Kevin Weekes

Kevin Weekes

Kevin Weekes (born April 4, 1975, in Toronto) is a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender of Bajan descent, currently playing for the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League.

Kevin's career started with the Owen Sound Platers of the Ontario Hockey League. He also had a brief stint with the Ottawa 67's.

Chosen 41st overall by the Florida Panthers in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft, he joined the team for the 1997–98 season, going 0–5–1 in 11 appearances for the Panthers. The following summer he was traded to the Vancouver Canucks in a trade for Pavel Bure and compiled a 6–15–5 record in 31 appearances over a season and a half before being traded to the New York Islanders halfway through the 1999–2000 season. At the conclusion of that season he was traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning, where he played until late in the 2001–02 season when he was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes.

He played in a tandem with Artūrs Irbe, helping lead the Hurricanes to the 2002 Stanley Cup Finals while recording two shutouts in the playoffs, establishing a Hurricanes team record.

He signed with the New York Rangers as a free agent prior to the 2004–05 NHL lockout, winning his first start with the Rangers on October 5, 2005, in a game against the Philadelphia Flyers. He became an unrestricted free agent following a less than stellar 2006–07 season. On July 5, 2007, he signed with the New Jersey Devils to serve as a backup to Martin Brodeur.

Weekes' parents emigrated from Barbados to Canada.

The reason that he sometimes wore jersey number 80 was he wanted to wear 00. However, the NHL does not allow a player to wear single or double zero jerseys. "Shady 80" chose the number that most closely resembled 00. Upon signing with New Jersey, as a result of the team's policy of wearing jerseys 1–40 with exception of marquee players, Weekes was given jersey number 1.

Kevin Weekes is noted for his generosity by players around the National Hockey League. After moving to New Jersey to play for the Devils, Weekes gained immense popularity among fans, who chanted his name when he played in the absence of an injured Martin Brodeur. During warm-ups, he will often show kindness to fans who line the boards by smiling at them and occasionally throwing a puck over the glass. Weekes is also known to play a very large role in helping his team to rally both on and off of the ice. After a fight, Weekes will take his goal stick and slap it against the boards covering the lower part of the bench while standing up and cheering.

A website, www.kevinweekes1.com, is run by Weekes himself and provides fans with a list of charities which he honors by contributing to them.

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New Jersey Devils

The New Jersey Devils are a professional ice hockey team based in Newark, New Jersey. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). The club was founded in Kansas City, Missouri in 1974, moved to Denver, Colorado after only two seasons, and then settled in New Jersey in 1982. Under current general manager Lou Lamoriello, the Devils have made the playoffs in 18 out of the last 20 seasons, including each of the last 11. They won the Stanley Cup in 1995, 2000, and 2003.

The Devils play their home games in Newark at the Prudential Center, which first opened for the 2007-08 season. Previously, they played at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey, which is now named the Izod Center.

They have rivalries with their trans-Hudson neighbor, the New York Rangers, and with the Philadelphia Flyers. The Devils or Flyers won the Atlantic Division title in every season between 1995 and 2007.

In 1974, the NHL ended its first expansion period by adding teams in Kansas City, Missouri and Washington, D.C. The Kansas City franchise was to be called the Mohawks, since the Kansas City metropolitan area includes portions of Missouri and Kansas. However, the Chicago Black Hawks objected to the similarity. The team was renamed the Scouts after a statue in the city.

On October 9, 1974, the Scouts took the ice for the first time at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto and lost 4-2 to the Maple Leafs. Due to a rodeo being held in Kansas City's brand-new Kemper Arena, the Scouts were forced to wait nine games before making their home debut. Although they lost that game to the Black Hawks 4–3, the next night they beat their expansion brethren, the Washington Capitals, 5-4. Like most expansion teams, the Scouts were terrible, garnering only 41 points in their inaugural season. The next season, they won only 12 games—still the worst in franchise history. The Scouts failed to make the playoffs in either season in Kansas City and won only 27 of 160 games.

Although they were better than the Capitals (who won only eight games in their inaugural season), the Scouts began to suffer from an economic downturn in the Midwest. For their second season, the Scouts sold just 2,000 of 8,000 season tickets and were almost $1 million in debt. Due to their various on- and off-ice disappointments, the franchise moved to Denver and was renamed the Colorado Rockies.

The team made a fresh start in Colorado, winning its first game 4-2 over Toronto. They picked up momentum and looked like a possible playoff contender, but things collapsed in February, and the Rockies finished the 1976–77 season with a record of 20-46-14; good for 54 points. The next season, despite finishing with fewer wins (they finished 21 games under .500), they managed to edge the Vancouver Canucks out of the last playoff spot by two points, but were quickly eliminated by the Philadelphia Flyers in the first round of the 1978 Stanley Cup playoffs.

A lack of stability continually dogged the team. In their first eight years, the Scouts/Rockies went through ten coaches, including eight in their first seven years, and none lasting more than one full season. While in Denver, the team changed owners twice.

Prior to the 1978–79 season, owner Jack Vickers sold the team to Arthur Imperatore, who announced that he wished to move the team to the New Jersey Meadowlands. The NHL vetoed the move since the Brendan Byrne Arena was still being built, and there was no suitable temporary facility in the area. In 1979, the team hired Don Cherry as head coach and traded for Maple Leafs star Lanny McDonald. Despite these moves, the Rockies still posted the worst record in the NHL. They played the next two seasons with the possibility of moving until May 27, 1982, when New Jersey shipping tycoon John McMullen purchased the team and announced that the long-expected move to New Jersey would finally come to pass.

The team would now be playing right in the middle of the New York–New Jersey–Connecticut tri-state area, home to the three-time defending Stanley Cup champion New York Islanders, as well as the very popular New York Rangers. The Devils had to compensate the Islanders, Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers for "invading" New Jersey.

On June 30, 1982, the team was renamed the New Jersey Devils, after the legend of the Jersey Devil, an ominous cryptozoological creature supposed to inhabit the Pine Barrens of South Jersey.. Over 10,000 people voted in a contest held by local newspapers to select the name. The Devils' first game ended in a 3–3 tie to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Their first win, a 3-2 victory, came in New Jersey at the expense of their new trans-Hudson rivals, the New York Rangers. The team finished with a 17-49-14 record, putting them three points above last place in the Patrick Division.

Later, Gretzky publicly admitted that his comment went too far, but privately maintained that his comment was accurate. In response, many Devils fans wore Mickey Mouse apparel when the Oilers returned to New Jersey.

In the 1983–84 season, the Devils hosted the annual NHL All-Star Game at the Brendan Byrne Arena. Chico Resch was the winning goaltender, and Devils defenseman Joe Cirella tallied a goal as the Wales Conference beat the Campbell Conference 7–6. However, the team did not achieve much success. Head coach Bill MacMillan was fired midway through the season and replaced with Tom McVie, and the Devils won only 17 games. After the season, McVie was replaced by Doug Carpenter.

Meanwhile, the Devils had begun building a nucleus of young players. John MacLean, Kirk Muller, and Pat Verbeek all complemented the veteran leadership of Resch. The team's record improved each season between 1984 and 1987. However, the presence of the powerful Islanders, Flyers and Capitals in the Patrick Division meant that the Devils found themselves in a losing battle with the Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins for the division's last playoff spot. The Devils actually finished last in the Patrick in 1986 and 1987 despite improving their record.

Hoping to light a spark under the team, McMullen hired Providence College coach and athletic director Lou Lamoriello as team president in April 1987. Lamoriello appointed himself general manager shortly before the 1987–88 season. This move came as a considerable surprise to NHL circles. Although Lamoriello had been a college coach for 19 years, he had never played, coached, or managed in the NHL and was almost unknown outside the American college hockey community.

The 1987–88 Devils garnered the first winning record in the franchise's 13-year history. On the final day of the regular season, they were tied with their nemesis, the Rangers, for the final playoff spot in the Patrick Division. After New York defeated the Quebec Nordiques 3–0, all eyes were on the Devils, who were playing the Blackhawks in Chicago. The Devils were trailing 3-2 midway through the third period when John MacLean tied the game, and with two minutes left in overtime, he added the winning goal. Although the Rangers and Devils both finished with 82 points, the Devils had one more win, sending them to the playoffs for the second time in franchise history.

The team made it all the way to the conference finals, but lost to the Boston Bruins in seven games. In that series, head coach Jim Schoenfeld verbally abused referee Don Koharski after the third game, screaming obscenities. During the exchange, Koharski slipped and fell against the wall. He immediately claimed that Schoenfeld had pushed him, but Schoenfeld retorted that Koharski had fallen down. As Koharski snapped that Schoenfeld was "gone," Schoenfeld replied, "Good, 'cause you fell, you fat pig. Have another donut!" League disciplinarian Brian O'Neill ordered Schoenfeld to sit out game four. The Devils demanded a hearing, but O'Neill refused. Claiming their rights as well as Schoenfeld's had been violated, the Devils appealed to New Jersey Superior Court judge James F. Madden—an unprecedented appeal to authority outside the league. Forty minutes before game time, Madden ordered the suspension overturned pending a formal league hearing. In his order, Madden pointed out that the NHL's investigation consisted of two phone calls—one to Koharski and one to Schoenfeld—and criticized O'Neill for not reviewing the videotape. In protest, referee Dave Newell and linesmen Gord Broseker and Ray Scapinello refused to work the game. After more than an hour's delay, three off-ice officials—Paul McInnis, Jim Sullivan and Vin Godleski—were tracked down to work the game. McInnis served as the referee, while Sullivan and Godleski worked the lines wearing yellow scrimmage sweaters. Notably, league president John Ziegler was away on personal business and could not be contacted, leaving Chicago Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz, as chairman of the league's board of governors, to give the order to play the game with backup officials.

Ziegler conducted a hearing on May 10, and suspended Schoenfeld for game five and fined him $1,000; the Devils were fined $10,000. Schoenfeld later admitted he regretted his comments. Nonetheless, Devils fans and broadcasters claimed that the officials shortchanged them for several years afterward.

The next season, the Devils once again slipped below .500 and missed the playoffs. Lamoriello made several postseason player changes, notably signing of two Soviet stars: Viacheslav Fetisov and Sergei Starikov. The Devils drafted Fetisov years earlier in the 1983 entry draft, but the Soviet government did not allow Fetisov, who was an Army officer as well as a member of the national team, to leave the country. Shortly after, the Devils signed Fetisov's defense partner, Alexei Kasatonov.

The team changed coaches midway through each of the next two seasons. Schoenfeld was replaced with John Cunniff in 1989–90, and Tom McVie was re-hired midway through the 1990–91 season and helmed the team through its third-straight first-round elimination in 1991–92. Herb Brooks, who coached the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" team, was brought in for the 1992–93 season, but when the team yet again was eliminated in the first round, he was fired and replaced with former Montreal Canadiens coach Jacques Lemaire.

Under Lemaire, the team roared through the 1993–94 regular season with a lineup including defensemen Scott Stevens, Scott Niedermayer, and Ken Daneyko, forwards Stephane Richer, John MacLean, Bobby Holik, and Claude Lemieux, and goaltenders Chris Terreri and Martin Brodeur, who was honored as the league's top rookie with the Calder Memorial Trophy. The Devils' first 100-point season earned them the NHL's second-best record behind the New York Rangers. However, due to the NHL's new playoff format, the Devils were seeded third in the East, behind the Rangers and Penguins. The Devils and Rangers met in a memorable Eastern Conference Finals match up, which went seven games. The Devils had lost all six regular season meetings to the Blueshirts, but let the world know they were up for the challenge, after Stephane Richer scored the game winning goal in the second overtime of Game One. Going into Game 6, the Devils led the series 3-2. Before the game Rangers captain Mark Messier made his famous guarantee that the Rangers would win Game 6. Keeping true to his word, Messier led his team back, netting a natural hat trick, and leading the Rangers to a 4-2 victory (after the Devils were up 2–0). In game seven, the Devils' Valeri Zelepukin tied the deciding game with 7.7 seconds remaining, but the Devils were defeated in double overtime, on a goal by Stephane Matteau. Devils fans, however, claimed that Esa Tikkanen was in the crease, and the goal should have been wiped out. Nonetheless, the series is viewed by many hockey fans as one of the greatest playoff series in NHL history.

Despite the setback, the team returned to the Eastern Conference Finals during the lockout-shortened 1995 season and defeated the Philadelphia Flyers four games to two. They swept the heavily favored Detroit Red Wings to win New Jersey's first-ever Stanley Cup, and the first major professional sports championship in the state's history, as they brought the Stanley Cup across the Hudson River from "the Garden to the Garden State," with the Rangers having won the Stanley Cup the year before. Claude Lemieux was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoffs MVP. The Devils established an NHL record by posting 11 road victories in one playoff season. The success also came amid constant rumors that the team would move for the third time in its history to Nashville (which eventually gained their own NHL expansion team).

The Devils missed the playoffs by 2 points the following season, with a 37-33-12 record. They were beaten by the Tampa Bay Lightning for the last playoff spot in the East on the last day of the season. It marked the first time in 26 years that a defending Cup champion failed to reach the playoffs. Throughout the remainder of the decade, the Devils failed to live up to expectations. They were ousted by the New York Rangers in the second round of the 1997 playoffs, and were eliminated in the first round by the Ottawa Senators and the Pittsburgh Penguins the next two seasons.

But in the 1999–00 season, however, they reached the top again, defeating the defending champion Dallas Stars in six games to win the Stanley Cup for the second time. Stevens, Holik, Niedermayer, and Brodeur, all integral parts of the 1995 team, were augmented with new players acquired in the intervening five years including Patrik Elias, Petr Sykora, Jason Arnott, Alexander Mogilny, and rookies Brian Rafalski, John Madden, and Calder Trophy recipient Scott Gomez. A highlight of the Devils' second championship run was their come-from-behind victory in the conference finals. They trailed the Philadelphia Flyers three games to one, but rebounded to win the three straight games and the series. This was both the first time in Devils playoff history and in NHL Conference Finals history that a 3-1 deficit was surmounted. This series was also remembered for the pulverizing hit that team captain Scott Stevens laid on Flyers captain Eric Lindros, effectively ending Lindros' career in Philadelphia. Stevens was named the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy, and assisted on Jason Arnott's Stanley Cup-clinching goal in double-overtime of Game 6 in Dallas.

Shortly before this victory, McMullen sold the team to Puck Holdings, an affiliate of YankeeNets, for $175 million. The owners wanted to use the Devils and the New Jersey Nets (also a tenant at Continental Airlines Arena) for programming on what eventually became the YES Network and move both teams to a new arena in Newark. Neither of these proposals became reality under Puck Holdings' ownership. The new owners largely left the Devils' operations in Lamoriello's hands. For the start of the next season, Lamoriello was appointed CEO of both the Devils and Nets. He remained at the helm of the basketball team until it was sold with the intention of moving it to Brooklyn.

Led by the Elias-Arnott-Sykora line (The A Line) and the stellar play of goaltender Martin Brodeur, the Devils reached the Stanley Cup Finals for the second straight year in 2001. They lost the series to the Colorado Avalanche despite leading 3-2 and having game six on home ice. The team's strong regular season was recognized at the NHL's annual awards that year, with Madden becoming the first player in franchise history to win the Frank J. Selke Trophy (for top defensive forward), along with Brodeur and Stevens named as finalists for the Vezina Trophy (top goalie) and Norris Trophy (top defensemen) awards respectively.

In the 2001–02 season, they were expected to be contenders once again, and they finished the season as the 3rd best team in the Atlantic Division, with 95 points. The Devils entered the playoffs as a 6 seed, but lost in the first round to the number 3 seed Carolina Hurricanes.

In 2003, the Devils finished first in the Atlantic Division with 108 points, earning the number 2 seed in the East. Their playoff run included a seven-game conference final series victory, decided in the final three minutes on a goal by newly acquired forward Jeff Friesen, over the Ottawa Senators, who won the President's Trophy that season. In the Stanley Cup Finals, the Devils and Mighty Ducks of Anaheim had a back and forth battle, with both teams winning only their home games. This was the first time since 1965 that all the games in a Stanley Cup Final were won by the home team. The Devils brought the Stanley Cup to New Jersey a third time, defeating the Ducks in the 7th game of the Finals in New Jersey. Martin Brodeur, Scott Stevens, Scott Niedermayer, Ken Daneyko, and Sergei Brylin each won their third Cup, and after the series, Daneyko, a long-time fan favorite, announced his retirement. Despite Anaheim not being able to complete their Cinderella run, the Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP was awarded to their goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere who was the first player not on the championship team to be named playoff MVP since Ron Hextall in 1987. Some hockey writers speculated a New Jersey player did not win because there were multiple candidates, resulting in a split vote among the sportswriters who select the winner. However, Brodeur was awarded the Vezina Trophy as outstanding goaltender in the regular season for the first time in his career.

In the 2003–04 season, Martin Brodeur took home the Vezina Trophy again. Despite the permanent loss of long time team captain Scott Stevens the Devils finished second in the Atlantic Division with 100 points. With the sixth seed in the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Devils lost to the Philadelphia Flyers four games to one. In March 2004, near the end of the season, Lehman Brothers executive Jeffrey Vanderbeek purchased a controlling interest from Puck Holdings and resigned from Lehman Brothers to assume full-time ownership. He had been a minority owner since the 2000 sale.

Vanderbeek was a strong proponent of the proposed arena in Newark, which first received funding from the city council during Puck Holdings' ownership in 2002. After legal battles over both eminent domain and the city's financial participation in the arena project, the final deal was approved by council in October 2004, and the groundbreaking occurred almost exactly a year later. Nonetheless, in January 2006 financial issues threatened to halt the deal, as the Devils did not provide the city with a required letter of credit until the last possible day.

Though construction was well underway, in late summer 2006, Cory Booker, who had recently taken office as Mayor of Newark, promised to reevaluate the deal and considered backing out. In October Booker conceded there would be "a first-class arena built in the city of Newark, whether we like it or not", and soon after the Devils struck a deal including both property and monetary givebacks that appeased city officials. The arena, which was named the Prudential Center when Newark-based Prudential Financial purchased naming rights in early 2007, opened shortly after the start of the 2007–08 season.

During the 2004-05 NHL lockout, many Devils players played in European leagues and in the hockey world championships. Patrik Elias, who was playing in the Russian Superleague, contracted hepatitis A. Faced with Elias' indefinite recovery timetable, plus the loss of defensive stalwarts Scott Niedermayer to free agency and Scott Stevens to retirement, Lamoriello signed veteran defenseman Dan McGillis and two former Devils — winger Alexander Mogilny and defenseman Vladimir Malakhov, none of whom finished the season on the ice. In July 2005, the team announced that head coach Pat Burns did not return for the 2005–2006 season after being diagnosed with cancer for the second time in little more than a year. Assistant coach Larry Robinson, the team's head coach from 2000 to 2002, was promoted to start the season.

The Devils struggled early in the 2005–06 season, ending the 2005 calendar year with a 16-18-5 record. Robinson resigned as head coach on December 19, and Lamoriello moved down to the bench. Once Elias returned from his bout with hepatitis, the team quickly turned around, finishing 46-27-9 after a season-ending eleven-game winning streak capped with a dramatic 4-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens. During that final victory, which clinched the Devils' sixth division title, Brian Gionta set a new team record for goals in a season with 48, topping Pat Verbeek's 46. The win streak to close the year was also an NHL record.

On April 29, 2006, the Devils won their first round Stanley Cup playoff series against the New York Rangers four games to none, extending their winning streak to fifteen games and marking the first time the Devils defeated their cross-river rival in a playoff series. The team's season ended in the next round with an 4-1 Game 5 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, who eventually won the Stanley Cup.

In the offseason, the Devils hired former Montreal Canadiens coach Claude Julien to replace Lamoriello behind the bench. However, in the last week of the 2006–2007 Devils season, with just three games left, Julien was fired, and Lamoriello once again reprised his coaching role. The move is reminiscent of Robbie Ftorek's firing with eight games left in the 1999–00 season, after which the Devils won the Stanley Cup. Lamoriello defended the move saying, "I don't think we're at a point of being ready both mentally and to play the way that is necessary going into the playoffs." The Devils went on to win their seventh Atlantic Division title and earn the second seed in the Eastern Conference after finishing ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins by two points. They defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games in the first round, but struggled against the fourth seeded Ottawa Senators in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals and lost to them in five games. Their final loss of the series on May 5, 2007 marked the final game of the Devils' 25-year history at the Continental Airlines Arena.

The early playoff exit led to some speculation that this was the "end of an era" for the Devils. This proved to be correct, as on July 1, 2007, long-time Devils Scott Gomez and Brian Rafalski left the team as unrestricted free agents, Gomez to the rival New York Rangers and Rafalski to the Detroit Red Wings. Back-up goalie Scott Clemmensen went to the Toronto Maple Leafs, and local favorite forward Jim Dowd opted for free agency. However, the Devils signed Sabre forward Dainius Zubrus and Ranger defenseman Karel Rachunek shortly after. On July 5, the Devils signed Rangers goalie Kevin Weekes as a backup to Brodeur, as well as Nashville Predators defenseman Vitali Vishnevski on July 10.

On July 13, 2007, Brent Sutter was named the 14th head coach of the team, along with previous coach Larry Robinson, to aide John MacLean as the second assistant coach. On August 7, 2007, the Devils signed former Islander Arron Asham. After the Devils preseason came to an end, Devils prospects Nicklas Bergfors and David Clarkson made the final roster. The Devils opened their new arena, the Prudential Center, on October 27, 2007 against the Ottawa Senators after opening the season with a nine game road trip. The game ended with a 4-1 win for Ottawa.

On October 31, 2007, the New Jersey Devils won their first home game at the Prudential Center by beating the Tampa Bay Lightning, 6-1. In a dramatic last game of the season against their rivals the New York Rangers, the Devils won in a shootout, giving them home ice advantage over the Rangers in the playoffs, though the Devils lost the series against the Rangers 4-1, losing all three games at home. Brodeur did win the Vezina Trophy for the fourth time in five years for his performance in the regular season.

For the 2008-09 season, the Devils signed Brian Rolston, Bobby Holik, Brendan Shanahan, Mike Rupp, and Scott Clemmensen, all making their second stints with the team. The Devils' season looked to be in jeopardy after Brodeur tore a biceps tendon in November and was sidelined for four months, but strong play by scoring leader Zach Parise and backup goalie Clemmensen kept the Devils atop the NHL standings. Brodeur would return strong and make history. On March 17, 2009, on St. Patrick's Day before a home crowd, Brodeur broke Patrick Roy's record for regular season wins with his 552nd victory, while Patrik Eliáš became the franchise's all-time leading scorer with his 702nd point.

The Devils have been known as a defense-first team since Jacques Lemaire's tenure, although the Devils have twice led the Eastern Conference in Goals scored, once leading the NHL in goals scored (295 GF in 2000-2001). Lemaire gave the Devils their defensive mantra when he implemented a system commonly called the neutral zone trap. This system is designed to force teams to turn over the puck in the neutral zone leading to a counterattack. This style of play, coupled with poor attendance and television ratings, led the team to be chastised by the media and hockey fans for "making the NHL boring". Nevertheless, the Devils were successful using this style of play, and Devils coach Larry Robinson asserted that the Montreal Canadiens (who also won the Cup many times) he played on in the 1970s used a form of the trap, though it did not have a name.

Under Brent Sutter, the team adopted less of a trap and more of a transitional, aggressive forechecking style of play to start the 2007-2008 season. This led to many high scoring games early in the 07-08 season for New Jersey.

The Devils' logo is a monogram of the letters "N" and "J", rendered with two devil horns at the top of the "J" and a pointed tail at the bottom. The monogram is red with a black outline, and sits inside an open black circle. The logo lays on a field of white in the middle of the chest on both uniforms. Prior to the 1992-93 season, the black circle and outline were green.

The current mascot is "NJ Devil", a 7-foot (2.1 m) tall devil who plays into the myth of the Jersey Devil. NJ Devil keeps the crowd excited, signs autographs, participates in entertainment during the intermissions, skates across the ice, and runs throughout the aisles of the arena to high five fans.

Prior to 1993, the mascot was "Slapshot", a large Devils hockey puck that interacted with the fans. However, the man inside the costume resigned after he was accused of improperly touching three women while in costume. The lawsuit and all charges were dropped as nothing could be proven. However, to remove the stigma of the lawsuit, Slapshot was retired and has not returned since.

Records as of May 8, 2007.

These are the top-ten point-scorers in franchise history. Figures are updated after each completed NHL regular season. Patrik Elias became the Devils all time leading scorer during the 2008-09 NHL season, but figures will be updated after the season.

Updated March 20, 2009.

This list does not include the former captains of the Kansas City Scouts and Colorado Rockies.

This list does not include the former coaches of the Kansas City Scouts and Colorado Rockies.

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Carolina Hurricanes

The Carolina Hurricanes are a professional ice hockey team based in Raleigh, North Carolina. They are members of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL), and play home games at the 18,680 capacity RBC Center.

The team was formed in 1971 as the New England Whalers of the World Hockey Association, and moved into the NHL in 1979 as the Hartford Whalers, relocating to North Carolina in 1997. They won their first Stanley Cup during the 2005–06 season, beating the Edmonton Oilers four games to three.

The New England Whalers were born in November 1971 when the World Hockey Association awarded a franchise to begin play in Boston, Massachusetts. For the first two-and-a-half years of their existence, the club played their home games at the Boston Arena, Boston Garden, and The Big E Coliseum in West Springfield. However, sagging attendance forced the team to Hartford, Connecticut. On January 11, 1975, the team played its first game in front of a sellout crowd at the Hartford Civic Center Coliseum. With the exception of a period in the late 1970s when the Whalers played at the Springfield Civic Center while their Hartford home was being renovated (due to a portion of the roof collapsing after a blizzard), the franchise was largely located in Hartford.

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. Unfortunately, the team was never as successful in the NHL as they had been in the WHA, recording only three winning seasons. They peaked with their only playoff series victory in 1986 over the Quebec Nordiques and extended the Montreal Canadiens to overtime of the seventh game in the second round, followed by a regular season division title in 1986–87. 1992 was the last time the Hartford Whalers made the playoffs.

The Whalers found it increasingly difficult to compete in a changed financial environment during the 1990s, in part because Hartford was the smallest U.S.-based market in the league. In March 1997, Whalers 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. In July, Karmanos announced that the Whalers would move to the Research Triangle area of North Carolina and the new Entertainment and Sports Arena in Raleigh, become the Carolina Hurricanes, and change their team colors to red and black. Due to the relatively short time frame for the move, Karmanos himself thought of and decided upon the new name for the club, rather than holding a contest as is sometimes done.

For 1998–99 the Hurricanes curtained off most of the upper deck, lowering the Coliseum's stated capacity to about 12,000, but attendance continued to lag. On the ice, however, the 'Canes were now out of the doldrums; led by the return of longtime Whalers captain Ron Francis, Keith Primeau's 30 goals, and Gary Roberts' 178 penalty minutes, they won the new Southeast Division by eight points and made the playoffs for the first time since 1992. Tragedy struck hours after their first-round loss to the Bruins when defenceman Steve Chiasson was thrown from his pickup truck and killed in a single-vehicle drunk-driving accident.

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, which nosed out Boston, and landed a first-round date with the defending champs, the New Jersey Devils. Although the Hurricanes were bounced by the Devils in six games, the series is seen as the real "arrival" of hockey in the Triangle. Down 3–0 in the series, the 'Canes 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 noisiest. Despite the 5–1 loss, Carolina was given a standing ovation by their home crowd as the game ended, erasing many of the doubts that the city would not warm up to the team.

The 'Canes 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. The 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 games and 3–0 in score, 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 Gelinas 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, 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 eldest player to score a last-round goal), which sportscasters called one of the best finals games in history. Despite the 4–1 series loss, it had been by far the most successful season in franchise 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.

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 with a 52–22–8 record and 112 points, shattering the previous franchise record set by the 1986–87 Whalers. It was the first time ever that the franchise had passed the 50-win and 100-point plateaus. The 112-point figure was one point behind the Ottawa Senators for the best record in the East, and tied with the Dallas Stars for the third-best record in the league (behind Detroit and Ottawa). However, the Stars had one more win, meaning the Hurricanes finished fourth overall (wins are the first tiebreaker for playoff seeding). Still, it was far and away the Hurricanes' best finish as an NHL team. They 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 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.

In the Eastern Conference finals, the Hurricanes faced the Buffalo Sabres, who had finished just one spot behind the Canes in the overall standings. The Sabres were devastated by injuries, at one point playing without their top four defensemen. 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. Suddenly the momentum started to turn the Oilers' way. In Game 6 in Edmonton, Carolina was soundly defeated 4–0.

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. As well, they were the only NHL team in history to lose nine or more games in a year's playoffs, yet still win the Stanley Cup.

The Hurricanes were not able to follow up their success. In 2006-07, the Hurricanes finished third in the Southeast and eleventh overall in the Eastern Conference. This finish 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. In 2007-08, Carolina again missed out as Washington stormed back to take the division title on the last day of the season, leaving the Hurricanes second in the division and ninth overall in the conference, and making the Canes only the second club in NHL history to miss the playoffs for two seasons running after a Cup triumph.

The last player remaining from the Hartford days, defenseman Glen Wesley, announced his retirement after the 2007-08 season. The organization retains many Whaler connections among its off-ice personnel; in addition to executive management and the coaching staff, of whom only goaltenders coach Tom Barrasso was never involved with the franchise in Hartford, broadcasters Chuck Kaiton, John Forslund and Tripp Tracy, and equipment managers Wally Tatomir, Skip Cunningham and Bob Gorman all made the move to North Carolina with the team. Finally, the goal horn from the Hartford Civic Center, a Kahlenberg T-3A, remains in use at RBC Center.

Records as of August 2008.

Updated March 4, 2009.

Note: This list of team captains does not include captains from the Hartford Whalers (NHL) and New England Whalers (WHA).

Retired numbers: The Hurricanes have officially retired two numbers since their move to Carolina, the 10 of center Ron Francis in 2006 and the 2 of Glen Wesley in 2009. The Hurricanes keep three numbers out of circulation without banners: defenseman Steve Chiasson's 3 was unofficially retired following his 1999 death while a member of the team, and the team honors the leaguewide retirement of Wayne Gretzky's 99, as well as the Hartford retirement of 9 for Gordie Howe. The franchise had retired two additional numbers in Hartford, but after the move, the Hurricanes resumed issuing the jerseys 2 of Rick Ley (D, 1972–81) and 19 of John McKenzie (RW, 1977–79).

Hall of Famers: Ron Francis, who captained the team in both Hartford and Carolina and spent fifteen years with the franchise overall as a player before joining its staff in 2006, was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2007. The only other Hall member to have played in a Hurricanes jersey is Paul Coffey, who spent one and a half seasons in Carolina near the end of his career (as well as, two seasons prior, twenty games in Hartford). In the franchise's history, WHA and NHL Whalers Gordie Howe and Dave Keon are both members, as is Bobby Hull, although he only played nine games in Hartford. In addition, longtime franchise radio play-by-play announcer Chuck Kaiton received the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award in 2004, an honor granted by the Hall of Fame.

Note: This list does not include selections of the Hartford Whalers.

These are the top-ten point-scorers in franchise (Hartford & Carolina) history. Figures are updated after each completed NHL regular season.

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Andrei Trefilov

Andrei Trefilov (born August 31, 1969 in Moscow) is a retired Russian ice hockey goaltender. He was selected in the 12th round of the 1991 NHL entry draft, 261st overall, by the Calgary Flames.

IHL Second All-Star Team (1999) James Norris Memorial Trophy (fewest goals against IHL) (1999) (shared with Kevin Weekes) N.R. "Bud" Poile Trophy (Playoff MVP IHL) (2000) Signed as a free agent by Buffalo, July 11, 1995. Traded to Chicago by Buffalo for future considerations, November 12, 1997. Traded to Calgary by Chicago for future considerations, December 29, 1998.

Trefilov started his NHL career in 1993 with the Flames, and he went on to spend time with the Chicago Blackhawks, Buffalo Sabres and Florida Panthers. Trefilov was also one of the goaltenders for the Unified Team that won the gold medal at the 1992 Winter Olympics. He also played for Russia in two Olympic Winter Games. His last club were the DEG Metro Stars of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga in Germany, where he played until 2006. He was also the starting goaltender for the Buffalo Sabres in the last game at Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, on April 14, 1996.

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Bill Muckalt

Bill Muckalt (born July 15, 1974 in Surrey, British Columbia) is a retired Canadian ice hockey forward.

Bill Muckalt came up through the British Columbia Hockey League, playing for the Merritt Centennials and briefly with the Kelowna Spartans before enrolling at the University of Michigan in 1994. Muckalt played four years for the Wolverines and was named to the NCAA West First All-Star Team in his senior year in 1998. The school won two NCAA titles while Muckalt was a sophomore in 1996 and a senior in 1998. The 1996 championship team also boasted the likes of future NHLers Brendan Morrison, Jason Botterill and goalie Marty Turco.

Muckalt was selected in the ninth round (221st overall) of the 1994 NHL Entry Draft by his hometown Vancouver Canucks. He had matured tremendously during his four years in Michigan and was ready to make a bid for a full-time roster spot in the NHL with the Canucks in 1998-99. He would play in 73 games during his rookie season, scoring 16 goals and 36 points, becoming a rising star in Vancouver.

Despite this early success in Vancouver, Muckalt was traded to the New York Islanders along with Dave Scatchard and goalie Kevin Weekes in exchange for goalie Felix Potvin and draft picks midway through the 1999-00 season. He spent the remainder of that season and all of the next on Long Island before being being involved in a blockbuster trade. On June 23, 2001, Muckalt was dealt to the Ottawa Senators along with Zdeno Chara and the Islanders first round pick in 2001 (which Ottawa would use to select Jason Spezza), in exchange for star centre Alexei Yashin.

Muckalt spent only one season with Ottawa (registering no goals and 8 assists in 70 games) before signing as a free agent with the Minnesota Wild in the summer of 2002. After failing to score a single goal during the previous season, Muckalt came roaring out of the gate in 2002-03, registering 5 goals and 8 points in his first 8 games with Minnesota before dislocating his right shoulder in a game vs. the Calgary Flames on October 22, 2002. The injury was severe enough to end Muckalt's season and keep him sidelined for the majority of the next as well. Sadly, he would never play another NHL game, though he did attempt a comeback with the AHL's Houston Aeros, registering 3 assists in 9 games in 2003-04.

He would later sign a free agent contract with Vityaz Chekhov (Russia) in 2006, though he would never play with them.

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Ed Jovanovski

Edward Jovanovski (born June 26, 1976) is a Canadian professional hockey defenceman of Macedonian descent currently playing for the Phoenix Coyotes of the National Hockey League (NHL). He has previously played for the Florida Panthers, with whom he was originally drafted in 1994, and Vancouver Canucks.

Jovanovski was born in Windsor, Ontario, to Macedonian immigrants. Coming from an athletic family, his father Kostadin was a professional soccer player in Yugoslavia. Jovanovski played minor hockey in his hometown before beginning his major junior career in 1993–94.

Jovanovski played in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) with his hometown team, the Windsor Spitfires. In his rookie season with the Spitfires, Jovanovski led all team defencemen in scoring, with 50 points in 62 games, and was named to the OHL All-Rookie Team, as well as the OHL Second All-Star Team. That off-season, Jovanovski was selected first overall by the Florida Panthers in the 1994 NHL Entry Draft. After being drafted, Jovanovski played one more season for Windsor and was named to the OHL First All-Star Team before joining the Florida Panthers in 1995–96.

In his rookie season in the NHL, Jovanovski embarked on a Cinderella run with the Florida Panthers to the 1996 Stanley Cup Finals. Facing the Colorado Avalanche, they were swept in four games. Jovanovski established himself as an NHL star in the making, being nominated for the Calder Memorial Trophy as the league's best rookie (won by Daniel Alfredsson of the Ottawa Senators), and named to the NHL All-Rookie Team.

On January 17, 1999, after three and a half seasons with the Panthers, Jovanovski was traded in a blockbuster, seven-player deal to the Vancouver Canucks. He was sent with Dave Gagner, Mike Brown, Kevin Weekes and a first round draft choice in 2000 (Nathan Smith) in exchange for superstar Pavel Bure, Bret Hedican, Brad Ference and a third round draft choice in 2000 (Robert Fried).

Joining the Vancouver Canucks in the midst of a rebuilding period for the franchise, Jovanovski quickly established himself as a top defencemen in Vancouver's lineup. After one full season with the Canucks, Jovanovski underwent a breakout campaign in 2000–01, leading all team defencemen with 47 points in 79 games, earning him the first of three consecutive Babe Pratt Trophies (the fan-voted Canucks' best defenceman). Jovanovski's contributions in 2000–01 helped the Canucks return to the playoffs after a six-year absence.

As a Canuck, Jovanovski enjoyed consistent offensive production, indicated by three consecutive 40-point campaigns (spanning from 2000–01 to 2002–03); his ability to join the rush as a defencemen complemented the Canucks' up-tempo style of play. Offensively and defensively, he was a key member of the Canucks' regular season success that culminated in a Northwest Division title in 2003–04.

Due to the NHL lockout, Jovanovski spent the 2004–05 season inactive. When the NHL resumed play in 2005–06, Jovanovski was on pace for a career year, but was cut short due to groin injuries that put him out the lineup twice before the season was over. He finished with 33 points in 44 games.

Failing to come to terms with the Canucks after his contract expired following the 2005–06 season, Jovanovski became an uncrestricted free agent and joined the Phoenix Coyotes in July 2006, signing a five-year, $32.5 million contract. His first season with the Coyotes, however, was plagued once more with injury, limiting him to 29 points in 54 games. Like the Canucks when they first acquired Jovanovski, the Coyotes also signed Jovanovski during a rebuilding period.

In 2007–08, Jovanovski set a career high in points with 51.

During his junior career, Jovanovski competed for Team Canada at the 1995 World Junior Championships, where he helped Canada capture gold. He made two medal-less appearances at the World Championships in 1998 and 2000 before being chosen to the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Playing the United States in the gold medal game, Jovanovski earned an assist on the game winning goal, backhanding a saucer pass from the point to Joe Sakic on a two-man advantage to clinch the gold medal in a 5–2 victory.

During the 2004–05 NHL lockout, Jovanovski played for Team Canada in the 2004 World Cup, earning a gold medal, and 2005 World Championships, earning silver. In the World Cup, however, Jovanovski only played one game, injuring himself in the first game against the United States. Making his fourth World Championships appearance in 2008, Jovanovski earned a second straight silver medal, losing to Russia in overtime of the gold medal game.

Jovanovski and his wife, Kirstin, have four children — Kylie, Kyra, Cole and Coco. In 2005, Jovanovski was the subject of a documentary by Macedonian-Canadian Bill Yancoff entitled The Late Bloomer: Ed Jovanovski, which explored his career, family tragedy and his attachments to his Macedonian heritage.

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