The Hartford Wolf Pack missed the playoffs last season with the second-worst record in the Atlantic Division. There’s no shortage of reasons for why the New York Rangers affiliate in the American Hockey League (AHL) struggled so here are a few things to keep in mind.

- The injuries took their toll and this team in December and January leaving them a step behind everyone else.

- Matt Rempe, Brett Berard, and Brennan Othmann spent most of the season in the NHL, leaving the forward group depleted of talent.

- They lost 16 games by one goal. If half of those games have the puck bounce their way, they are easily in the playoffs.

- The Wolf Pack were the most penalized team in their division and fourth-most in the league.

The above reasons show some bad luck was involved. At the same time, teams create their own bad luck and at the end of the day, the Wolf Pack weren’t a good team with a below-average offense (2.76 goals per game) and defense (3.25 goals per game). There’s a good chance they bounce back and make the playoffs but while the rest of their division improve, the Wolf Pack are the only team without a noticeable upgrade. Teams like these usually make the head coach the scapegoat and cast them aside at the end of the season. After a rocky first season behind the AHL bench, Potulny has all the pressure and will have no favors for the Wolf Pack and the Rangers.

The Wolf Pack Talent Drain

Every off-season, AHL teams lose veteran talent. It comes with the territory and with greener pastures overseas for veterans, the talent pool is depleted for every team. That said, every team in their division found ways to add veteran talent in the summer and the Wolf Pack lost theirs. Alex Belzille, the leading scorer for the Wolf Pack with 19 goals and 37 assists, left for the Laval Rocket. Beniot-Oliver Groulx, who had 37 points in 47 games, signed with the Toronto Marlies in the summer. Louis Domingue, the backup goaltender known for his iconic empty-net goal in the 2023-24 season, left for the KHL. The Wolf Pack, like many teams in the league, will be a younger team with expected growning pains. Unlike the rest of the division, they lack the same veteran presence to both keep the team competitve and help out the prospects.

So, what do the Wolf Pack have working in their favor? They have a handful of prospects who can lead the way, something the rookie camp and series against the Philadelphia Flyers displayed. They also have one of the best goaltenders in the league with Dylan Garand returning to the Wolf Pack net. It’s something the Wolf Pack can lean on but this of course leads to the other issue they’ll face.

The Roster Influx Won’t Help Potulny

Turnover within a season is commonplace in the AHL and the goal is to have the prospects develop into stars and make the NHL roster at some point every season (and stay there). That said, there are three types of teams in the AHL that see the development league differently.

- The teams that win first and develop second (the Hershey Bears view anything short of a Calder Cup title as a failure).

- The teams that see how the season unfolds and if they are winning, they’ll make a push for the Calder but if not, they’ll focus on development (the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins fit into this category).

- The teams that only care about development for the NHL team.

The Wolf Pack are the only team in the Atlantic Division that unquestionably fits into the third category. The Rangers are looking to keep a contending window open and any prospect that’s worth anything to the NHL team will be asked to make an impact. They aren’t a rebuilding group even if the roster indicates they should be.

This means that any prospect who is playing well and carrying the Wolf Pack this season will likely be on the Rangers by midseason. Berard and Othmann will likely make the NHL team out of camp and add scoring depth to the forward unit. Scott Morrow, the defenseman they acquired in the K’Andre Miller deal, will likely play on the second pair for the Rangers. Dylan Roobroeck, who scored 20-goals for the Wolf Pack last season, has a chance to center the fourth line on the NHL team. Gabe Perreault has shown enough flashes before his first season in the AHL to get a few looks in the NHL. Garand, the staple in the net, will likely get a call up to backup Igor Shesterkin, especially since the other backup option is a 40-year-old Jonathan Quick.

All this leaves Potulny with a depleted AHL roster. It’s one that can end up in last place in the division and ultimately have the head coach take the fall for the second disappointing season in the row. The shelf life for coaches in this league are short and the pressure is on for Potulny to prove he belongs and is better than his record in the AHL indicates.

How Potulny Will Save The Wolf Pack ( And Himself)

Potulny showed in his first season his style and vision for how a team should play. He wasn’t the old-school tough-minded coach who overworked or scratched his players and wasn’t going to have a commanding voice behind the bench either. He worked with the prospects and aimed to get the most out of them. What stood out was the on-ice systems he ran. He wants to defend the dangerous ice and similarly, find shots within the faceoff dots. When asked about quality against quantity shots and what he prefers, he responded “We’re trying to get the pucks inside the dots, and there are plenty of ways to do that, whether it’s defensemen moving or pulling people to the net – I’m not a huge shoot shoot shoot guy,” which says a lot about how the Wolf Pack will play next season.

In the Rookie Series against the Philadelphia Flyers, the Rangers rookies were defending the high-danger areas and forcing the Flyers to take tough-angle shots. Likewise, the Rangers found the back of the net a few times with good looks on the net. It was a small sampl,e size but a sign that Potulny has a better buy in this time around from his players. Potulny will have the Wolf Pack playing a brand of hockey he wants. The question is if they have the players to make it work. The good news for Potulny is he’ll have a handful of prospects who he can build the team around. Noah Laba for example is a 22-year-old center who will play his first full season in the AHL and has shown flashes as a skater and a playmaker. If Roobroeck isn’t called up, he’ll be the top-six center to establish the forecheck and the physical two-way play Potunly wants to see. The Wolf Pack don’t have much to work with but the head coach will make the most of it.

Last Season Overwhelmed Potunly, This Season Won’t

The adjustment from junior hockey to the AHL is always difficult and that applies to coaches as well. Potulny came from the college game where he could recruit his player and not worry within the season about their departure (unless they were injured of course). In the AHL, players are called up and down all the time and the roster looks different every night. The turnover left Potulny, who was trying to instill an identity in the Wolf Pack, overwhelmed and it showed. The losses piled up and he would prepare the team to play one way and then find out some of the players weren’t in the lineup. He’d have the Wolf Pack playing a forechecking brand of hockey with Rempe no longer in the lineup. The roster changes force the coaches to stick the same message with the hopes that the players buy in but they also must pivot when needed to get the most out of the group.

The Wolf Pack played a heavy and physical brand of hockey even after Rempe was called up to the NHL. By the time Potunly pivoted and had the team moving the puck up the ice and across the ice in the offensive zone to qreate quick scoring chances, the team was already chasing the rest of the division for a playoff spot.

This season, Potulny won’t have those issues. He’s already shown he understands the league and the oddities that come with it. He’ll have the Wolf Pack ready to compete with the rest of the league and even without the most talented roster, they’ll be in the fight for a playoff spot.

- Mike Fink/Olde City Sports Network

- Photo Credit: Hartford Wolfpack

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