Wolves ready to raise championship banner for home opener
From the new coach Don Granato to all the fresh faces in the locker room, everyone has already heard countless times the expectations that accompany the Chicago Wolves' franchise.
On Saturday, they'll finally see it.
"There's only one banner raised in the National Hockey League," Wolves general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff said. "There's only one banner raised in the American Hockey League. To have that in your building, it's a sense of pride; it's a sense of accomplishment, it's a sense of tradition, it's a sense of sacrifice, it's a sense of what it takes to reach that ultimate goal."
The Wolves will raise their 2007-2008 Calder Cup championship banner at the Allstate Arena on Saturday before their home opener against the Peoria Rivermen. But underneath it, there will only be few on the ice who had anything to do with it.
Unlike last season's championship team that was built around returning players such as Darren Haydar, Jason Krog and Brett Sterling, this year's squad has experienced the customary turnover of the AHL.
Haydar (2006-07 AHL MVP), Krog ('07-08 AHL MVP) and Sterling (93 goals in two seasons) are now gone. So are right wing Jesse Schultz (66 points last season), and starting defensemen Joel Kwiatowski (50 points) and Nathan Oystrick (43 points).
Of course, there's also the departure of coach John Anderson, who after 11 seasons with the Wolves finally got his call to the NHL and was hired to coach the Atlanta Thrashers. He took with him assistant coach Todd Nelson.
In the short off-season, the Wolves' first step to rebuilding toward another cup was the hiring of Granato. A Downers Grove native with coaching experience in the AHL and NHL, Granato offered the mixture of experience and success the Wolves were seeking.
"What he brings is a winning tradition, too," said Wolves veteran Steve Martins, who will turn 37 this season. "That level of expectation is there, which is first and foremost the most important thing for the Chicago Wolves. Chevy talks about it every spring training camp. It's why I love coming back to this team. I don't think any other team wants to win more than this team. They expect to win year in and year out. Bringing Don in doesn't change that."
Granato will have some experience to work with. Martins, Joe Motzko, Jordan LaValle, Colin Stuart and Joey Crabb contributed offensively last year. Defensively, Boris Valabik, Brian Sipotz and Arturs Kulda helped in the championship run.
Stuart was one of the final players to be assigned to the Wolves from the Thrashers' training camp and is motivated to return to Atlanta soon.
"Anytime you get close and get turned away, it's tough," Stuart said. "If anything, my mindset has been strengthened. I need to prove to them I need to be there. It's important for me to come down and help this team and also make sure my effort and my performance on the ice shows what I can do."
In the net is where the Wolves may be the strongest in their returnees. Twenty-one-year-old Ondrej Pavelec rejoins the team after a rookie season in which he posted 33 regular-season wins and helped them to 16 more in the playoffs.
Of the newcomers, forward Grant Stevenson, Spencer Machacek, Junior Lessard, and Jeff Hamilton, formerly of the Blackhawks, and Riley Hozapfel and defenseman Jamie Rivers will be ones to watch.