Chicago Wolves

Don Lever enters his first season with the Chicago Wolves after being named the seventh head coach in franchise history on Oct. 21, 2008.

The 56-year-old Lever brings 20 years of professional coaching experience to the Wolves bench, which includes winning the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup in 2007 as head coach of the Hamilton Bulldogs.

The South Porcupine, Ontario, native has compiled a 235-184-21-8-17 record and .555 winning percentage in 465 games as a head coach in the AHL, which includes two seasons with the Rochester Americans (1990-1992) and four with Hamilton (2005-2009). He was awarded the Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award as the league’s coach of the year in 1991, his first season as a head coach.

Lever also served as an assistant coach with the National Hockey League’s Buffalo Sabres (1987-1989, 1992-2002), St. Louis Blues (2002-04) and Montreal Canadiens (2008-09), recording a .538 winning percentage in 1,129 games (525-440-146-16-2), which includes an appearance in the 1999 Stanley Cup Finals with Buffalo. He began the 2009-10 season as a pro scout for the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks.

The Vancouver Canucks first selection, third overall, in the 1972 NHL Amateur Draft, Lever played 15 seasons in the NHL, amassing 313 goals, 367 assists and 680 points in 1,020 contests with the Canucks (1972-1980), Atlanta Flames (1979-80), Calgary Flames (1980-1982), Colorado Rockies (1981-82), New Jersey Devils (1982-1985) and Buffalo Sabres (1985-1987). He also notched 32 goals, 68 points and 85 penalty minutes in 86 AHL games with the Rochester Americans from 1985 to 1987.

Lever and his wife, Karen, have a son, Michael, and daughters Sarah and Caitlin.

Ron Wilson enters his first season as the Wolves assistant coach after being named to the position on Oct. 21, 2009.

Wilson served as assistant coach of the American Hockey League’s Hamilton Bulldogs from 2003-2009, which includes being on Wolves Head Coach Don Lever’s staff there from 2005-09. He also served as head coach of the Bulldogs for the final 15 games of the 2008-09 regular-season (10-3-0-2) and Calder Cup playoff run, where they lost in the North Division Semifinal.

The Toronto, Ontario, native entered the coaching ranks as an assistant coach with the AHL’s Springfield Falcons in 1996 and has posted a 487-404-80-31-23 record and .540 winning percentage in 1,025 games as an assistant in the AHL with Springfield (1996-2000), Saint John (2000-03) and Hamilton.

Prior to his coaching career, the 53-year-old Wilson tallied 326 points (110G, 216A) and 415 penalty minutes in 832 National Hockey League tilts with the Winnipeg Jets, St. Louis Blues and Montreal Canadiens, spanning 14 seasons (1979-88, 1989-94). He also appeared in 427 AHL matchups, amassing 438 points (159G, 279A) and 396 penalty minutes with the Nova Scotia Voyageurs (1976-79), Sherbrooke Jets (1982-84, 1985-86) and Moncton Hawks (1988-90).

Wilson and his wife, Debra, have three daughters, Shannon, Megan and Aimee, and two sons, Sean and Brenden.

Kevin Kacer, A.T.C., became the Wolves head athletic trainer in 1995 after being an assistant athletic trainer with the Detroit Pistons from 1993 to 1995.  Before that, he served as the head athletic trainer for the Continental Basketball Association's Fort Wayne Fury (1991 to 1993); the International Hockey League's Fort Wayne Komets (1990-91); and the National Professional Soccer League's Fort Wayne Flames (1988 to 1990).

Kacer earned a bachelor of science degree from the University of Indianapolis, where he served as the head student trainer from 1983 to 1987.  He gained experience as a volunteer trainer at Carroll High School in Fort Wayne from 1983 to 1987 and at the 1986 Pan American Games in Indianapolis.
 

The 43-year-old is a member of the Professional Hockey Athletic Trainers Society, National Athletic Trainers' Association and American College of Sports Medicine.
 

Kacer and his wife Jill have a daughter, Madison, and two sons Cameron and Nolan, and reside in the Western suburb.

Craig Kogut enters his 14th season with the Wolves and his 13th as the team's head equipment manager. 

The 45-year-old was the Wolves assistant equipment manager during the team's inaugural 1994-95 season. A member of the Society of Professional Hockey Equipment Managers, Kogut served as assistant equipment manager with the Chicago Blackhawks during the 1984-85 season.
 

The Maywood native, who graduated from Proviso East in 1980, also worked as a store manager for K & K Sports from 1989 - 1994.
 

Kogut and his wife Anna have a daughter Lisa Marie and a son D.J. and reside in the Western suburbs.

Kenny McCudden enters his ninth season as skating and skills coach for the Wolves. 

The Chicago native worked with the Wolves from 1994 to 1997 and began a second stint with the team prior to the 2002-03 season.  McCudden also served as the team's radio and television analyst from 1995 to 1997.

McCudden is also in his eighth year of working with the top prospects of the Colorado Avalanche and sixth in the same position with the Atlanta Thrashers.  He began working with the Chicago Blackhawks in 1979 as a 17-year-old stick boy and, by the time he left the organization six years later, had become the team's assistant equipment manager.

The operator and owner of Ice Company Hockey Schools, he has worked with thousands of Chicago-area children since 1990.

McCudden, who resides in the Northwest suburbs with his wife Sjoukje, is one of a handful of skating coaches who work with children learning to skate to the National Hockey League professionals.