The 2024-25 Hartford Wolf Pack: Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

It's March 1st, 2025. The Hartford Wolf Pack are hosting the Utica Comets at the XL Center. Both teams are searching for key points as they're both in tight playoff races in their respective divisions.

In the final minutes of the second period, Utica has been called for a delayed penalty. Dylan Garand vacates the net for the extra skater.

Then, disaster strikes.

A tap pass to the top of the zone splits a pair of Wolf Pack players and slides down the ice. Alex Belzile backchecks hard, but he just can't catch up. The puck slides into the empty Hartford net to tie the game at one.

The Wolf Pack would go on to lose this game 3-2 in a shootout.

This play, and game, are a microcosm of the Wolf Pack's season. They find themselves in a favorable situation and make the right play. However, they get a terrible bounce that an impressive effort can't overcome, and eventually, they miss out on a key point.

"Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades" is a classic idiom attributed to baseball great Frank Robinson. You might get close to your goal, but unless you actually achieve it, it doesn't matter.

The 2024-25 Hartford Wolf Pack embody this idiom. They caught every bad break and no fortuitous bounce. They'd play good enough to win, but they'd fall just short. Ultimately, these "almost" efforts became the difference in their playoff chase.

If you want another example, take the Wolf Pack's final extended road trip of the campaign. With their season on the line, the Wolf Pack visited the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, Providence Bruins, and Hershey Bears for four total games. They played four strong road games—yet won none of them. They lost each game by just one goal, earning just two total points thanks to a pair of overtime defeats, and ultimately were eliminated from Calder Cup Playoff contention.

Now, with a frustrating 2024-25 season over, let's take a long look back on it.

The 2024-25 season represents a new beginning for the Wolf Pack. After parting ways with interim head coach Steve Smith following the 2023-24 season, Hartford gains former Northern Michigan head coach Grant Potulny as their new bench boss. Potulny, himself a veteran of 297 AHL games, makes the move to pro hockey after seven seasons leading the Wildcats.

The roster, meanwhile, looks very similar to the one that ended the prior season. Key leadership group members Belzile and Anton Blidh are both back in the Connecticut capital. Prospects like Brennan Othmann, Brett Berard, and Adam Sýkora return up front, while Matthew Robertson and Brandon Scanlin once again patrol the blueline. In net, the Wolf Pack will have the two-headed monster of Garand and Louis Domingue for the third straight season.

The Wolf Pack have plenty of new additions to the roster as well. Prospects like Dylan Roobroeck, Jaroslav Chmelař, and Bryce McConnell-Barker join the team for their first full seasons as professionals. Free agent signings Bo Groulx and Casey Fitzgerald look to make an impact with their new team.

The Wolf Pack's season opener is an absolute thriller. Fitzgerald scores a 6-on-4 goal with just over a minute to play to dramatically force overtime. Domingue turns in a phenomenal performance, stopping 45 of the 48 shots he sees. Hartford loses in the shootout, but the resiliency and elite goaltending that have led them on deep playoff runs in prior years is back.

However, cracks soon start to appear.

In just the third game of the season, Othmann exits with an upper-body injury after a collision in front of the net. He would miss over two months of action.

Then, the Wolf Pack struggled to find their game on the road. They went 0-5-1-1 through their first seven road contests. It's not until December 4th that they pick up a road victory with a 6-1 drubbing of in-state rival Bridgeport.

Eventually, the wheels fall off.

During a twelve game stretch from January 11th to February 7th, the Wolf Pack win just two games. The stretch features a seven-game losing streak where they blew multiple leads and mustered just two points.

However, the Wolf Pack don't go down without a fight. Even after that fateful day in March, they continue to scratch and claw their way back towards playoff positioning. However, the hole proves to be too big to dig out of. After a 2-1 loss to Hershey on April 6th, the Wolf Pack are officially eliminated from Calder Cup Playoff contention. Twelve days later, their season officially ends. For the first time since 2022, there is no playoff hockey in Hartford.

So what actually went wrong for the Wolf Pack this season, anyway?

First, it was injuries. The aforementioned Othmann injury just three games into the season was an early killer. Groulx saw his season end in February, save for a game in March where he tried to return to the ice but re-aggravated the ailment. Ben Harpur also suffered a season-ending injury, the second year in a row his season has ended prematurely. Erik Brännström and Nicolas Aubé-Kubel, acquisitions in separate midseason trades, each spent time on the shelf—ultimately, the two combined for just nine games in a Wolf Pack uniform.

Next, it was their poor road record. The Wolf Pack went 11-18-6-1 through 36 road games this season. They collected just 29 points away from the XL Center, tied with Iowa for second-fewest in the league—only Bridgeport (25) had fewer. Their 11 road victories tied the lowly Islanders for fewest in the AHL. Simply put, that's not an acceptable performance away from home.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, is that January slump. In 12 games, the Wolf Pack went 2-8-2-0, collecting just six points. Not many teams are going to survive a stretch like that and end up in the playoffs. If the Wolf Pack win even three of those to go 5-5-2-0, they may be playing hockey this week.

There's other reasons why the Wolf Pack missed out on the playoffs, but these three are the most important.

Alright, enough pessimism. There was quite a bit to like about this Wolf Pack season.

Dylan Garand cemented himself as a future NHLer in 2024-25. Through 39 games, Garand posted a career-best 2.73 GAA and .913 SV%. He also hit the 20-win milestone for the first time, earning the 20th victory in Hartford's last game of the year. Garand was selected as the AHL Goaltender of the Month for December, and represented the Wolf Pack at the 2025 AHL All-Star Game in Coachella Valley.

"He’s been the same. As a pro hockey player, that’s the best compliment you can get, is that you’re not up-and-down and erratic and inconsistent," Potulny told me after the final game of the season. "Dylan prepares the same way, practices the same way. When you do that, success isn’t surprising."

"He’s a very good hockey player, he had a very good season. I’m happy for him for all the accolades he got during the year. To get to 20 wins is a nice feather in his cap."

Up front, Roobroeck exploded for 20 goals, leading the team. Roobroeck became the third straight rookie to lead the team in goals, joining Berard (25, 2023-24) and Will Cuylle (25, 2022-23).

"He worked himself from fourth line, no special teams to penalty kill, to moving up the lineup, onto the power play. Now he’s a guy that’s playing top six minutes, power play, and penalty kill," Potulny told me. "He’s had a really great year, come a long way."

Blidh had his best offensive season to date, putting up career high numbers in goals (19), assists (17), and points (36). His efforts earned him a two-year contract extension with the Rangers, and he's likely to be a key part of the Wolf Pack for the next two seasons.

The Wolf Pack also saw a pair of exciting prospects join the team on amateur tryout contracts at the tail end of the season. Forward Noah Laba and defenseman Jackson Dorrington both joined the Wolf Pack after inking their entry-level contracts with the Rangers. Both played key roles down the stretch - Laba got top six and special teams units, while Dorrington earned top four time and became a staple of the penalty kill—and both are likely to retain those roles in the 2025-26 campaign. Between them, and the possibility of Gabe Perreault joining the team, the Wolf Pack have some exciting rookies to look forward to next year.

The 2024-25 Hartford Wolf Pack did not live up to expectations.

They know that.

"It was a long season and we didn’t live up to our expectations," Fitzgerald told me in a press conference following the conclusion of the season. "What frustrated me the most is how good of a group we had. You wish you could’ve just given more to get us to that postseason."

You could hear the disappointment in the voice of the Wolf Pack captain. He and his teammates so desperately wanted to bring playoff hockey to the XL Center for the third straight year. Instead, they'll watch the Calder Cup Playoffs from home during their longest offseason in three years.

Change is going to come. It's inevitable at the AHL level. A number of players are set for free agency as either UFAs or RFAs. The Rangers will be reshaping their own roster as well, and those efforts could impact the Wolf Pack. Even the XL Center, the Wolf Pack's home arena, will be undergoing changes—renovation efforts continue, and the building is set for a new name after XL Group declined to renew their naming rights contract.

Despite the change, one thing remains constant—the city of Hartford's love for the Wolf Pack.

"That’s another thing I’ll take away from this year, the support from the fans," Fitzgerald noted in that press conference. "I sat on a Zoom call with these guys and talked to them for an hour. Just hearing them and their perspective of what it means to be a Wolf Pack fan and a part of this community is special. It’s something I haven’t really seen on other teams, that support."

I've been lucky enough to attend over 100 Wolf Pack games over the past three seasons, and I can confirm Fitzgerald's statement. This is a city that truly loves their team, regardless of the ultimate result. I've spoken with fans in Hartford who've talked about how much this team and its players mean to them. It's a close bond, even when the on-ice results aren't what either group wants.

The offseason will be long. The wait will be extended. But before you know it, a crisp fall breeze will once again envelope the Connecticut capital, and Wolf Pack hockey will be right back around the corner. Expectations will once again be high, and the Wolf Pack will have plenty of motivation to meet them. They're well aware that close won't cut it next year. Hockey isn't horseshoes nor hand grenades. With more strong efforts, and a little extra luck, this group can make another deep playoff run. We've seen it before, and I know we can see it again.

October can't come soon enough.