Scandal unfolds in Carolina leading to ugly NHL breakup!

Little was said on the breakup between the Carolina Hurricanes and their AHL affiliate Chicago Wolves, which prompted Tony Androckitis of Insider AHL Hockey to investigate on what happened that led to the Wolves to go without an NHL partner in almost 30 years as well as leaving the Hurricanes without an AHL home to place their pro prospects in North America.

Androckitis spoke with Wolves GM Wendell Young to get details on what took place. After all, the team was picking things up from a great start, having won the 2022 Calder Cup. However, it was ugly then too as Young revealed that Carolina threatening to fire the team’s then-head coach Ryan Warsofsky during the 2022 Calder Cup Finals if he continued to play goaltender Alex Lyon over Hurricanes prospect goalie Pyotr Kochetkov.

“The year we won [2022]? We were super competitive and everything fell into place. The next year [2023] - totally different philosophy. Our coach was told: ‘don’t worry about winning this year’. Our coach was being dictated on who to play in goal. Lineups had to go through Carolina.”

The fact that Warsofsky left the Carolina organization after the championship to join the San Jose Sharks as an NHL assistant coach that offseason makes sense…

Young however reveals that things got worse from there as the Wolves could cope with the Hurricanes’ change in player development approach and philosophy.

“We were trying to correct it all year. We didn’t sign up for this. We didn’t sign up to not be competitive. It’s not [a] good [look] for anyone. It’s not good for the Chicago Wolves. It’s not good for Carolina, for the AHL, the NHL.”

It led to Young blaming the Hurricanes for the ugly breakup:

“We didn’t make this decision. Carolina did by their actions.”

As of this season, the Wolves will play in the AHL without having a direct NHL affiliation, though GM Young remains willing to engage with other NHL teams to find specific loan arrangements for their players.

This is quite unusual for the AHL and NHL, however, it could lead to clubs looking at a new avenue for their prospects’ growth. It will be interesting to see how this pans out for the (lone) Wolves.

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