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April-October, 1997 / November, 1997-May, 1998 / June-September, 1998 / October-December, 1998 / January-May 1999 / June-September 1999 / October-December, 1999 / January-April, 2000 / October, 2000 and on May, 2000 May 31: The Hurricanes trade left wing Paul Ranheim to Philadelphia in exchange for the Flyers' eighth-round pick in the 2002 draft. Ranheim, along with Gary Suter and Ted Drury, were acquired by the Whalers for Zarley Zalapski, Michael Nylander and James Patrick on March 10, 1994. Ranheim had nine goals, 13 assists and six penalty minutes in 79 games for the Canes in 1999-2000. Flyers president and general manager Bob Clarke notes that he plans to reunite Ranheim on a checking line with former Whaler Kent Manderville, acquired from Carolina in March. The trade of Ranheim leaves the Canes with one less contract to negotiate. In addition to the expansion draft in June, in which the Canes will lose two players to Minnesota and Columbus, the Canes will also have to deal with a number of high-profile restricted and unrestricted free agents, including a number of former Whalers (noted below in blue). Unrestricted players can sign with any team; restricted players may solicit offers from other teams but the Hurricanes may keep the player by matching the offer. The Canes have exclusive negotiation rights until July 1. Each restricted player could file for salary arbitration if Carolina decides to retain him but cannot agree on a contract.
(An updated version of this chart is available below.) The sticking point with Coffey may be the length of the deal; he is reportedly seeking a two-year contract, while the Canes are offering a one-year commitment. June, 2000 The Canes settle their rent dispute with the arena authority by agreeing to pay the full $2.7 million for the current year if nearly $800,000 goes toward arena improvements. Citing a clause in their lease, the Hurricanes had claimed they were required to pay only $1.5 million in rent because the arena opened two months behind schedule. The two sides had been in mediation to resolve the issue since March. The Hurricanes will also spend up to $100,000 to build a 40-seat luxury suite for the authority. 18-seat suites rent for $140,000 a year; the Canes could lose nearly $300,000 by giving up the space. The team has already given authority members 38 seats in the club level. There is still no resolution in the impasse over naming rights to the arena. The arena authority, the Hurricanes and NCSU have yet to settle on how they would divvy up the money from such a deal. June 14: The Hurricanes announce the players who will be made available to Minnesota and Columbus in the June 23 expansion draft. Under league rules, the Canes must expose at least one defenseman, two forwards and one goalie. Former Whalers exposed by the Canes include forwards Jeff Daniels and Robert Kron and defensemen Paul Coffey and Curtis Leschyshyn. The Canes protect former Whalers Ron Francis, Sami Kapanen, Jeff O'Neill, Marek Malik and Glen Wesley. The Wild and the Blue Jackets will select 26 players each, two from each NHL club except Nashville and Atlanta. Former Whalers in the news: former Whalers defenseman Chris Pronger wins
the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player, and
the James Norris Memorial Trophy as top defenseman, at the NHL's
awards ceremony June 15. Pronger helped lead the St. Louis Blues
to the Presidents' Trophy by compiling a plus-52 plus/minus rating,
best in the league. He also led in ice time per game (30:14)
and finished second in scoring among defensemen with a career-high
62 points. Pronger was selected by the Whalers in the first round
(second pick overall) of the 1993 NHL entry draft. He was traded
to the Blues for Brendan Shanahan on July 27, 1995. In other news, former Whalers center Ray Ferraro, 36, exercises his option to extend his contract with the Atlanta Thrashers through the 2000-01 season. Selected as an underage junior by the Whalers in the fifth round (88th pick overall) of the 1982 NHL entry draft, Ferraro was Atlanta's second-leading scorer in their inaugural season with 19 goals and 25 assists. June 23: former Whalers Robert Kron and Curtis Leschyshyn are selected by Columbus and Minnesota, respectively, from Carolina in the 2000 expansion draft. Kron came to the Whalers in a trade with Vancouver in March 1993, and netted 24 goals for the Whalers in 1993-94. Leschyshyn joined the Whalers for their final campaign in Hartford, coming to the Whalers from the Washington Capitals in a trade for Andrei Nikolishin. A member of Colorado's 1996 Stanley Cup team, Leschyshyn is remembered by Whalers fans for a dramatic overtime goal that put Hartford over Buffalo on November 9, 1996 -- his first game with the Whalers. Also selected by Columbus in the expansion draft: former Whalers captain Kevin Dineen, from Ottawa; center Ted Drury, from the New York Islanders; and left wing Geoff Sanderson, from Buffalo. June 24: a draft-day trade sends former Whaler Nolan Pratt to Colorado. Selected by Hartford in the 1993 entry draft, Pratt played nine games with the Whalers in 1996-97. His first NHL point came in a game against the Bruins, October 31, 1996. Pratt, along with the 14th, 47th and 63rd pick in the draft, brings defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh and the 32nd pick to Carolina. Ozolinsh is seen as a key addition on the Canes' blueline, with the possible departure of free-agent defensemen Sean Hill and Paul Coffey. "Ozo isn't exactly Rod Langway behind his own blue line," notes George Johnson on ESPN, "but the 4,000 people in the seats in Carolina won't notice." July, 2000 July 1: the 2000 free-agency period starts with a bang, as Carolina loses two key players in the first few days. As expected, defenseman Sean Hill is picked up by another team -- the St. Louis Blues, who offer $9 million for four years. Hill claims the Canes did not make a concerted effort to keep him. "I would've stayed in Carolina for much less than I received from St. Louis,'' says Hill, who had been offered a two-year, $3 million contract by the Hurricanes. ``But it never got to the point where they were serious about negotiating. I can't understand it.'' Hill led Carolina defensemen in power-play goals (8) and power-play points (24). He led the team in ice time. Hill believes unrestricted free-agent teammate Gary Roberts will leave Carolina as well. "I don't think Gary will be back,'' he says. "He wants to be in a big-time hockey atmosphere. He used to play in Calgary, and the games were sold out all the time. Playing in front of all those small crowds in Carolina turned him off. It turned me off, too.'' Roberts proves him right July 4, signing a deal with Toronto. Roberts, who publicly criticized free-agent holdout Keith Primeau for hanging his teammates out to dry, inks what is believed to be a three-year, $7.5 million deal with a $500,000 signing bonus. He credits the Canes for salvaging his career after he missed the 1996-97 season because of a neck injury. "My career was over three years ago and I had the opportunity to play in Carolina where they treated me with nothing but respect,'' he says at a press conference. He adds, however, that it will be good to be playing again in a city where hockey is a priority. "Honestly," he says, Carolina "was just a little too quiet for me." July 13: free-agent defenseman Paul Coffey signs a two-year, $4.5 million contract with the Boston Bruins after rejecting Carolina's one-year, $1.5 million offer. Coffey had 11 goals and 29 assists in 69 Canes games in 1999-2000. "To be perfectly honest," Coffey tells the Boston Globe, "when Harry [Sinden, Bruins general manager] called me last Friday, it was a total surprise but something that intrigued me right off the bat, looking at their lineup. It really excited me." With free agency, trades and expansion, the Canes since the end of the season have lost forwards Gary Roberts, Paul Ranheim and Robert Kron and defensemen Coffey, Sean Hill, Curtis Leschyshyn and Nolan Pratt. Carolina re-signs defenseman Dave Karpa, cutting his salary from $990,000 to $650,000. Former Whaler Jeff O'Neill, the Hurricanes' top goal scorer in 1999-2000, files for salary arbitration. A restricted free agent, O'Neill hopes to more than double his salary of $605,000. "I've been with this organization five years, and I'm happy to play with this organization, but I just want to be paid a salary that's fair," O'Neill tells the News and Observer. O'Neill reached the 20-goal mark for the first time in 1999-2000, netting 25, and led Carolina in game-winning goals with seven. O'Neill has asked for a two-year deal worth $2.2 million in 2000-01 and $2.5 million in 2001-02; the Canes countered with a two-year contract offer worth $1.5 million annually. July 24: Defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh, acquired by Carolina in a draft-day trade with Colorado, agrees to a five-year contract worth $25.5 million, the richest deal in Hurricanes history. Ozolinsh will make $4 million in 2000-01, $5 million in 2001-02 and $5.5 million in each of the final three seasons of the deal. Ozolinsh had declined to file for salary arbitration and had dangled the possibility of holding out if he did not get an acceptable deal from the Hurricanes. Ozolinsh sat out the first 38 games of the 1998-99 season in a contract dispute with the Avalanche. The New York Post, for one, is not impressed. "A year ago, Peter Karmanos talked about fiscal responsibility while waging the personal war against Group II Keith Primeau that almost certainly kept his Hurricanes out of the playoffs," writes Larry Brooks on July 30. "Now, in July, with a team that has almost no chance to make it this year following the free-agent defections of Gary Roberts, Sean Hill and Andrei Kovalenko, the owner caves for no reason and signs Group II defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh to a five-year, $25.5M deal that is surely the most outlandish of the summer and will have ripple effects throughout the league." July 25: Win one, lose one. Canes right wing Andrei Kovalenko, who became an unrestricted free agent when Carolina declined to make him a qualifying offer, signs a one-year contract with Boston. The eight-year NHL veteran had 15 goals in 76 games with the Hurricanes in 1999-2000. "Nothing could be fina' than to be outta Carolina," smirks Chuck Carlton in the August issue of The Hockey News. "Hill left. Roberts left. Coffey left. Newcomer Sandis Ozolinsh will give up as many goals as he creates. The truth is, nobody wants to stay in Raleigh too long and if the team can't keep its own players, it's hard to convince others to come, despite the efforts of GM Jim Rutherford and coach Paul Maurice. The bright spot: North Carolina was naming a new basketball coach, so no one was paying attention anyway." The Hurricanes continue their overhaul by signing free-agent defenseman Kevin Hatcher. Hatcher, who spent 1999-2000 with the New York Rangers, signs a one-year contract that will pay a base $1.5 million plus incentives that could total another $1 million. Hatcher made $3.1 million with the Rangers, part of a team that set records in payroll but, like the Canes, failed to make the playoffs. The Hurricanes then trade Sandy McCarthy, along with a 2001 fourth-round pick, to the Rangers for right wing Rob DiMaio and left wing Darren Langdon. The Canes sign forward Martin Gelinas to a two-year contract extension. None of the players were ever Whalers. Former Whaler Jeff Daniels is re-signed in late August. Former Whaler Jeff O'Neill's salary arbitration case ends with the awarding of a two-year, $3.25 million contract. O'Neill, who had requested a two-year deal worth $2.2 million next season and $2.5 million in 2001-02, will make $1.5 million in 2000-01 and $1.75 million the following year, a ruling that nearly matches the two-year, $3 million deal Carolina had offered. August, 2000 The Canes sign forwards Bates Battaglia and Sandy McCarthy and defenseman Steve Halko. Rivals.com, a Web network of sports team communities, ranks Raleigh dead last of 30 NHL cities. "The Hurricanes' move to Raleigh and first playoff appearance in the state did not really spark long-term interest in the team," notes Ted Starkey, "and the team may continue to struggle at the box office. More daunting to the team's future in Raleigh will be a bigger commitment to the team from the state, and should Karmanos fail to get that, the NHL's Carolina experiment may be short-lived."
September, 2000 The 2000-01 season previews arrive, and most have little good to say about the Hurricanes' chances. The News and Observer's Cecil Harris, writing for MSNBC, notes that "in the sixth year of general manager Jim Rutherford's reign of error, forward Gary Roberts and defenseman Sean Hill, both major contributors in 1999-2000, were allowed to leave as unrestricted free agents....What's left is a team with question marks at every position and no discernible strength or sense of direction....Forget the playoffs. This flawed team will miss the postseason for the eighth time in nine seasons. The Hurricanes should hold off Tampa Bay for third place in the division. That's the best they can do, and it's not good enough." "It's a common sight to see a line of traffic evacuating a North Carolina town, fleeing a hurricane. So it's no wonder a team called the Hurricanes has caused a mass exodus of experienced NHL players," writes Scott Wilson for FOXSports.com. "The Hurricanes made some progress last season, falling just short of a playoff berth. But with the large number of player defections in the offseason, the 'Canes will be hard-pressed to duplicate their moderate success of last year....Maurice's skills as a coach will be tested, as will Rutherford's record as a procurer of young talent. And overshadowing all of this is the team's financial picture, which needs to attract more fans in order to improve. It will be a critical year for the Hurricanes in a few respects." "These are the goal-challenged, unexciting Carolina Hurricanes. Hear them bore," writes Rob Parent for ESPN. "Call Carolina a team with many questions. The biggest of which is whether the family business can someday justify the move south from Hartford. The easiest way to pump up those ticket sales ... win games. The easiest way to win games score goals. The easiest way to score goals..." "If Roberts and Hill couldn't wait to leave, what does that mean for perceptions in Carolina, where the team continues to struggle at the gate? The word is that Brind'Amour also wants out of Raleigh," writes Jeff Schultz in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "The heat is on Paul Maurice. The coach needs to hold together a team that lost some popular players in the off-season. He must keep attempting to motivate a team that does not get great media play and performs in a half-empty arena. Forecast: Enough skill remains and enough teams below them have problems to keep Carolina in 3rd. But expect a drop in wins -- and another playoff absence." Meanwhile, the media in Hartford has not let up their drumbeat of the Canes' woes. Derek Armstrong, a forward for the American League team that took up residence at the Civic Center, won that league's Most Valuable Player award as a member of the 1999-2000 AHL champion Wolf Pack. "I want to play in the NHL," Armstrong tells the Hartford Courant as the Wolf Pack begin practice for the 2000-01 season. "But if I have to come back to the AHL, Hartford isn't a bad place to be. I love playing here. There's no better city than Hartford." "From his mouth to Gary Bettman's ears," says Scott Gray on Hartford's WTIC-AM. "Not that Bettman should return the one time Whalers to Hartford, he would never consider that, just that he should admit, for our gratification, that he made a mistake. Even Peter Karmanos is said to be ready to bite that bullet. ...With losses now said to be approaching $40 million dollars a year in Raleigh and the realization the situation won't get any better, and stock in his Compuware Corporation on the decline, Karmanos may have no choice but to sell the team he moved from Hartford, with a vow things would get better as soon as they got out of town. But now it's unlikely Karmanos will find a buyer without a pledge from the league that the team can be moved." Based on reactions from focus groups, surveys and questionnaires, the Canes unveil a "Contract With the Fans," a 125-point document that details the ways in which the organization will improve customer service and the game experience for fans. The promises range from better signage in the arena and larger parking passes for VIPs to upgrading the uniforms of arena club staff and keeping fans updated on public appearances of their unlucky mascot, Stormy. Fans can rejoice in the promise of corn dog nuggets, Cracker Jacks and four new premium beers at the concession stands. "So lost are the former WHA Whalers," writes Jim Kelley for FOXSports, "that management in Raleigh recently trotted out a...sweeping document which, among other things, promises not to arrest fans who are looking to sell their 'Canes tickets at or below face value outside the arena. ...Nowhere in the contract do the 'Canes promise to put a quality team on the ice, one that might actually make the playoffs on a more frequent basis than the once-in-eight seasons standard now in effect....You wish that someone...would have the knowledge to ask, 'Where does it say that moving from Hartford, where people at least knew both good and bad hockey when they saw it, and into basketball/NASCAR country where low-priced tickets are the norm and championship teams and cars are expected, was a move that made economic or even common sense?'" April-October, 1997 / November, 1997-May, 1998 / June-September, 1998 / October-December, 1998 / January-May 1999 / June-September 1999 / October-December, 1999 / January-April, 2000 / October, 2000 and on |
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