.(Sports) (January 27, 2006).

[26] Spellman, Mike. "Ring master Wolves will honor former goalie Young by retiring his No. 1.(Sports)", November 30, 2001. ^{[dead link]}

[27] Shapiro, Mark. "Wolves' Young Blanks Grizzlies", November 7, 2000.

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Chicago Wolves
Founded in 1994 - Based in Rosemont, Illinois
Franchise	All articles - Awards - History - Players - Seasons
Arenas	Allstate Arena
Coaches	John Anderson - Scott Arniel - Don Granato - Don Lever - Craig Berube - Rocky Thompson - Ryan Warsofsky
General managers	Kevin Cheveldayoff - Wendell Young
Rivalries	Cleveland Monsters - Grand Rapids Griffins - Milwaukee Admirals - Rockford IceHogs
Turner Cups	1998 - 2000
Calder Cups	2002 - 2008 - 2022
Affiliates	Carolina Hurricanes (NHL)

Carolina Hurricanes
Hurricanes	Franchise • Hartford Whalers • Players • Coaches • GMs • Seasons • Records • Draft picks
Championships	Stanley Cups: 2006 • Eastern Conference Championships: 2002, 2006 • Southeast Division Championships: 1999, 2002, 2006
Arenas	Greensboro Coliseum • RBC Center
Affiliates	Albany River Rats (AHL)¹ • Charlotte Checkers (AHL)² • Florida Everblades (ECHL)
Retired numbers	2 • 3 • 9 • 10 • 17
¹The Albany River Rats are the Hurricanes' current American Hockey League affiliate. ²For the 2010-11 season, the River Rats will move to Charlotte, North Carolina and be known as the Charlotte Checkers.