Carolina Hurricanes

In New England

The New England Whalers were established in November 1971 when the WHA awarded a franchise to begin play in Boston, Massachusetts. For the first two years of their existence, the club played their home games at the Boston Arena and Boston Garden. With the increasing difficulty of scheduling games at Boston Garden (owned by the NHL rival Boston Bruins), the owners decided to move the team to Hartford, Connecticut beginning with the 1974-75 season. While waiting for the completion of a new arena in Hartford, the Whalers played the first part of the season at The Big E Coliseum in West Springfield, Massachusetts. On January 11, 1975, the team played its first game in front of a sellout crowd at the Hartford Civic Center Coliseum, and would maintain its home there through 1997.

As one of the most stable WHA teams, the Whalers, along with the Edmonton Oilers, Quebec Nordiques, and Winnipeg Jets, were admitted to the NHL when the rival leagues merged in 1979. Because the NHL already had a team in the New England area, the Boston Bruins, the former WHA team was renamed the Hartford Whalers. The Whalers were never as successful in the NHL as they had been in the WHA, recording only three winning seasons. They peaked in the mid-to-late 1980s, winning their only playoff series in 1986 over the Nordiques before bowing out in the second round to the Montreal Canadiens, taking the Habs to overtime of Game 7 in the process. The next year, the club secured the regular-season Adams Division title, only to fall to the Nordiques in six games in the first round of the playoffs. In 1992, the Whalers made the playoffs for the final time, but were bounced in the first round in seven games by the Canadiens.

North Carolina (1997 – Present)

The Whalers were plagued for most of their existence by limited marketability. Hartford was the smallest American market in the league, and was located on the traditional dividing line between the home territories for New York City and Boston teams. It didn't help matters that the Hartford Civic Center was the smallest arena in the league, seating just over 15,000 people for hockey. The Whalers' off-ice problems were magnified when the start of the 1990s triggered a spike in player salaries.

Despite assurances made when he purchased the team in 1994 that the Whalers would remain in Hartford at least through 1998, in March 1997 owner Peter Karmanos announced that the team would move elsewhere after the 1996–97 season because of the team's inability to negotiate a satisfactory construction and lease package for a new arena in Hartford. On May 6, 1997, Karmanos announced that the Whalers would move to the Research Triangle area of North Carolina and the new Entertainment and Sports Arena in Raleigh. Due to the relatively short time frame for the move, Karmanos himself thought of and decided upon the new name for the club, the Carolina Hurricanes, rather than holding a contest as is sometimes done. Later that summer, the team dropped the Whalers' colors of blue, green and silver for a new black-and-red scheme, matching the colors of the North Carolina State University Wolfpack, with whose men's basketball team the Hurricanes would share the arena in Raleigh.

Unfortunately, the ESA would not be complete for two more years. The only arena in the Triangle area with an ice plant was Dorton Arena, a 45-year-old arena completely unsuitable for NHL hockey; at 5,100 seats, it was too small even for preseason games. The Hurricanes were thus forced to play home games in Greensboro, 90 minutes west of Raleigh, for their first two seasons after the move. This choice was disastrous for the franchise's attendance and reputation. With a capacity of over 21,000 people for hockey, the Greensboro Coliseum became the highest-capacity arena in the NHL. However, Triangle-area fans balked at making the drive down I-40 to Greensboro, and fans from the Piedmont Triad mostly refused to support a lame-duck team that had displaced the longtime Greensboro/Carolina Monarchs minor-league franchise. As a result, while the opening game drew a sellout, most games in Greensboro attracted crowds of 10,000 or fewer. Furthermore, only 29 out of 82 games were televised (over-the-air and cable combined), and radio play-by-play coverage on WPTF was often pre-empted by North Carolina State Wolfpack basketball (for whose broadcasts WPTF was the flagship station), leaving these games totally unavailable to those who did not have a ticket. With attendance routinely well below the league average, Sports Illustrated ran a story titled "Natural Disaster," and ESPN anchors mocked the "Green Acres" of empty seats; in a 2006 interview, Karmanos admitted that "as it turns out, [Greensboro] was probably a mistake."

Despite their move to the brand-new ESA, the Hurricanes played lackluster hockey in 1999–2000, failing to make the playoffs. In 2000–01, though, they claimed the eighth seed, nosing out Boston, and landed a first-round date with the defending champs, the New Jersey Devils. Although the Devils bounced the Hurricanes in six games, the series is seen as the real "arrival" of hockey in the Triangle. Down 3–0 in the series, the Hurricanes extended it to a sixth game, thereby becoming only the tenth team in NHL history to do so. Game 6 in Raleigh featured their best playoff crowd that year, as well as their loudest. Despite the 5–1 loss, Carolina was given a standing ovation by their home crowd as the game ended, erasing some of the doubts that the city would not warm up to the team.

Carolina's alternate logo, a gale storm watch flag. The black triangle represents the Triangle of North Carolina, and the flagpole is a hockey stick

2001 - 02 Stanley Cup Finals

The Hurricanes made national waves for the first time in the 2002 playoffs. They survived a late charge from the Washington Capitals to win the division, but expectations were low entering the first round against the defending Eastern Conference champion Devils. However, Arturs Irbe and Kevin Weekes were solid in goal, and the Hurricanes won two games in overtime as they put away the Devils in six games. Their second-round matchup was against the Montreal Canadiens, who were riding a wave of emotion after their captain Saku Koivu's return from cancer treatment. In the third period of Game 4 in Montreal, down 2–1 in the series and 3–0 in the game, Carolina would tie the game and then win on Niclas Wallin's overtime goal. The game became known to Hurricanes fans as the "Miracle at Molson"; Carolina won the next two games by a combined 13–3 margin over a dejected Habs club to take the series.

In the Eastern Conference Finals, Carolina met the heavily-favored Toronto Maple Leafs. In Game 6 in Toronto, the Leafs' Mats Sundin tied the game with 22 seconds remaining to send it to overtime, where Carolina's Martin Gélinas would score to send the franchise to their first Stanley Cup Finals. During this series, several Hurricanes fan traditions drew hockey-wide media attention for the first time: fans met the team at the airport on the return from every road trip, and echoed football-season habits honed for games across the parking lot by hosting massive tailgate parties before each home game, a relative novelty in the cold-weather-centric NHL. Inside the building, the CBC's Don Cherry lauded the RBC Center as "the loudest building in the NHL", praise that would be echoed in 2006.

In the Stanley Cup Finals, Carolina would face the Detroit Red Wings, thought to be the prohibitive favorite all year. Though the Canes stunned the Wings in Game 1, when Francis scored in the first minute of overtime, Detroit stormed back to win the next four games. Game 3 in Raleigh featured a triple-overtime thriller (won by Detroit's Igor Larionov, the oldest player to score a last-round goal), which sportscasters called one of the best finals games in history.

The momentum from the Cup Finals appearance did not last, however, and the next two seasons saw the 'Canes drop into the cellar of the NHL rankings; many of the new fans attracted to the team (and to hockey itself) during the 2002 playoff run lost interest and attendance declined. One of the few positive results of these losing years was the team's drafting of future star Eric Staal in 2003. In December 2003, the team fired Paul Maurice, who had been their coach since their next-to-last season in Hartford, replacing him with former New York Islanders bench boss Peter Laviolette. Weekes remained tough, but the offense was suspect; center Josef Vasicek led the team with a mere 19 goals and 26 assists for 45 points.

2005-06 Championship

The outcome of the 2004–05 NHL lockout led to the shrinking of the payroll to $26 million. The 'Canes, however, turned out to be one of the NHL's biggest surprises, turning in the best season in the franchise's 34-year history. They finished the regular season with a 52–22–8 record and 112 points, shattering the previous franchise records of 94 points (in the WHA) set by the 1972-73 Whalers and 93 points (in the NHL) set in 1986–87. It was the first time ever that the franchise had passed the 50-win and 100-point plateaus. The 112-point figure was good for fourth overall in the league, easily their highest overall finish as an NHL team (tied with third-overall Dallas on points, but with one fewer win than the Stars) and second in the East (one point behind the Ottawa Senators). The Hurricanes also ran away with their third Southeast Division title, finishing 20 points ahead of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Attendance increased from 2003–04, averaging just under 15,600 per game, and the team made a profit for the first time since the move from Hartford.

In the playoffs, after losing the first two games of the conference quarterfinal series against the Montreal Canadiens, Laviolette lifted goalkeeper Martin Gerber - who had been struggling to regain his form after playing through a bout of intestinal flu - in favor of rookie Cam Ward. The Hurricanes went on to win both games in Montreal, tying up the playoff series and turning the momentum around, winning the series on a Game Six overtime goal by Cory Stillman. Carolina faced the New Jersey Devils in the conference semifinals, which proved surprisingly one-sided, as the Hurricanes beat the Devils in five games. Stillman struck again, once again scoring the series-winning goal.

Rod Brind'Amour

In the Eastern Conference finals, the Hurricanes faced the Buffalo Sabres, who had finished just one spot behind the Hurricanes in the overall standings. The contentious series saw both coaches — Lindy Ruff and Laviolette — taking public verbal shots at each other's team, but in the deciding Game Seven, the Hurricanes rallied with three goals in the third to win by a score of 4–2. Rod Brind'Amour scored the game winner as the Hurricanes reached the Stanley Cup finals for the second time in team history.

The Cup finals were against the Edmonton Oilers, the first time in NHL history that two former WHA franchises had played against one another in the finals. The Canes rallied from a 3–0 deficit in Game 1 to win 5–4 after Rod Brind'Amour scored with 30 seconds left. In Game 2, the 'Canes shelled the Oilers 5–0 to take a two-game lead.

The Oilers won Game 3 in Edmonton, 2–1, as Ryan Smyth scored the game-winning goal with 2:47 left to play. Carolina rebounded in Game 4 with a 2–1 victory, and came home with a chance to win the Cup on home ice. However, game five saw the Oilers come back with a stunning 4–3 overtime win on a shorthanded breakaway by Fernando Pisani. In Game 6 in Edmonton, Carolina was soundly defeated 4–0; the only bright point for the Hurricanes was the return of forward Erik Cole from a broken neck that had sidelined him since March.

In Game 7, before the second-largest home crowd in franchise history (18,978), the Hurricanes won 3-1, sealing the Hurricanes' first Stanley Cup championship in franchise history. Ward was honored with the Conn Smythe Trophy for the playoffs' most valuable player, becoming just the fourth rookie to be honored with the award. Several Canes raised the Cup for the first time in long NHL careers; Rod Brind'Amour and Bret Hedican had both played over 15 years without winning the Cup, while Glen Wesley — the last remaining Hartford Whaler on the Hurricanes' roster — had waited 18 seasons.

The Hurricanes' Stanley Cup championship marked the first professional major league sports title for a team from the Carolinas. They were the second consecutive Southeast Division team to win the Cup, after the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2003-04; like the Hurricanes, Tampa Bay defeated a team from the Northwest Division — Edmonton's provincial rival in Alberta, the Calgary Flames. As well, they are the only NHL team in history to lose 9 or more games in a year's playoffs, yet still win the Stanley Cup.

However, the Hurricanes have not been able to repeat their success. Following a loss to the previous Cup champs, the Tampa Bay Lightning, on Tuesday, April 3, 2007, the Hurricanes were eliminated from playoff contention. This made them the first champions since the 1938-39 Chicago Blackhawks to have failed to qualify for the playoffs both the seasons before and after their championship season. The Edmonton Oilers also missed the playoffs, making the 2006-07 season the first time in NHL history both Stanley Cup Finalists of one season failed to qualify for the playoffs the next.

After the Cup

As of the 2007-08 season, the only remaining legacies of the Hurricanes' Hartford days are longtime announcers Chuck Kaiton, John Forslund and Tripp Tracy, alternative captain Glen Wesley (who has been with the team since 1994, except for a brief portion of the 2002-03 season) and the old goal horn from the Hartford Civic Center.

2008 – Present

After a slow start to the 2008-09 season, Cup-winning coach Peter Laviolette was fired in early December and replaced by his own predecessor, Paul Maurice. Teetering on the edge of the playoff picture again, the club, on February 7, acquired utility forward Jussi Jokinen from the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for Wade Brookbank, Josef Melichar and Carolina’s fourth-round draft pick in 2009, then reacquired winger Erik Cole from Edmonton at the March trade deadline and proceeded on a 12-3-2 run to close out the season. The stretch run included nine straight wins, matching a franchise record from the 2005-06 season, and capped off a streak of 12 straight home wins, which set a new franchise mark. The team finished sixth in the Eastern Conference with 97 points, the second-most points in franchise history.

The Canes' 2009 playoff run featured two tight series with dramatic finishes. Game 4 of the first round matchup with the New Jersey Devils saw Stanley Cup playoff history when Jussi Jokinen scored with .2 seconds left in regulation to win the game, the latest regulation game winning goal in NHL history. Then in Game 7, the Devils took a 3-2 lead into the final two minutes of the game at the Prudential Center in Newark before the Canes struck. With 1:20 to play, Tim Gleason saved a puck on his knees at the right point, passed it to Joni Pitkanen on the left boards, who then hit Game 4 hero Jussi Jokinen at the far post for the tying goal. Just 48 seconds later, Chad LaRose sprang Eric Staal for a solo down-ice rush to give the Canes 4-3 game and series wins; Staal's goal was the latest regulation Game 7 winning goal in playoff history. In the second round matchup with top-seeded Boston, the Canes ran out to a 3-1 lead before the Bruins battled back for two wins; in Game 7 in Boston Scott Walker scored the game and series winner 18:46 into overtime to send Carolina to the Eastern Conference finals against Pittsburgh. The Penguins, though, put a decisive end to the Canes' string, sweeping the series 4 games to 0 on the way to their own Stanley Cup championship.

As a result of their surprise run, very few changes were made in the off-season. Veterans such as Aaron Ward, Andrew Alberts, and Stephane Yelle were brought in to help drive the team further, but things did not go according to plan. The Hurricanes experienced a fourteen-game losing streak spanning October and November, and midway through the year, the Canes replaced their only post-lockout captain Rod Brind'Amour with Eric Staal. Despite improved play during the second half of the season, they could not overcome the deficit from early on in the season. The Hurricanes would end up with the 7th overall pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, eventually selecting Jeff Skinner from the Kitchener Rangers of the Ontario Hockey League. Brind'Amour retired over the 2010 offseason to take a coaching job with the club.

The 2010-11 year was widely expected to be a transitional year from the veteran-heavy, high-salary club that opened 2009-10 to a younger, cheaper base. The Canes, though, contended for a playoff slot for the entire season, aided by Skinner's emergence as an offensive phenomenon who, as the youngest player in the league, would lead all rookies in points. Raleigh hosted the 2011 NHL All-Star Game in January, and Eric Staal captained a team he selected (opposite a team selected by the Detroit Red Wings' Nicklas Lidstrom) that featured Skinner (the youngest All-Star in NHL history), Cam Ward, and (for the SuperSkills competition) defenseman Jamie McBain. The Hurricanes went into the final day of the season able to determine their own fate, but lost 6-2 to the Tampa Bay Lightning to finish ninth in the East. Skinner was awarded the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year, the first player in franchise history to receive that honor. In December 2011, the Carolina Hurricanes fired coach Paul Maurice and hired Kirk Muller. On Monday, February 20, 2012, the Carolina Hurricanes signed Tim Gleason to a four-year $16m extension and on Wednesday February 22, 2012 they also signed Tuomo Ruutu to a four-year $19m extension. Two months later the Carolina Hurricanes announced that they had signed Jiri Tlusty to a two-year deal that would pay him $1.5 million for the 2012-2013 season and $1.7 million for the 2013-2014 season.

June 22, 2012 The Carolina Hurricanes acquired center Jordan Staal from the Pittsburgh Penguins for center Brandon Sutter, defenseman Brian Dumoulin and a first-round draft pick in 2012 (Derick Pouliot). This trade united brothers Erik and Jordan Staal.

On May 9th 2012 the 2006 Stanley Cup Champion Carolina Hurricanes game 7 championship victory was recognized as one of the NC Hall of Fame's "Great Moments" series.

2007 - Present	1997 - 2007

Away

2007 - Present	1997 - 2007

Alternates

2008 - Present

Franchise individual records

Franchise records

Individual
Most Goals in a season: Blaine Stoughton, 56 (1979-80)
Most Assists in a season: Ron Francis, 69 (1989-90)
Most Points in a season: Mike Rogers, 105 (1979-80 & 1980-81)
Most Penalty Minutes in a season: Torrie Robertson, 358 (1985-86)
Most Points in a season, defenseman: Mark Howe, 80 (1979-80)
Most Points in a season, rookie: Sylvain Turgeon, 72 (1983-84)
Most Wins in a season: Martin Gerber, 38 (2005-06)
Most Shutouts in a season: Arturs Irbe; Kevin Weekes, 6 (1998-99 & 2000-01; 2003-04)
Most Points in one postseason: Eric Staal, 28 (2006)
Most Shutouts in one postseason: Kevin Weekes; Cam Ward, 2 (2002; 2006)
Fastest Hat Trick: Ray Whitney, 1 minute 40 seconds, 8 February 2007 vs. Boston Bruins

Team
Most Wins in a season: 52 (2005-06)

Stanley Cup
2005-06

Prince of Wales Trophy
2001-02, 2005-06

Calder Memorial Trophy
Jeff Skinner: 2010-11

Conn Smythe Trophy
Cam Ward: 2005-06

Frank J. Selke Trophy
Rod Brind'Amour: 2005-06, 2006-07

King Clancy Memorial Trophy
Ron Francis: 2001-02

Lady Byng Memorial Trophy
Ron Francis: 2001-02

Lester Patrick Trophy
Peter Karmanos: 1997-98