The Chicago Wolves is a professional ice hockey team playing in the Central Division of the Western Hockey League Western Conference. The Wolves play home games at the Allstate Arena on the outskirts of Chicago, Rosemont, Illinois and are owned by Chicago business owners Don Levin and Buddy Meyers. They are a minor league affiliate of the Golden Knights of Vegas.
Originally a member of the International Hockey League, Wolves joined AHL after IHL folded in 2001.
Video Chicago Wolves
History
Wolves won the Turner Cup twice (1998, 2000) at the IHL and Calder Cup twice (2002, 2008). The Wolves are eligible 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 big star forward Steve Maltais, who until retirement after the 2004-05 season, has played every franchise season and holds most of his scoring records. Other notable players include goaltender Wendell Young, former Pittsburgh star Rob Brown and a long time Chicago Blackhawks starred Troy Murray, Chris Chelios and Al Secord. The Wolves have their best start of the season in their 14-year history, during the 2007-08 season, winning 13 of the first 14 games, with overtime losses. Wolves finish the season with 111 points, and first in the Western Conference.
The Wolves is an affiliate of AHL from Atlanta Thrashers from 2001 to 2011. Thrashers moved to Winnipeg in June 2011 and added St John's IceCaps (formerly Moose Manitoba) as their new AHL affiliate, leaving Wolves and Vancouver Canucks NHL to find new affiliates. On June 27, 2011, Wolves and Canucks approved a two-year affiliate agreement.
On April 23, 2013, Wolves and St. Louis Blues reached a three-year affiliate agreement. The deal was struck after the Canucks and Wolves decided not to renew their existing affiliate agreement and bought Peoria Rivermen's franchise from The Blues that created Utica Comets. In November 2016, it was first reported the Blues will not renew their affiliation with Wolves and plan to move their affiliates to Kansas City for 2017. However, this was not confirmed and later rejected by potential owners announced in Kansas City, Lamar Hunt Jr. , in a press release from his ECHL team in the area, Missouri Mavericks, and was subsequently rejected by AHL commissioner David Andrews after the January 2017 Board of Governors meeting.
After the 2016-17 season, Wolves became the first affiliate of the NHL expansion team, Vegas Golden Knights. The Blues are not signing back with Wolves to become their main NHL affiliate for the 2017-18 season. However, Blues general manager, Doug Armstrong insists they will still send prospects to Wolves for the season.
During the first season of their affiliation with Vegas, Wolves set a pair of franchise records in point earnings in 14 straight games from 9 December to 6 January and 13 successive wins from 6 December to 15 February.
Maps Chicago Wolves
Television
The Wolves are the only AHL team with a full television package. All 76 regular-season games, plus playoffs, are broadcast on WPWR-TV (CW50), and WCIU-DT2 (26.2, U Too). When the Chicago Blackhawks' late owner Bill Wirtz refuses to allow the Blackhawks home to be broadcast on television locally, Wolves is seen and adopted as an alternative; Wolves take advantage of this, go so far as to promote themselves with the slogan "We Play Hockey The Old-Fashioned Way: We Actually Win ". After Judd Sirott served as a team-by-play announcer team for his first 12 seasons, starting on the broadcast announcer of the 2006-07 season were old Blackhawks commentators Pat Foley and Bill Gardner; Foley finally returned to Blackhawks for the 2008-09 season. Since 2008, Jason Shaver has handled the play-by-play task for Wolves, along with Gardner.
Season by season
This is a partial list of the last five seasons completed by Wolves. For season-by-season history, see Chicago Wolves seasons List
Player
List of current names
Updated April 30, 2018.
Retired number
- 1 Wendell Young, G, 1994-2001
- 11 Steve Maltais, LW, 1994-2005
Team captain
Respected person
- Tim Breslin, LW, 1994-99
- And Snyder, C, 2001-03
- John Anderson, Head Coach, 1997-2008, 2013-16
- Kevin Cheveldayoff, General Manager, 1997-2009
Team notes
Season single
Career
See also
- Chicago Wolves award winning list
References
- Skelnik, Justin, ed. (2012). "2012-13 Chicago Wolves Media Guide".
External links
- The Chicago Wolves Official Website
- Internet Hockey Database - Wolves Chicago (AHL)
- Internet Hockey Database - Wolves Chicago (IHL)
- Chicago Wolves Laser Shows Over a Decade of Wolves Laser Performance
- [1] Chicago Wolves Blog
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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