The Chicago Wolves have added forward Chase Wheatcroft on a one-year AHL contract, giving the Carolina Hurricanes’ affiliate a chance to take a fresh look at a player whose pro path has stalled after a big junior breakout.
Wheatcroft, 24, is coming off a summer in which he became an unrestricted free agent after the Dallas Stars chose not to give him a qualifying offer. His three-year entry-level contract, signed with Dallas in March 2023, expired earlier this month.
At 6-foot-3 and 190 pounds, Wheatcroft arrived in the pros with some real buzz. He went undrafted, then forced his way into an NHL deal after a massive overage season with the Prince George Cougars in the WHL. In 68 games, he piled up 47 goals and 107 points and earned a spot on the WHL’s First All-Star Team.
Dallas viewed him as a lower-end prospect when he turned pro. Elite Prospects ranked him No. 14 in the organization entering his 2023-24 rookie AHL season and described him as a player who “has play-driving ability to go alongside the expansive arsenal of skill,” while also noting that skating and physical play would need to improve for him to keep moving up.
That growth never really came in the Stars system. Wheatcroft stayed with the Texas Stars throughout all three seasons of his entry-level deal and never got pushed down to the ECHL, but his junior scoring didn’t carry over to the AHL in a meaningful way.
His first pro season produced three goals and 16 points in 46 games. He took a step forward the next year with 10 goals and 27 points in 67 games. This past season, though, a wrist injury limited him to just eight games, and he couldn’t build on the career-best numbers he posted the year before.
That’s the hard reality for a lot of high-end scorers coming out of junior hockey. The WHL can reward pure offense; the AHL usually asks for more. Players who made their name with skill and finishing often have to reshape their game once they’re up against older, more experienced professionals.
For Wheatcroft, that adjustment point seems to have arrived. His size gives him a path to lean into a different style, and the Wolves are betting there’s still something to work with. Now he gets a new shot in Chicago, and a chance to get his professional career moving again.
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