WOLF PACK UNLEASHED: BRYCE McCONNELL-BARKER
Aug 7, 2025HARTFORD, CT – On a team level, the 2024-25 season was not what the Hartford Wolf Pack hoped for or expected. The club missed the Calder Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2022, finishing just shy of the sixth and final playoff spot in the Atlantic Division.
The 2024-25 season might not have resulted in a playoff berth for the club, but it did result in a strong development year for many of the team’s young players. Among that group was forward Bryce McConnell-Barker, the 97th overall pick by the New York Rangers in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft.
“I think it was a lot of fun,” he said of a rookie campaign that featured the typical ebbs and flows of adjusting to pro hockey.
“It was definitely an adjustment coming from junior hockey, but I think I learned a lot. The group of guys we had was really special and I learned a lot from every single guy on the team. I had a lot of fun. Unfortunately, we didn’t achieve our goal of making the playoffs, but next season we are determined to turn that around and have a much better season.”
If the Wolf Pack are to turn their fortunes around and return to the Calder Cup Playoffs in the spring of 2026, every returning player will have had to learn lessons a season ago and grow. McConnell-Barker is confident that will be the case for him.
He feels he learned quite a bit as a rookie, and that those lessons will help him continue to develop and improve as a player.
“I learned that you don’t have as much time to make plays,” he said when asked about which specific lessons he has learned. “All the little details are that much more important. Having your stick on pucks, finishing body checks, forechecking and backchecking hard, just doing the little things right is I think the biggest thing that can help, so for me, that’s the most important thing I learned.”
Now, with 68 games of AHL regular season experience under his belt, McConnell-Barker is ready for a key summer of training. He now knows what to expect on a nightly basis in this league. He knows what it takes to be successful on a consistent basis in this league.
The native of London, ON, now also knows what he personally needs to work on to ensure his development continues.
“I think I can improve in a lot of areas,” McConnell-Barker said when asked about his main focus for the summer. “I want to take on a bigger role for this team, whether it’s penalty killing, powerplay, whatever, I want to help this team win and contribute more. That’s the goal for me for next season. I want to have a big offseason and come back better than ever and be a difference-maker for this team.”
McConnell-Barker will certainly have the opportunity to earn that chance at this fall’s training camp and into the regular season. The Wolf Pack’s forward group will contain some new veteran faces and some familiar young faces who are looking to, like McConnell-Barker, continue their development and help the team succeed. There will be an opportunity to earn the role that McConnell-Barker is striving for.
His competition will contain numerous other young players who are in a similar position. While those young players are competing against each other, they are also figuring out life as professional hockey players together. That makes for a tight-knit group that McConnell-Barker enjoyed playing with a season ago.
“It is definitely nice to have,” he said when asked about the young core group that is likely to be together for a second season this winter. “We have a lot of young guys on this team and that makes it easier. I’m not the only young guy going through it, we’re all going through our rookie year or our young careers. It definitely helps to have a lot of younger guys on the team.”
McConnell-Barker, should he suit up with the Wolf Pack this season, will once again be one of the young contributors for the team. Now, however, he has a better feel for life in the AHL and the nightly grind on the ice.
He’s hoping that, combined with a strong summer of training, will lead to the bigger role he desires in his second professional season.
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ABOUT THE HARTFORD WOLF PACK: The Hartford Wolf Pack has been a premier franchise in the American Hockey League since the team’s inception in 1997. The Wolf Pack are the top player-development affiliate of the NHL's New York Rangers and play at PeoplesBank Arena. The Wolf Pack has been home to some of the Rangers newest faces including Igor Shesterkin, Will Cuylle, and Matt Rempe. Follow the Wolf Pack on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Flickr, and TikTok.