Over the last six years since the Hartford Wolf Pack were rebranded from a two-year stint as the Connecticut Whale, the New York Rangers’ AHL affiliate has only qualified for the postseason once and failed to help produce NHL ready talent in the process. Granted, there was not a lot of talent to work with while the Rangers were chasing the Stanley Cup, but it’s a new day in Connecticut.
For the Rangers rebuild to properly develop over the next several years, prospects need a developmental league to learn. Like forward Chris Kreider said last season about Lias Andersson and Filip Chytil, “We have a developmental league, it’s called the AHL, they’re here because they’re ready to compete.