After losing in the Eastern Conference Finals to the eventual Calder Cup Champions, the Hershey Bears, the Hartford Wolf Pack is looking ahead to the 2023-24 season with positivity.
The Wolf Pack open the season on Saturday on the road against the Providence Bruins at the Amica Mutual Pavillion.
“We’re very excited,” head coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Yes, we lost some good players, but we feel we’ve replaced them with some good players. [We will] continue with the progress we made at the end of the season and hope to get stronger as the season goes on.”
Despite naming Jonny Brodzinski their captain earlier in the off-season, the Wolf Pack was unsure who their leadership group would be as Brodzinski had a stellar training camp with the New York Rangers. Brodzinski, however, was eventually sent down to the Wolf Pack as one of the final cuts.
Knoblauch would not confirm whether Brodzinski would be the captain and whether he made the Rangers’ roster or not. Nor would he say who the captain would be if Brodzinski made the New York roster. He would, however, confirm that they would look internally to fill out their leadership group.
“We don’t have any alternates to replace him,” Knoblauch said. “Alex Belzile, Riley Nash, and others are all good leaders that could step up, but right now, we are just trying to get to know our team.”
The Wolf Pack Brings in Some New Players
Over the course of the off-season, Hartford lost a few players, but the Rangers did add a few players in Alex Belzile and Riley Nash, among others.
Nash is one player that really stuck out to Knoblauch as one that he was excited to have on the team. In the 2022-23 season with the Charlotte Checkers, he set career-highs in goals (23) and assists (35).
“We’re very happy to have him as part of the team,” Knoblauch said. “I know he’s a really good hockey player. He was a big player with Charlotte, I was very happy when I found out he signed with us.”
In addition to Nash, they brought in Alex Belzile from the Montreal Canadiens organization. In the 2022-23 season, he split time between the Canadiens and their AHL affiliate, the Laval Rocket. Between both teams, he played in 62 games (31 each). With Laval, he scored 14 goals and 2 assists; with Montreal, he scored six goals and tacked on eight assists.
Goaltending Will Be Key
The name of the game this year for Hartford, this year, has to be goaltending. They used a few goalies throughout the 2022-23 season, but they wanted to be more consistent and use a consistent duo as much as possible.
Entering the season, they will carry two goalies in Dylan Garand and Louis Domingue. Given his experience at both the NHL and AHL levels, watch for Domingue to start the season in net. Knoblauch did not confirm as such, but did talk glowingly about him.
“[Louis is] an exceptional elite goalie,” Knoblauch said. “He has played in a lot of NHL games. Then you have the emergence of Garand… We’re very fortunate [to have both of them] and we will see how things will play out.”
When is the first game/how can I watch it?
The first game is on Saturday, October 14th in Springfield at the MassMutual Center. It will not be televised, but all 30 games over the course of the opening weekend will be free on AHLTV. Puck drop is at 7:05 p.m.
