FROM THE CREASE with Bruce Berlet 

Ken Gernander is known as “Mr. Wolf Pack.”

So it’s appropriate that the person involved with the on-ice operation of the Hartford Wolf Pack since Day One and the only player in franchise history to have his number (12) retired and raised to the XL Center rafters was the leading vote-getter from the fans for the All-Time Wolf Pack Team announced before Saturday night’s game against the Springfield Falcons.

“I have so many good memories, and I’ve had nothing but the best of support from the people in the community,” said Gernander, chosen at forward with Derek Armstrong and P.J. Stock. “It’s been pretty special and pretty unique, and I’ve been extremely fortunate. It’s not often someone can be a player, assistant coach and coach with the same team or can be involved with one team for so many years (16). I really appreciate it and like what I’m doing.”

Gernander, 41, a fifth-round pick of the Winnipeg Jets in 1987, played 14 professional seasons, the last 11 in the New York Rangers organization and mostly with their AHL affiliates in Binghamton (1994-97) and Hartford (1997-2005). He was team captain for 10 years, eight in Hartford, and is the Wolf Pack’s all-time leader in shorthanded goals (14), plus-minus (plus-93), games played (599) and playoff games played (78). He also ranks second all-time in goals (160), assists (187), points (347), power-play goals (50) and game-winning goals (30). But he was rarely called up to the Rangers, playing in only 27 NHL games, 15 in the playoffs, and finishing with two goals and three assists.

After retiring as a player after the 2004-05 season, Gernander was an assistant coach under Jim Schoenfeld for three years and is in his fourth season as head coach. He retired as the AHL’s all-time leader in career playoff games played (123) and is the second all-time leading scorer among American-born players with 624 points in 973 games. He has the most coaching victories in franchise history (136), having passed AHL Hall of Fame member John Paddock’s 130 near the end of last season. Paddock led the Wolf Pack to their only Calder Cup in 2000 and was named interim coach of the Adirondack Phantoms on Monday after Greg Gilbert was fired. He will return to Hartford as Phantoms coach on Nov. 28, one day after the Wolf Pack officially will be re-branded the Connecticut Whale.

“There will be a lot of comments from a wide array of people about Ken’s character, dedication, and professionalism, all richly deserved,” Schoenfeld, the Wolf Pack’s general manager, said. “However, the thing I find most telling about Ken is the sense of responsibility with which he conducts his life. Ken had the same dream as every other player in the American Hockey League, that is, to one day make his mark in the NHL. That dream stayed with Ken right up to his retirement but unlike many, he never allowed it to deter or distract him from the responsibilities at hand, which were to be a consistent, high level performer and leader of the Hartford Wolf Pack. There was no bi-monthly call from his agent asking for a move to an organization that presented a more attractive depth chart, no complaint from Ken about how he was being overlooked by the parent club, just a firm resolve to be the best player he could be, right where he was, and the commitment and work ethic to pull it off. If the young men in today’s game could learn nothing but that it would serve them well both in their careers and throughout their lives. Ken went on to enjoy a tremendous playing career, leading his team to a Calder Cup Championship and is currently in his fifth year as a professional coach, so in a real sense his dream is alive and well, and his sense of responsibility remains. I can honestly say I have a better understanding of the game of hockey because of my association and friendship with Ken Gernander.”

While Gernander lived by that credo throughout his career, it also carried over into his life with his wife, Kerby, and three children – McKenna, 11, Micah, 9, and Miranda, 5.

Armstrong retired this year after a 17-year pro career that included 72 goals and 149 assists in 477 NHL games in parts of 14 seasons with the Rangers, New York Islanders, Ottawa Senators, Los Angeles Kings and St. Louis Blues. The sixth-round pick of the Islanders in 1992 is the Wolf Pack career leader in assists (204), third in goals (105), points (309) and plus-minus (plus-62), fifth in games played (265), tied for sixth in power-play goals (26) and tied for seventh in game-winning goals (10) and shorthanded goals (five). He won the Calder Cup playoff MVP award in 2000, when he had 23 points in 23 games, and the Les Cunningham Award as AHL MVP and John B. Sollenberger Trophy for the scoring title in 2001, when he had 32 goals and 69 assists in 75 games.

The feisty Stock, signed as a free agent by the Rangers in 1997, was the biggest fan favorite with Gernander and had 25 goals, 45 assists and 742 penalty minutes, third highest in franchise history, in 160 games. He was a member of the 2000 Calder Cup championship team and is well known for scoring the first goal in Wolf Pack history and affectionately smacking team mascot Sonar in the face during a Norelco television commercial. Stock later played for his hometown Montreal Canadiens, Philadelphia Flyers and Boston Bruins, finishing with five goals, 21 assists and 523 penalty minutes in 235 NHL games. He also played in the AHL with the Philadelphia Phantoms and Providence Bruins before being forced to retire because of an eye injury sustained during a game between Springfield and Philadelphia while he was on loan to the Phantoms.

Stock began a broadcast career with his own show in Montreal called “The Stock Exchange” on radio and “Stock Talk” on television. He also has done game and studio analyst work on The NHL On OLN and debuted on the Canadian Broadcast Company’s Hockey Night in Canada in 2007. He cut back on his appearances to spend more time with his family but now works at a morning drive show on a rock station in Montreal (CHOM 97.7) and as an in-studio analyst on Hockey Night in Canada (www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey). He also is in his second season on CBC’s reality competition, Battle of the Blades, partnered with Russian figure skater Violetta Afanasieva.

The defensemen are Dale Purinton and Dan Girardi. Purinton, a fifth-round pick of the Rangers in 1995, is the Wolf Pack’s career penalty minutes leader (1,240), tied for eighth in plus-minus (plus-38) and had 13 goals and 27 assists in 215 AHL games, the last 80 after his NHL career ended. The man known as “Diesel” and for his numerous tattoos had four goals, six assists and 578 penalty minutes in 181 NHL games with the Rangers. He retired after the 2007-08 season and now coaches the Cowichan Valley Capitals in the British Columbia Hockey League, a Junior A league heavily scouted by U.S. colleges and universities.

Girardi signed with the Wolf Pack as a free agent in 2005, joined the Wolf Pack from the Charlotte Checkers of the ECHL early in the 2005-06 season as an emergency call-up because of injuries and was on his way to the NHL. He had 10 goals and 53 assists in 111 games with the Wolf Pack before being called up by the Rangers midway through the 2006-07 season. He never returned to the minors and has 21 goals and 66 assists in 295 NHL games and has been the Rangers’ best defenseman this season after signing a three-year, $13.3 million contract in the offseason.

The goalie is Jason LaBarbera, the Rangers’ third-round pick in 1998 who holds nearly all of the team’s goaltending records and is now with the Phoenix Coyotes, his fourth NHL team. In 31/2 seasons with the Wolf Pack, LaBarbera had a record of 91-54-18 with 21 shutouts, including an AHL-record 13 in the 2003-04 season, when he won the Les Cunningham Award as the AHL MVP and Aldege “Baz” Bastien Memorial Award as the league’s top goaltender after compiling a 34-9-9 record with a 1.59 goals-against average and .936 save percentage, all the best of his career and Wolf Pack records. In 2004-05, and again with the Manchester Monarchs in 2006-07, LaBarbera won the Harry “Hap” Holmes Memorial Award as one of the goaltenders playing a minimum of 25 games for the team with the lowest goals-against average. In 2004-05, LaBarbera was 31-6-2 with a 1.84 GAA and .934 save percentage as the Wolf Pack allowed only 160 goals.

Despite such gaudy numbers, the Rangers didn’t re-sign LaBarbera because of the presence of Henrik Lundqvist and former No. 1 draft pick Al Montoya, who was later traded to the Phoenix Coyotes and is now with the AHL’s San Antonio Rampage. So in the offseason, LaBarbera signed as a free agent with the Kings, where he went undefeated in his first seven starts as a backup to Mathieu Garon. He was with the Kings for 21/2 seasons before being traded to his hometown Vancouver Canucks for a seventh-round pick in 2009 on Dec. 30, 2008. When the Canucks didn’t re-sign LaBarbera after the 2008-09 season, he signed a two-year, $2 million contract with the Coyotes, where he joined former Wolf Pack general manager and Rangers assistant GM Don Maloney, former Whalers defenseman and Wolf Pack assistant coach Ulf Samuelsson (associate coach), former Wolf Pack forwards Lauri Korpikoski and Petr Prucha and former Whalers players Maloney, Dave Tippett (coach), Doug Sulliman (assistant coach) and Sean Burke (goaltending coach).

Fittingly, the Wolf Pack’s opponent for their home finale was their closest rival, whose owners include general manager Bruce Landon, a goalie for all or part of the first five seasons of the New England Whalers of the World Hockey Association.