The American Hockey League’s Hartford Wolf Pack have a couple of extra options in their closet this year with the unveiling of the two specialty jerseys they’ll wear during the 2023-24 season.
The affiliate of the New York Rangers gave fans a first look at the jerseys on their social media accounts this week.
The first jersey unveiled is for the team’s annual Teddy Bear Toss game on December 2 supporting Connecticut Children’s. The jersey has a grey base and a pattern on the sleeves with rectangles in the five colors of the Connecticut Chlidren’s logo: blue, green, yellow, orange and purple. Those colors also appear on the collar, in the border of the star in the logo on the front of the jersey and in the outline around the navy blue numbers on the sleeves. The Connecticut Children’s logo is on the right shoulder, and a teddy bear logo is on the left shoulder.
The second specialty jersey will be worn on February 3, 2024, when the Wolf Pack play the 2,000th game in the franchise’s history. The front of the jersey features the team’s secondary logo on the front. The stripes on the jersey are “a nod to both the Wolf Pack’s past and the recent Reverse Retro project as the silver and red trade places.”
The left shoulder has the Wolf Pack’s primary logo, while the right shoulder has the Rangers’ logo to celebrate their affiliation, which has lasted the whole time the Wolf Pack has existed.
The Hartford Wolf Pack were founded in 1997 when the Binghamton Rangers relocated to Connecticut following the Hartford Whalers’ move to Raleigh, North Carolina. The name refers to a submarine tactic called “wolfpacking,” which won a name-the-team contest thanks to the main builder of submarines and the U.S. Navy’s primary submarine base both being located in Connecticut.
The team changed its name to the Connecticut Whale in 2010 when former Whalers owner Howard Baldwin took over control. But they changed back to the Wolf Pack in May 2013.