Chicago Wolves

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.
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. 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. 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, and further denied by AHL commissioner, David Andrews, after the January 2017 Board of Governors meeting.
After the 2016–17 season, the Wolves became the first affiliate of the NHL's expansion team, the Vegas Golden Knights. 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.
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 and 13 consecutive home wins from December 6 to February 15. In the 2018–19 season, the Wolves made the Calder Cup Finals, in which they lost to the Charlotte Checkers in five games. 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. The Golden Knights agreed to purchase the San Antonio Rampage franchise and move it to the Las Vegas area as the Henderson Silver Knights. On September 10, 2020, the Wolves announced an affiliation agreement with the Carolina Hurricanes. 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. 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.
During the 2023–24 season, the Wolves played as independent AHL team, becoming the first independent AHL team since the 1994–95 season. On May 2, 2024, the team renewed its affiliation with the Carolina Hurricanes for a three-year term beginning with the 2024–25 season.
==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. 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	Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Playoffs	Playoffs 	Playoffs 	Playoffs 	Playoffs
Season 	Games 	Won 	Lost 	OTL 	SOL 	Points 	PCT 	Goalsfor 	Goalsagainst 	Standing 	Year 	1stround 	2ndround 	3rdround 	Finals
2019–20 	61 	27 	26 	5 	3 	62 	.508 	155 	175 	4th, Central 	2020 	Season cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic	Season cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic	Season cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic	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 	No playoffs were held 	No playoffs were held 	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 	Did not qualify 	Did not qualify 	Did not qualify
2023–24 	72 	23 	35 	7 	7 	60 	.417 	192 	253 	7th, Central 	2024 	Did not qualify 	Did not qualify 	Did not qualify 	Did not qualify
==Players==
===Current roster===
Updated April 25, 2024.
===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:
*Niklas Andersson
*Ivan Barbashev
*Tim Bergland
*Jordan Binnington
*Rob Brown
*Chris Butler
*Jordan Caron
*Dylan Coghlan
*Kevin Connauton
*Joey Crabb
*Kevin Dahl
*Joe DiPenta
*Dallas Eakins
*Joel Edmundson
*Garnet Exelby
*Glen Featherstone
*Kurtis Foster
*Nicolas Hague
*Jani Hakanpaa
*Greg Hawgood
*Brad Hunt
*Keegan Kolesar
*Jason Krog
*Kari Lehtonen
*Mackenzie MacEachern
*Derek MacKenzie
*Steve Maltais
*Steve Martins
*Kip Miller
*Brian Noonan
*Scott Pearson
*Brandon Pirri
*Dan Plante
*Paul Postma
*Jordan Schroeder
*Al Secord
*Tom Tilley
*J.P. Vigier
*Mike Weaver
*Zach Whitecloud
*Wendell Young
===Retired numbers===
thumb|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
11 	Steve Maltais	LW 	1994–2005	April 15, 2006
==Team records==
===Single season===
thumb|Some of the Wolves banners hanging in the Allstate Arena
Type 	Number	Player 	Season
Goals 	60 	Steve Maltais 	1996–97
Assists 	91 	Rob Brown 	1995–96
Points 	143 	Rob Brown 	1995–96
Penalty minutes 	390 	Kevin MacDonald	1994–95
Hat-tricks 	5 	Steve Maltais 	1996–97
Power play goals 	27 	Steve Maltais 	1995–96 & 1996–97
Short-handed goals	7 	Ben Simon 	2002–03
Plus–minus 	+47 	Arturs Kulda 	2009–10
Wins 	38 	Kari Lehtonen 	2004–05
Shutouts 	7 	Jake Allen 	2013–14
===Career===
Type 	Number	Player
Goals 	454 	Steve Maltais
Assists 	497 	Steve Maltais
Points 	951 	Steve Maltais
Penalty minutes 	1061 	Steve Maltais
Hat-tricks 	18 	Steve Maltais
Power play goals 	195 	Steve Maltais
Short-handed goals	21 	Derek MacKenzie
Game winning goals	67 	Steve Maltais
Games played 	839 	Steve Maltais
Wins 	169 	Wendell Young
Shutouts 	16 	Wendell Young
==See also==
* List of Chicago Wolves award winners
==References==
==Bibliography==
* 
==External links==
* 
* The Internet Hockey Database - Chicago Wolves (AHL)
* The Internet Hockey Database - Chicago Wolves (IHL)
 
Category:Ice hockey clubs established in 1994
Category:Atlanta Thrashers minor league affiliates
Category:Professional ice hockey teams in Illinois
Category:Carolina Hurricanes minor league affiliates
Category:New York Islanders minor league affiliates
Category:St. Louis Blues minor league affiliates
Category:Vancouver Canucks minor league affiliates
Category:Vegas Golden Knights minor league affiliates