There are essentially two people that were most key for the rise of the Hartford Wolf Pack from being a good team, to being a Calder Cup Champion. The first had his number retired and is the current head coach of the team, Ken Gernander.
The second key contributor, to date anyway, has yet to be honored; that oversight is about to be corrected.
The Hartford Wolf Pack announced that they will make that oversight go away and will give the proper honor and respect to a very worthy source. The Wolf Pack will salute their former head coach, John Paddock, at Hartford’s final regular season home game against the Springfield Falcons on Saturday, April 10.
The honor is in recognition of Paddock’s recent induction into the American Hockey League Hall of Fame.
Paddock coached the Wolf Pack for three seasons, 1999-00 through 2001-02, and led the Wolf Pack to the 2000 Calder Cup championship in his first year behind the Pack bench. That 2000 title was Paddock’s third Cup as a coach. Having also won titles with the Maine Mariners in 1984 and the Hershey Bears in 1988, Paddock became the first-ever AHL bench boss to win Calder Cups with three different teams.
Currently the Philadelphia Flyers’ assistant general manager, Paddock compiled a record of 130-74-25-11, for a .617 winning percentage, during his time with the Wolf Pack. His overall career AHL coaching record, with Maine, Hershey, the Binghamton Rangers, Wolf Pack, Binghamton Senators and Philadelphia Phantoms, is 585-424-98, which places him third all-time among league coaches in wins and games coached (1,107). Paddock also holds the all-time AHL coaching records for playoff wins (82) and games coached (149).
Paddock also has NHL head-coaching, and general-manager, experience with the Winnipeg Jets/Phoenix Coyotes. Prior to joining the coaching ranks, the Oak River, Manitoba native spent nine-plus seasons as a pro player, including a total of 87 NHL games with Washington, Philadelphia and Quebec.
Paddock is the first individual with a connection to the Wolf Pack franchise to earn AHL Hall of Fame honors. The AHL Hall of Fame is housed on-line at www.ahlhalloffame.com and is accessible to fans worldwide with the click of a mouse as part of the AHL Internet Network.
The Saturday, April 10 game is also the Wolf Pack’s Fan Appreciation Night. Faceoff is 7:00 PM at the XL Center.
ALL tickets that night are just $10. If you can get there you should be.
