Carolina Hurricanes

When founded, the Whalers were without a home rink, and they played out of the Boston Garden, where the Boston Bruins, Boston Celtics, and Boston Braves (a minor league team affiliated with the Bruins) played,. leavingThe left the Whales fourth in priority for scheduling, meaning they were often left with unfavorable start times and dates for games. As the frustration for the Whalers mounted, the city of Hartford, Connecticut, was hoping to attract an American Basketball Association (ABA) team to play out of their new convention center and arena. When the ABA failed to show interest in Hartford, the city pivoted to a plan B and contacted the Whalers about moving.

Important to the future of the Hartford Whalers, during the expansion period set for the late 1990s, an in-depth study was performed to see if the Research Triangle area of North Carolina would be able to support an NHL franchise. This came from Felix Sabates, a Charlotte businessman who spearheaded a bid to bring an expansion franchise to Raleigh, proposing they would play in the Entertainment and Sports Arena.

Going from the oft-loved logo of the Hartford Whalers, the Carolina Hurricanes came by their name after Peter Karmanos moved the franchise out of Hartford to Carolina. Unlike other teams where a move or expansion sees an ownership group offer a competition to name the team, Karmanos came up with the name as the franchise was moved with little notice. Team colors were decided as red, black, silver, and white. These colors were blended into the team jersey and the logo, which became controversial as a red, black, and white series of circles intended to resemble a hurricane. A red and black hurricane warning flag wasewas used as an alternate logo for a while.

In early 1996, the Hartford Whalers and new owner Peter Karmanos were working to drive sales. The Whalers were struggling to sell tickets, unable to sell at least 11,000 season tickets and struggling to get purchases from wealthier corporations and individuals. Negotiations between the Whalers and Connecticut Governor John Rowland, as the Whalers sought to build a new $147.5 million arena, which they needed to offer similar amenities to other NHL franchises, but negotiations would fallfell apart when Rowland and the state refused Karmanos' demand to reimburse the Whalers for up to $45 million in losses during the three years it would taketook for the new arena to be built. Governor John Rowland seemed disinterested in keeping the Whalers, as he harbored hopes of using the tax revenue requested by Karmanos and the Whalers to lure the New England Patriots to come and play in Connecticut.

That team would suffer a setback from the previous season, which had seen the Hurricanes win their division—the then-named Southeast Division—and make their first playoff appearance in North Carolina. Instead, the team going into the 2000s would fail to make the playoffs in their first season. This led to a GM Jim Rutherford making changes to the team's roster, including bringing in enforcer Chris Dingman, defenseman Aaron Ward, and a backup goaltender for established starter Arturs Irbe in Tom Barrasso.

Early success in the decade led to the suggestion that this would be a great decade for the Carolina Hurricanes, and while it would, in some metrics, it would not be. For example, the next season, despite reaching the Stanley Cup Finals the season prior, the team struggled and failed to make the post-season.

Going into the 2005–2006 season, the Carolina Hurricanes had built a competitive team. They maintained some of the veterans, which had helped propel the team to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2002, while bolstering them with home-grown talents such as Eric Staal, Andrew Ladd, Craig Adams, Erik Cole, and goaltender Cam Ward. Further, the team had signed free agents, including Matt Cullen and Cory Stillman, and traded for players such as Mark Recchi and backup goaltender Martin Gerber, all of which propelled the team to regular season success, winning 52 games and 112 points.

The next series saw the Hurricanes face the New Jersey Devils once more. This series, however, would proveproved to be fairly one-sided, with the Hurricanes beating the New Jersey Devils in five games. This led to an Eastern Conference Finals match between the Buffalo Sabres, who had finished one spot behind the Hurricanes in the league standings. The Sabres, however, had a hard road to the Eastern Conference Finals, devastated by injuries to their defense corps. And the series became contentious, with coaches of both teams trading verbal shots through the media. The series went to a Gamegame Sevenseven, and the Sabres took an early game two-goal lead. The Hurricanes rallied for three goals in the third period to win by an eventual score of 4 to 24–2.

In early 1996, the Hartford Whalers and new owner Peter Karmanos were working to drive sales. The Whalers were struggling to sell tickets, unable to sell at least 11,000 season tickets and struggling to get purchases from wealthier corporations and individuals. Negotiations between the Whalers and Connecticut Governor John Rowland, as the Whalers sought to build a new $147.5 million arena, which they needed to offer similar amenities to other NHL franchises, but negotiations would fall apart when Rowland and the state refused Karmanos' demand to reimburse the Whalers for up to $45 million in losses during the three years it would take for the new arena to be built. Governor John Rowland seemed disinterested in keeping the Whalers, as he harbored hopes of using the tax revenue requested by Karmanos and the Whalers to lure the New England Patriots to come and play in Connecticut.

The disintegration of negotiations, the inability to reach the season ticket goals, and the recent viability study into the possibility of NHL success in North Carolina led Peter Karmanos to the relatively sudden decision to move the Hartford Whalers to Carolina. The sudden decision meant the new Carolina Hurricanes did not necessarily have a rink to play inon. A deal was made to allow the team to play their first two seasons in the Greensboro Coliseum Complex in Greensboro, North Carolina. It would take until 1999 before the then-named Entertainment and Sports Arena would open in Raleigh -, since named the PNC Arena.

Despite the dissapointmentdisappointment in Hartford, there was excitement in Carolina for the new team. The first season was considered largely a completely forgettable season in terms of on-ice performance. The new Carolina Hurricanes struggled under the weight of previous management decisions, which plagued the team before the Karmanos purchase, and these decisions shaped the roster whichthat greeted excited fans in North Carolina. Hurricanes finished dead lastdead-last in the then-Northeast division with a record of 33-41-8, good for 74 points.

Despite the first season doldrums, and a roster which would be changed over, a lot of that early team would continue into the 2000s. This included a team that put up anemic offensive numbers, only managing to score 200 goals in the debut season, which placed them in the bottom five teams of the league. And they were a team noted for a poor defense in terms of their ability to add offense. However, their pure defensive numbers put them in the better half of the league, even if it was only slightly above average. What seweredeventually severed the team came to bewas inconsistent goaltenders, and the team being forced to use five different goaltenders, the majority of whom were below the NHL average.

Going into the 1999-20001999–2000 season, the Hurricanes were able to move to their newly completed arena in Raleigh, North Carolina. Unfortunately, the team and general manager Jim Rutherford had done little to bolster the team's offense, while they did find an established starting goaltender in Arturs Irbe, they would still struggle. The Hurricanes had retained Ron Francis' services, the same Ron Francis the Whalers had traded to the Penguins, and would bolster their offense through trades for Rod Brind'Amour and returning forwards in Gary Roberts and Jeff O'Neill. The defensemen would suffersuffered losses to their personnel that would see the team dip from their previous defensive numbers, still hovering around the middle of the league.

That team would suffer a setback from the previous season, which had seen the Hurricanes win their division - thedivision—the then-named Southeast Division - andDivision—and make their first playoff appearance in North Carolina. Instead, the team going into the 2000s would fail to make the playoffs in their first season. This led to a GM Jim Rutherford making changes to the team's roster, icncludingincluding bringing in enforcer Chris Dingman, defenseman Aaron Ward, and a backup goaltender for established starter Arturs Irbe in Tom Barrasso.

Two trades made during the 2001-022001–2002 season saw forward Kevyn Adams and defenseman Bret Hedican be brought in. Both of these players fit in coach Paul Maurice's style. Further, veteran backup Tom Barrasso struggled, and Kevin Weekes was traded for to cover for the veteran goaltender's inconsistency. All of this led to a playoff berth. The Hurricanes faced the New Jersey Devils in the first round, and, despite New Jersey outscoring Carolina during the series 11 to 9, the Hurricanes would winwon the series in six games. In round two, the Hurricanes would meetmet the Montreal Canadiens, and the Hurricanes took the sereisseries in six games, propelling them to an Eastern Conference Final series against the Toronto Maple Leafs. And despite the Maple Leafs being the favorites to win the series, the Hurricanes took it in six games.

Suddenly, or not so suddenly for the players, the young team from North Carolina was in the Stanley Cup Finals. They faced the juggernauts of the late-1990s Detroit Red Wings, led by veterans Steve Yzerman, Sergei Federov, Brendan Shanahan, Brett Hull, Luc Robitaille, and Dominik Hasek, while younger players Pavel Datsyuk, and Nicklas Lidstrom kept the Red Wings young and fast. The Hurricanes faced an immediately faced a steep challenge. And despite a series of close foughtclose-fought battles, including a game three that went to a third overtime period, the Red Wings would hoisthoisted the Stanley Cup at the end of Gamegame Fivefive.

Early success in the decade led to the suggestion that this would be a great decade for the Carolina Hurricanes, and while it would, in some metrics, it would not be. For exampeexample, the next season, despite reaching the Stanley Cup Finals the season prior, the team struggled and would failfailed to make the post-season.

Going into the 2005-062005–2006 season, the Carolina Hurricanes had built a competitive team. They maintained some of the veterans, which had helped propel the team to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2002, while bolstering them with home-grown talents such as Eric Staal, Andrew Ladd, Craig Adams, Erik Cole, and goaltender Cam Ward. Further, the team had signed free agents, including Matt Cullen and Cory Stillman, and traded for players such as Mark Recchi and backup goaltender Martin Gerber, all of which propeledpropelled the team to regular season success, winning 52 games and 112 points.

Beginning in the 2003-042003–2004 season, the Hurricanes had parted ways from previous coach Paul Maurice in favor of Peter Laviolette. The team would finishfinished the season first in the Eastern Conference's Southeast Division with a record of 52 wins. The team reached the playoffs and in the first round faced Montreal Canadiens. The team struggled in the first two games, losing to the Canadiens before Laviolette pulled goaltender Martin Gerber in favor of Cam Ward. The switch seemed to be what was needed as the Hurricanes went on to win the next four games.

The next series saw the Hurricanes face the New Jersey Devils once more. This series, however, would prove to be fairly one-sided, with the Hurricanes beating the New Jersey Devils in five games. This led to an Eastern Conference Finals match between the Buffalo Sabres, who had finished one spot behind the Hurricanes in the league standings. The Sabres, however, had a hard road to the Eastern Conference Finals, devastated by injuries to their defense corps. And the series became contentious, with coaches of both teams trading verbal shots through the media. The series went to a Game Seven, and the Sabres took an early game two goaltwo-goal lead. The Hurricanes would rallyrallied for three goals in the third period to win by an eventual score of 4 to 2.

The Stanley Cup Finals was set. The Carolina Hurricanes would facefaced the Edmonton Oilers. The series marked the first time two former WHA franchises would play against each other in the finals. The Hurricanes would winwon the first two games, coming back in the first game from a three goalthree-goal deficit and shelling the Oilers in game two to take a two-game lead. The Oilers would winwon game three in Edmonton by a slim margin (2-12–1), which would be the same margin by which the Hurricanes would rebound to win game four. Game five would see, the Oilers taketook a victory in an overtime win, while in game six, the Oilers returned the game two shelling they suffered on the Hurricanes.

The back-and-forth series, the slim games, and the blow-out games, led to a game seven in Raleigh, North Carolina, and one of the largest crowds in Hurricanes history. The Hurricanes were bolstered by the return of Erik Cole from a previous injury, but the Oilers came into the game with the momentum in the series. However, momentum aside, the Hurricanes would riderode the wave of their fans and winwon the game 3-13–1, sealing the Hurricanes' first Stanley Cup championship in franchise history. Goaltender Cam Ward was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy for the playoffs' most valuable player.

The Hurricanes would followfollowed up their Stanley Cup win and the best regular season in franchise history to that point by having a mess of a 2006-072006–2007 season. The Hurricanes finished eleventh overall in the Eastern Conference and became the first Cup champions to fail to qualify for the playoffs in the season after since the 1938-391938–1939 Chicago Blackhawks. The following season, 2007-082007–2008, the Hurricanes once more failed to make the playoffs. Heading into the 2008-092008–2009 season, the team seemed to open with the same issues of the previous season, and head coach Peter Laviolette was fired, replaced by Paul Maurice on his second tour of duty with the Hurricanes.

From that point forward, the Hurricanes posted a positive record, finishing second in the Eastern Conference at the end of the regular season, and finding themselves once more in the postseason. The playoffs would seesaw the Hurricanes face off against the New Jersey Devils once again. And, through a tough foughttough-fought series, the Hurricanes would rise ascendent,ascendant and go into the second round of the layoffsplayoffs facing the Eastern Conference regular season champions Boston Bruins. And, forFor the second series in a row, the Hurricanes and Bruins would bewere pushed to a game seven, and it went to overtime, where the Hurricanes would score and head to the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals to play the Pittsburgh Penguins. Here came the end of the Hurricanes' Cinderella run, as the Penguins swept them before going on to win a Stanley Cup.

This would bewas one of the few bright spots leading up to 2017, and without saying as much, the Hurricanes would findfound themselves in a rebuild. The team missed the playoffs for consecutive seasons, going from the 2009-102009–2010 season to the 2017-182017–2018 season.

The Hurricanes entered the 2018-192018–2019 season with hope. They had a new owner in Tom Dundon, a new general manager after responsibilities were given to team president Don Waddell, and a new coach after previous assistant coach Rod Brind'Amour to head coach. The hope - withhope—with Brind'Amour -Brind'Amour— was that the new head coachescoach's famed work habits, passion for organization, and no-nonsense approach would rub off on the retooled group, which included promising young talent.

What also came was a new tradition when they won a game. Known as the "storm surge," the celebration would seesaw the entire team gather at the faceoff dot and begin clappingclap their hands above their headheads before, especially aftat first, the team would great creative, with players sliding through tunnels of sticks, using equipment as a bowling ball, playing duck-duck-goose, or using a hockey stick for a limbo bar.

The new tradition was loved by some, and less loved by others. One of the others included longtime hockey voice Don Cherry who, during his segment on CBC's "Hockey Night in Canada" when asked about the "storm surge," would callcalled the Hurricanes a "bunch of jerks" while voicing his displeasure over the tradition. The Hurricanes organization would embraceembraced the moniker, launching a T-shirt and branding campaign along with a new attitude as the story went viral, and giving the new team a new approach.

And, withWith the new attitude, and the Carolina Hurricanes would returnreturned to the playoffs in 2019 where, in the first round, the team would shockshocked the hockey world by beating the previous season's Stanley Cup champions, Washington Capitals. In the second round, the team would beat the New York Islanders, before they fell to the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference Finals. However, this season set the standard going forward, as the Hurricanes from the 2018-192018–2019 season to the 2022-232022–2023 season were playoff stalwarts, with fans disappointed when the Hurricanes could not reach the Stanley Cup Finals during that period. And, during that period, the team was considered a top 10top-ten, if not a top 5top-five team in the NHL and a favorite to win the Stanley Cup next.

The Hartford Whalers decided to make an update to their logo. The team contacted the Jack Lardis advertising agency, and graphic designer Peter Good came up with several designs as part of the new brand identity. One such logo would bewas chosen, often considered one of the better logos in NHL history, which featured a whale's tail and a "W," which created an "H" shape in the negative space. The team was so happy with the new logo, they retained Peter Good's services to design new uniforms for the team.

Even with a new look, the team struggled. It would take seven seasons after the merger before the Whalers made the playoffs in 1986, when they faced their old WHA rival, Quebec Nordiques, whom the Whalers swept in three games in the best-of-five series. This would be the only playoff series the Hartford Whalers would win. In the next series, the team fell in seven games to the eventual Stanley Cup winners, the Montreal Canadiens. The Whalers would winwon their only division title the next year, after they won 43 games, good for 93 points. They eventually fell to the Quebec Nordiques in the first round of the playoffs. Their other playoff runs in the following seasons saw the Whalers lose in the first round to the Montreal Canadiens twice and the Boston Bruins thrice. The 1992 post-season marked the final time the Whalers made the playoffs.

Going from the oft-loved logo of the Hartford Whalers, the Carolina Hurricanes came by their name after Peter Karmanos moved the franchise out of Hartford to Carolina. Unlike other teams where a move or expansion sees an ownership group offer a competition to name the team, Karmanos came up with the name as the franchise was moved with little notice. Team colors were decided as red, black, silver, and white. These colors were blended into the team jersey and the logo, which became controversial as a red, black, and white series of circles intended to resemble a hurricane. A red and black hurricane warning flag would bewase used as an alternate logo for a while.

By the 2019-202019–2020 season, the black alternate jersyjersey was made the team's main home jersey. The Awayaway jersey was changed, removing the red shoulder pads and the original Hurricane logo in favor of the wordmark "Canes" running diagonaldiagonally down the jersey. This left the original main hurricane logo being only on the team's new alternate jersey - whichjersey—which was a re-introduction of the team's original jersey. During the Adidas' 2021 Reverse Retro campaign, the team reintroduced a version of the Hartford Whalers jersey; this would bewas the second time the Carolina Hurricanes made a nod to the Hartford Whalers with a heritage uniform.

Peter Karmanos, along with his business partners Thomas Thewes and Jim Rutherford, had been looking for an NHL team for a while when they bought the Hartford Whalers in 1997. The groupsgroup's first foray into hockey ownership came in 1984 when they purchased the Ontario Hockey League's (OHL's) Windsor Spitfires. The group owned the Spitfires for five years, won the OHL title, and finished runner-up for the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) Memorial Cup. However, in 1989, Karmanos proposed to move the team to Plymouth, Michigan, which led to an uproar and the OHL brokering a deal whereby Karmanos sold the Spitfires and was given expansion rights to a new team.

Karmanos was known to want an NHL franchise. Following the WHA absorption into the NHL in 1979, there were concerns over the NHL's desire to expand. ButHowever, in the 1990s, big-pocketed owners in the Walt Disney Company and Blockbuster Video magnate Wayne Huizenga would enter the league with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and Florida Panthers, respectively. The NHL seemed to be open for business. A new expansion process opened, with groups representing San Diego, Seattle, Phoenix, Milwaukee, Houston, Hamilton, Ottawa, Tampa, and St. Petersburg emerging. The St. Petersburg bid was led by Karmanos and his group.

For various reasons, including financial - withfinancial—with Karmanos and his group unwilling to pay the $50 million expansion fee up-front to the league - theleague—the bid for St. Petersburg fell apart, and expansions were awarded to Tampa (Tampa Bay Lightning) and Ottawa (Ottawa Senators). However, Karmanos and his group still wanted a franchise, and when the Hartford Whalers came up for sale in 1994, the group stepped up and purchased the team for $47.5 million.

Sabates' bid would fallfell apart in the summer of 1996, but the due diligence work on the Triangle market made its way to Peter Karmanos. Karmanos, by this point, was looking for a way out of the significant losses he was experiencing in Hartford, and decided - (relatively suddenly -) to move the club to North Carolina. There was no real indication or buildup of the move in order to lay the necessary foundation an expansion club would enjoy. Rather, the move was announced, and Karmanos moved the club to Carolina, hastily naming the new club the Hurricanes after the storms experienced in the area.

In 2018, Tom Dundon, who had previously been brought on as a minority owner of the Carolina Hurricanes, acquired majority control of the team from Peter Karmanos and that ownership regime. At the time of the move, the Hurricanes were a struggling franchise, having missed the playoffs in each of the previous eight seasons, suffering an average home attendance of less than 12,000 fans per game, and with the Carolina-based team being valued near the bottom of the NHL franchises.

After taking majority ownership of the Hurricanes, the on-ice product began to turn around, with Dundon putting his mark on the franchise. This came after Dundon sat with his general manager Don Waddell and head coach, former Hurricanes star Rod Brind'Amour, and came to an agreement to push the franchise to win while not mortgaging the future by trading away young players or high draft picks.

This worked out, as the team began to be a perennial playoff team, making the playoffs in 2019, wherewhen the team surprised the NHL community and made it to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they eventually lost. And with the Hurricanes becoming a Stanley Cup favorite by 2023, being seen as one of the NHL's best teams. In 2021, as per the previous agreement, Tom Dundon became the sole owner of the Carolina Hurricanes.

Under his ownership, besides putting together a competitive on-ice product, the Hurricanes have put together consecutive seasons of average near-capacity games at the PNC Arena. The team drew a sellout crowd - 56,961 fans -crowd—56,961 forfans—for an outdoor hockey game in Raleigh, and signed a new 20-yeartwenty-year lease extentionextension with the owner'sowners of the PNC Arena, in what is considered a friendly deal for the Hurricanes.

Going from the oft-loved logo of the Hartford Whalers, the Carolina Hurricanes came by their name after Peter Karmanos moved the franchise out of Hartford to Carolina. Unlike other teams where a move or expansion sees an ownership group offer a competition to name the team, Karmanos came up with the name as theythe franchise was moved with little notice. Team colors were decided on as being red, black, silver, and white. These teamscolors were blended into the team jersey and the logo, which became controversial as a red, black, and white series of circles intended to resemble a hurricane. A red and black hurricane warning flag would be used as an alternate logo for a while.

Similarly, there was a consideration at the time the franchise was moved to call the Carolina basedCarolina-based team the Ice Pigs, due to the many pig farms in the state, but this was discarded in favor of the Hurricanes name. The team's mascot remains a pig, named Stormy the Ice Hog, as an allusion to what the team name could have been.

The team's early jersey, worn from 1997 to 2007, used a red base for their home jerseys with silver, white, and black striping on the sleeves, included the warning flag alternate logo on the shoulders, and a checkered pattern intended to evoke the warning flag on the bottom hem of the jersey. The white away jersey would reversereversed the colors of the home jersey.

With the 2007 introduction of Reebok as the league's jersey sponsor, the Hurricanes changed up parts of their jersey, adding a white stripe around the shoulders of the jersey on the home jersey, and a white stripe on the shoudlersshoulders of the away jersey, and tweaking the sizing of the sleeve striping. They introduced a black alternate jersey, which featured the maligned alternate warning flag logo (maligned because it featured one flag, not the two flags, which indicated a hurricane).

By the 2013-142013–2014 season, the Hurricanes would remixremixed and simplifysimplified their jerseys. The home jersey maintained the red base color, removed the alternate logo and the black detailing, favoring for a simple jersey with white striping on the sleeves and the base of the jersey. The white away jersey had more details, maintaining red shoulder yokes and introducing black lines surrounding the red strips on the sleeves and bottom of the jersey.

In 2017-182017–2018, the Hurricanes returned to a re-styled home jersey, which bore a lot of resemblenceresemblance to the Hurricanes' original jersey. And in the following season, the Hurricanes introduced another black-base alternate jersey, which featured a remixed alternate logo of the two warning flags (for a hurricane) on a hockey stick. The jersey included red striping around the shoulders, highlighting blacked-out shoulder logos of the main Hurricane logo and the North Carolina state flag.

The Carolina Hurricanes are a professional hockey club playing the National Hockey League's (NHL's) Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. Located in Raleigh, North Carolina, the Hurricanes were originally founded as the New England Whalers of the World Hockey Association (WHA) in 1972 and would be moved to North Carolina after the Whalers were accepted into the NHL (and renamed the Hartford Whalers) and following the Whalers struggling financially. As the Carolina Hurricanes, the team won the Stanley Cup in 2006 after building upon the players drafted to the Hartford Whalers. The Carolina Hurricanes playhave played out of the PNC Arena, where they have played out of since 2000.

The club whichthat would become the Carolina Hurricanes began life in 1972 as the New England Whalers and an original member of the World Hockey Association (WHA), which was a competitor league to the NHL, which sought to compete for the Stanley Cup. The original ownership group of the Whalers was headed by Howard Baldwin, a film producer and CEO of Baldwin Entertainment, who would also become the WHA league president in 1977.

When founded, the Whalers were without a home rink, and they played out of the Boston Garden, where the Boston Bruins, Boston Celtics, and Boston Braves (a minor leageleague team affiliated with the Bruins) played, leaving the Whales fourth in priority for scheduling, meaning they were often left with unfavorable start times and dates for games. As the frustration for the Whalers mounted, the city of Hartford, Connecticut, was hoping to attract an American Basketball Association (ABA) team to play out of their new convention center and arena. When the ABA failed to show interest in Hartford, the city pivoted to a plan B and contacted the Whalers about moving.

This led to an agreement, which moved the Whalers to Hartford for the 1974-751974–1975 season. However, at the time, the Civic Center arena was still under construction, and the Whalers played at the Big E Arena in West Springfield, Massachusetts for the first half of the season until the home arena was completed. Once finished, the arena would serveserved as the home for the Whalers for the rest of their time in Hartford, minus 2two years after a 1978 snowstorm caused the roof to collapse on the Civic Center, focingforcing the Whalers to play in the nearby Springfield Civic Center until the Hartford rink could be reparedrepaired.

During the Whalers' first few years in the WHA, the team were perennial playoff contenders, won their division three times, and signed promising young talent and former NHL stars, like Gordie Howe. However, by 1979, the WHA was struggling financially and agreed to merge with the NHL.

With the merger, four of the remaining six WHA teams were brought into the NHL: the Edmonton Oilers, New England Whalers, Quebec Nordiques, and the Winnipeg Jets. Part of the merger agreement saw the former WHA clubs treated as expansion clubs, meaning their rosters were dismantled, and the NHL clubs signed the majority of players with the exception of two goalies and two skaters. Further, rather than being slotted as drafting at the beginning of the 1979 NHL Entry Draft - asDraft—as most expansion teams do - thedo—the former WHA clubs were punished and drafted last. AAn furtheradditional issue came when the Boston Bruins petitioned the NHL to oppose the use of New England for the WhlersWhalers as they did not want to share the same geographical market. The NHL insisted, and the Whalers became the Hartford Whalers.

The Hartford Whalers decided to make an update to their logo. The team contacted the Jack Lardis advertising agency, and graphic designer Peter Good worked to comecame withup with several designs as part of the new brand idenityidentity. One such logo would be chosen, often considered one of the better logos in NHL history, which featured a whale's tail and a "W," which created an "H" shape in the negative space. The team was so happy with the new logo, they retained Peter Good's services to design new uniforms for the team.

Even with a new look, the team struggled. It would take seven seasons after the merger before the Whalers made the playoffs in 1986, wherewhen they faced their old WHA rival, Quebec Nordiques, whom the Whalers would sweepswept in three games in the best-of-five series. This would be the only playoff series the Hartford Whalers would win. In the next series, the team would fallfell in seven games to the eventual Stanley Cup winners, the Montreal Canadiens. The Whalers would win their only division title the next year, after they won 43 games, good for 93 points,. but wouldThey eventuallyfeventually allfell to the Quebec Nordiques in the first round of the playoffs. Their other playoff runs in the following seasons would seesaw the Whalers lose in the first round to the Montreal Canadiens twice and the Boston Bruins thrice. The 1992 post-season would markmarked the final time the Whalers made the playoffs.

The 1990s would be the beginning of the end for the Hartford Whalers. The team, located between two larger markets in New York City and Boston, had one of the smallest rinks in the league, which seated less than 16,000 people, and as player salaries began to increase, the team exhibited an inability to attract free agents. A tricky situation was compounded by the Whalers' front office, which exhibited poor decision makingdecision-making in their trades.

For example, in 1991, the Whalers traded three of their core players to the Pittsburgh Penguins, including future Hall of Famer Ron Francis, which helped propel the Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cup wins in 1991 and 1992. And the players the Whalers received in return? None of them played for more than three seasons with the team, and one -, Jeff Parker -, suffered a career endingcareer-ending injury after only four games with the Whalers. The on-ice struggles only compounded the team's financial struggles, as the team struggled with low attendance. With the writing on the wall, the Whalers were sold in 1994 to a group led by Compuware CEO Peter Karmanos, with business partners Thomas Thewes and Jim Rutherford. Despite a promise to keep the Whalers in Hartford for at least four years, the team moved to Carolina in 1997.