Connecticut Whale

XL Center Hartford

Retired Numbers:
#5 Kevin Dineen
#11 Ulf Samuelsson
#10 Ron Francis
#12 Ken Gernander

The franchise that became the Wolf Pack was founded in 1926 in Providence, Rhode Island as the Providence Reds, one of the five charter members of the Canadian-American Hockey League. In 1936, the Northeast-based CAHL merged with the Midwest-based International Hockey League to form the International-American Hockey League, which dropped the "International" from its name in 1942. The Reds--known as the Rhode Island Reds in their latter years--folded after the 1975-76 season. Shortly afterward, the owners of the Broome Dusters of the North American Hockey League bought the Reds franchise and moved it to Binghamton, New York as the Binghamton Dusters. After securing an affiliation with the Whalers in 1980, the team changed its name to the Binghamton Whalers. An affiliation change to the Rangers in 1990--one that continues to this day--brought another new name, the Binghamton Rangers.
After the 1996-97 NHL season, the Hartford Whalers moved to Raleigh, North Carolina as the Carolina Hurricanes. Soon after the Whalers' departure, the Binghamton Rangers relocated to Hartford to begin play at the vacated Hartford Civic Center (today known as the XL Center).
Following a "name-the-team" contest, the franchise became the Hartford Wolf Pack, a reference to a submarine class as well as the tactic known as 'wolfpacking'. With Connecticut being home to both the main builder of submarines (General Dynamics Electric Boat) and the US Navy's primary submarine base, honoring the state's naval tradition was the paramount goal. The name Seawolf, a reference to the Seawolf class submarine was considered to have been the ideal name for the team, however it had already been taken by the Mississippi Sea Wolves of the ECHL. Following the submarine theme, the mascots were named "Sonar" and "Torpedo".
The Wolf Pack's first coach was E.J. McGuire and in the first game, the team won 2-0 against the neighboring Springfield Falcons. PJ Stock recorded the first goal in Wolf Pack history. The team reached the playoffs during the first twelve years of their existence, and won the Calder Cup in 2000, defeating the Rochester Americans in the Cup finals. It has only missed the playoffs twice since moving to Hartford, in 2009-10 and 2012-13.
The Connecticut Whale logo, used from 2010-13

The Connecticut Whale logo, used from 2010-13
In Summer 2010 the Rangers entered into a business relationship which gave Howard Baldwin, former owner of Hartford Whalers National Hockey League team, control of the team's business operations.[2] On September 20, 2010 Baldwin announced the Wolf Pack would change their name to the Connecticut Whale in honor of the Whalers. The name change took place on November 27, 2010; the final game with the "Wolf Pack" name came on November 26, 2010. The opponent was Connecticut's other AHL team, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. The Sound Tigers won 4-3, in a shootout. On November 27, 2010, the team played first game under the new "Whale" name. The opponent was, again, the Sound Tigers. The Whale won 3-2, in a shootout. The attendance for the debut game was 13,089, which is the third-largest crowd in franchise history. On January 1, 2011 the Connecticut Whale debuted new home jerseys featuring light blue instead of green, however the color has been shelved for the 2011-12 season. The Whale uniform now consists of a white sweater at home with blue and green "wave" striping, and a green road sweater with blue and white "wave" striping.
The Whale were hosts and participants in the 2011 AHL Outdoor Classic, the Whale Bowl, held at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Connecticut. Connecticut fell to the Providence Bruins, 5-4, in a shootout.
In June 2012, after just 21 months, the New York Rangers terminated their business relationship with Howard Baldwin and Whalers Sports & Entertainment The team is now operated with the assistance of AEG.
In April 2013, just 3 years after rebranding as the Whale, the team decided it would revert back to the nickname "Wolf Pack" for the following season. Global Spectrum, the group now marketing the team and managers of the XL Center arena, announced in May 2013 that the franchise had officially returned to the Hartford Wolf Pack identity

• Derek Armstrong
• Sean Avery
• Donald Brashear
• Dane Byers
• Ryan Callahan
• Nigel Dawes
• Brandon Dubinsky
• Oren Eizenman
• Peter Ferraro
• Lauri Korpikoski
• Jason Labarbera
• Corey Potter
• Wade Redden
• Ulf Samuelsson
• Marc Savard
• Brad Smyth
• Todd White
• Matt Zaba

• from 1926 to 1976: Providence Reds
• from 1976 to 1977: Rhode Island Reds
• from 1977 to 1980: Binghamton Dusters
• from 1980 to 1990: Binghamton Whalers
• from 1990 to 1997: Binghamton Rangers
• from 1997 to 2010: Hartford Wolf Pack
• from 2010 to 2013: Connecticut Whale
• from 2013 to present: Hartford Wolf Pack

• 1999-2000: AHL

• Connecticut Whale Shop (official)
• Hartford Wolf Pack (official)
• Whale page on Hartford Courant (unofficial)
• WTIC Radio (unofficial)
• You Tube channel (unofficial)
• Twitter (twitter)
• Facebook Page (facebook)