Among the NHL’s fleeting dual Carolina Hurricanes/Hartford Whalers alumni are one aging legend overshadowed by another and a player who ended an era for the team as an opponent.
Even a fellow alum was surprised to learn that Jean-Sebastien Giguere was the NHL’s last holdover from the Hartford half of the Carolina Hurricanes/Hartford Whalers chronicles.
When Giguere retired in 2014, former teammate Sean Burke told Stephen Whyno of the Canadian Press, “I never would have thought that, yeah, he was the last Whaler in the league.”
That was presumably no knock on Giguere. The big-padded backstop moved on to substantial success with other organizations. Meanwhile, as Whyno’s story alone mentioned, the bygone Whale is more synonymous with Ron Francis, Brendan Shanahan, Kevin Dineen, Gordie Howe and sons, etc.
Naturally, the franchise’s 23 years and counting in Carolina have yielded names that evoke the new crest. A pair of Stanley Cup Final runs, including a title in 2006, will do that.
By the same token, it has left another smattering of in-and-out NHL mainstays in the team’s Greensboro/Raleigh era. Either way, these five Hurricanes/Whalers came through before, between, or after making their real mark elsewhere.
Anson Carter
With the Boston Bruins, the first NHL team to roster him for an entire season, Carter scored the last NHL goal in the Hurricanes’ old home. His overtime strike at the Greensboro Coliseum gave Boston a 3-2 series lead in the 1999 conference quarterfinals.
The B’s sealed the deal back home, and the Canes moved to their new residence in Raleigh the next fall. That 1999-2000 season was Carter’s third and final full-length ride with the Bruins, for whom he finished second with 47 points in only 59 games.
When the Hurricanes were Stanley Cup finalists in 2001-02, Carter tied Mike Comrie for Edmonton’s lead with 60 points. The Oilers were another three-year stop in his nomadic career.
When the Canes were on their way to a championship in 2005-06, Carter led all Vancouver goal-getters with a career-high 33. Before and after that, he had stints of various lengths with the Rangers, Capitals, Kings, and Blue Jackets.
By the time the Hurricanes made a move for him ahead of the 2007 homestretch, Carter had an enticing-enough track record. There was hope among the suddenly struggling champions that he could help salvage an uncertain postseason berth. General manager Jeremy Rutherford stated as much point-blank at the time.
Yet the Coliseum anecdote from eight years earlier is arguably easier to recall than Carter’s time in Carolina attire. The shakeup was not enough to get the Canes back into the playoffs. Carter dressed for 10 games, scored one last NHL goal, then transferred to Switzerland for his final season.