ROSEMONT, Ill. – The sequence was about as heartbreaking as it gets for the 2023-24 Chicago Wolves. Saturday night tied 1-1 with the Grand Rapids Griffins while mathematically playing for their lives and the golden opportunity sits for Rocco Grimaldi on a shorthanded breakaway to take the lead and keep the season alive.
Grimaldi is instead robbed blind by a sprawling Sebasitan Cossa and just seconds later Matt Luff buries the one-time chance with just over three minutes remaining. Marco Kasper put the final nail in the coffin for the Wolves into the empty net, and a season of firsts was put to rest in a 3-1 loss that mathematically eliminated Chicago from playoff contention. It was the first time in the 30-year history of the Wolves that they’ve missed the postseason in back-to-back years.
Independence Day
Since the announcement just over a year ago that the Wolves would go without an NHL affiliation, there was an extra level of intrigue surrounding this Chicago club. In a rather uncommon era of stability for the American Hockey League, where President Scott Howson openly lauded his joy with each NHL team having an affiliate in the primary developmental league in the game, the Wolves decided to gamble on themselves. Following the completion of the three-year affiliation with the Carolina Hurricanes, Chicago took a page out of the old IHL playbook and operate independently for the 2023-24 season. After all, they not only survived but thrived on their own in those days. With deep pockets, a rabid fanbase, and a history of success, why not?
As Chicago closes out what will statistically finish as their worst season in the storied history of the franchise, perhaps that line of thought should have stayed in the 90’s.
Single and Ready to Mingle
It’s impossible to analyze this season’s Wolves in a vacuum. We have to go at least a year back to understand why the Wolves did what they did. Coming off a Calder Cup championship in 2022 which saw heavy free-agent acquisitions from their parent club in Andrew Poturalski, Stefan Noesen, Alex Lyon, and playoff MVP Josh Leivo, Carolina opted to hand the reigns of the 2022-23 Wolves off to their prospects. While players like Vasili Ponomarev and Anttoni Honka thrived in their roles, the Wolves struggled out of the gate – especially with star netminder Pyotr Kochetkov called up to the parent club in Carolina for a majority of the season.
Despite having the best record in the AHL in the second half of the season, Chicago missed the postseason by a single point. In Chicago, the expectation is to compete for championships year in and year out. In fact, only the Hershey Bears – the team that ended up following up Chicago’s championship with their own title in 2023 – could boast the kind of success that the Wolves have had since they joined the AHL from the ashes of the IHL in 2001-2002.
For Wolves General Manager Wendell Young, the Wolves felt like they were short changed by the Hurricanes in their pursuit for a run at a repeat.
“I feel like we lost some control of what was going on.” Young said after the announcement to go independent. “I think there was a philosophy from up top where we went from developing and winning to only developing. It was their mandate, which made it tough. We really feel that a part of our process is if we win, we teach the guys how to win so they know how to win at the next level.”
In going independent, the Wolves had all the power in their hand. They wouldn’t have to answer to a higher power, nor would they have to see their stars off to greener pastures at the whim of a phone call. Over the summer, they attracted big-name free agents like Grimaldi and Chris Terry, with hundreds of games of experience between the two of them scoring at well over a point a game pace each. Chicago saw itself as a destination for veterans who could still establish themselves as premier players in this league – as it always had been since its inception. Keith Kinkaid joined the team between the pipes, and with a few free-agent splashes of some of the biggest names in the league, the Wolves were ready to take the league by storm.
It was a great idea until October came around.
Monkey’s Paw
The Wolves opened the season with one win in their first nine games. They were shutout twice (both by the Iowa Wild – we’ll get to them) and had seven goals dropped on them twice in that opening span. The opening jitters could at least be explained by the radical change in the roster makeup. While other teams had players that had been playing together in the same system for years at a time, the Wolves were bringing in an entirely new team together. Surely, that would take time to gel.
However, by the time December rolled around, the Wolves were still very much mired to the bottom of the standings. When the wheels fell off during an 8-5 loss to the Texas Stars, head coach Bob Nardella was kicked out of the game and slapped with a ten-game suspension in response to alleged slurs thrown in the direction of the officials (to which Nardella and the Wolves maintain his innocence). It felt like rock bottom had hit for the storied franchise just two months into the experiment.
With legendary bench boss John Anderson taking over coaching duties during Nardella’s suspension, once again igniting that nostalgic flame of glory from days of old, the Wolves responded with some wins strung together. A 10-3-3 record following that blowout loss looked to be the ship turning itself around. Unfortunately for the Wolves and their fans, it was far too little, far too late. Even as the Hurricanes aided their roster with the loans of players like Ponomarev, Domenick Fensore, and Griffin Mendel, the Wolves failed to ever seriously contend for one of the five playoff spots in the Central Division.
With Saturday’s loss, the final verdict was rung up on the 23-24 Wolves. Their point percentage of .428, as it currently stands, is the worst in the team’s history. Despite featuring Grimaldi – currently second in the league in points with 70 – the Wolves remain bottom-five in goal scoring in the AHL (also despite having the league’s second-best power play). Only the San Jose Barracuda have given up more than the 242 goals the Wolves have yielded to the opposition.
The Wolves got what they wished for – total player control. In doing so, their roster was never able to match the depth that NHL clubs could stock their affiliates with. Unless the Wolves were riding a hot man-advantage, they were seemingly always playing from behind. The Wolves struggled to keep up from opening night, and following a decision made in the efforts to compete for a Calder Cup, the Wolves were nothing more than an afterthought.
Crossing the Delaware
When the American colonies declared their independence from the British Empire, the initial results were very Wolves-like. General Washington, now revered as an imposing figure of American fortitude, was chased all the way out into the frontier after losing battle after battle.
The Wolves are in their Valley Forge, their low-point of both history and present. Bleak as it looks, the future remains uncertain with options to go, sure, but realistically how can this Wolves team rebound?
The initial thought is, “What if they re-affiliate?” In their history of AHL membership, the Wolves routinely bounced from one NHL parent to another. Atlanta, St. Louis, Vancouver, Vegas, and Carolina have all had their moments of partnership with the Wolves. How much trouble would it be to just add another name to the list?
Well, quite a bit, actually. As alluded to before, the AHL is in a rather unprecedented era of stability. More NHL teams are seeing the importance of prospect development in the American League, leading to positive results further on, and are doing more to nurture that relationship. Some teams – like the Chicago Blackhawks – are seeing the value in outright owning their AHL affiliates, as seen with their recent purchase of the Rockford IceHogs. Put simply – teams are happy where they’re at and the options aren’t really there for Chicago to jump on the next hot item.
Do they continue with independence? Sure, the status quo seems easiest to follow, and Chicago can maintain their player control as was always the priority. What happens, however, when the Grimaldis and Max Comtois of the world don’t find the bottom-five finishes to adhere to their desires to compete for titles or chase after NHL contracts? Can they continue to rely on a strong financial base to draw key free agents in when their passionate fans endure another season of watching their beloved Wolves continue to struggle?
The Lone Wolf Dies, but the Pack Survives
Long-term, can the Wolves really maintain the archaic thought process of days gone by when the league has already shown that the hockey world has moved on?
Then, there’s the obvious answer. Burned bridges aside, the Carolina Hurricanes remain without an AHL affiliate. They spent all season with prospects like Ponomarev, Ryan Suzuki and Jamieson Rees losing out on critical development and playing time in the hands of another organization. Two of those players were dealt outside of the organization this year, while Suzuki – a former first-round pick – has his future up in the air. It seems obvious enough for a reunion – and sources say both sides continue to meet at the table – but the human condition often finds it difficult to forgive and forget.
For the time being, the Wolves remain independent. The last gasp of the wild west landscape of minor league hockey continues to hang on in Rosemont, and in the standings and record books it shows why it’s best to keep that breath in the past and adapt to the modern game.
