Wolves’ championship banner night is this week’s ‘Random Hawlight’

CHICAGO – Not everybody who was on the team back in June was there on this October night, but for so many that are still with the organization, Saturday was quite a moment.

In fact, it was just the fifth time in the history of the organization that they were able to do something like this.

That’s raising a championship banner, which the Chicago Wolves did at Allstate Arena before their 2022-2023 season opener against the Milwaukee Admirals.

It marks the fifth time that the franchise has been able to have a banner ceremony for a league title since their founding in 1994. The team won the Turner Cup in the IHL in 1998 and 2000 then Calder Cups in the AHL 2002, 2008, and then 2022.

The ceremony was emceed by longtime Wolves anthem singer Wayne Messmer as the team introduced a number of members of the franchise along with the players from last year’s team who are still on the roster.

A highlight video was then shown before three different banners were revealed: One for the Central Division title, one for the Western Conference title, and then the Calder Cup championship banner.

All three of them were then raised to the rafters of Allstate Arena with cheers coming from those being honored on the ice along with fans who saw their team win a championship for the first time in 14 years this summer.

Unfortunately for the Wolves, the game didn’t work out as well as the ceremony did as the affiliate of the Carolina Hurricanes lost to Milwaukee 5-2 on Saturday evening.

Larry Hawley featured this moment in his “Random Hawlight” for the week on WGN News Now, and you can watch that in the video above.