5 random players you forgot were on the Carolina Hurricanes, Hartford Whalers

Jean-Sebastien Giguere

Hartford’s 1995 first-round draftee made his NHL debut and won his first NHL game in December of 1996. But after one month eight outings with his original organization, Giguere spent the rest of the season with his junior team in Halifax.

Over the subsequent summer, two months after moving themselves, the Hurricanes/Whalers swapped his rights to Calgary’s farm system. Giguere saw nearly triple the amount of big-league action with the Flames (22 games). But that too is in the shadows of what he did elsewhere after the turn of the century.

Throughout the first decade of this millennium, Giguere was the go-to goaltender for the Anaheim Ducks. He punctuated his ornate stay there with the 2003 Conn Smythe Trophy, then unfinished business for the team with the 2007 Stanley Cup. (Eerily enough, Giguere’s Ducks were both the runners-up and champions one year after his relocated and renamed old team achieved the same status.)

Giguere remains the Ducks’ all-time games, wins, and shutouts leader. And even his subsequent multi-year runs in Toronto and Colorado’s goaltending stables dwarf what he did for his first NHL team.

But the Hurricanes need not reflect wistfully on Giguere as the hidden gem who got away. As noted, they tallied just as many conference and Cup banners without him and he did without them.

Furthermore, when facing the team whose crest he was one month away from wearing, Giguere went an uncharacteristic 3-5-1. And at .887, his career save percentage against the Hurricanes was lower than against any other opponent.