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The Carolina Hurricanes and Hartford Whalers have had great players in their joint history despite just one championship. From Ron Francis to Sebastian Aho, the team's top ten list is full of players who dominated in Connecticut and North Carolina.
Will any Whalers end up on our list? And which players from the current team, who have dominated the regular season, end up on the list? Here are the top ten players in the history of the Carolina Hurricanes and Hartford Whalers.
Greatest Hurricanes player of all time: Ron Francis
The greatest Carolina Hurricane of all time is Ron Francis. Over 10 years with the Whalers and six years with the Hurricanes, he amassed the most games, goals, points, and assists in franchise history. He is the only player to play over 1000 games and score 1000 points for the team. He then served as Carolina's director of hockey operations from 2011 to 2018.
Ron Francis is a Hall of Famer because of his 1700-point career. He amassed 1175 of those points in his two stints with the Whalers and Hurricanes. He won three Lady Byng trophies as the most gentlemanly player, only on coming with Carolina. His number 10 is retired by the franchise.
#2: Eric Staal
The only other player to score over 300 goals for the franchise is former captain Eric Staal. He joined the Hurricanes in Francis' last season of 2003-04. The 19-year-old piled up 31 points in 81 games in a successful rookie campaign. After the lockout, he came out flying, leading the 2005-2006 team with 45 goals and 100 points in the regular season.
Staal's success continued in the playoffs. He led the team with 19 assists and 28 points on the Hurricanes' way to the Stanley Cup. The franchise announced that they will retire his number this upcoming season. He leads the franchise in games, goals, and points since the relocation.
#3: Cam Ward
One of the greatest Cinderella stories in recent Stanley Cup history belongs to Cam Ward. The goalie was not a starter in the NHL until the 2006 playoffs. He was 21 years old and only played 28 regular season games when the 2006 playoffs began. Ward took the reins in the playoffs, playing 23 games and winning 15 of them on the way to the Hurricanes' lone title. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.
Ward had a solid career after winning the Cup. He racked up a franchise record 318 wins over 568 starts and 13 seasons. He was never the star goalie that Hurricanes fans hoped he would be but provided a solid backstop for a disappointing decade of Carolina hockey. The team made only one more playoff appearance in his career.
#4: Sebastian Aho
The first active member of the Carolina Hurricanes come in at number four. Sebastian Aho already has the third-most goals in franchise history with 254 and the third-most points with 557. He has played his entire eight-year career with the Hurricanes and has scored 20 goals in each season.
The Hurricanes have struggled in the playoffs in Aho's career. They have made it to the postseason in six of his seasons but have not won a game in the Eastern Conference Finals. That is not because of Aho, who has been nearly a point-per-game player in the playoffs. He has scored 70 points in his 74 games. The team understands his value and signed Aho to a massive eight-year extension last summer.
#5: Rod Brind'amour
The current coach and Stanley Cup Champion Rod Brind'amour finds his way onto the list. He ranks sixth in games played, fourth in assists, and fifth in points in franchise history. After winning the title with the '06 team, he came back in 2011 as an assistant coach. He remained with the team for seven seasons before becoming the head coach in 2018.
On the ice, Brind'amour was known as a defensive forward. He won two Selke Trophies as the best defensive forward while he was in Carolina. Brind'amour did lead the team with 12 goals in the 2006 playoffs. He broke the decade-long playoff drought in his first year as the coach and has led the Hurricanes to sustained success for the first time. His number 17 is retired by the team.
#6: Kevin Dineen
Another Hartford Whalers star makes the list in Kevin Dineen. He spent the first seven seasons of his career making the band play Brass Bonanza a lot, scoring 214 goals. Dineen was traded to the Flyers early in the 1991-92 season and spent the next five seasons there. He was then traded back to the Whalers and spent the final two seasons of their history in Connecticut. Dineen made the move and spent two more years in Carolina.
While it was a disappointing career in Carolina, scoring 15 goals in two seasons, Dineen is important in the franchise's history. He scored six points in three games in the 1986 first-round sweep of the Nordiques, including an overtime winner. The Hurricanes did not get the best of this goal scorer but his Whalers years earn him a spot on this list.
#7: Blaine Stoughton
A record set in the first year of the Hartford Whalers still stands to this day. Blaine Stoughton made the move from the WHA to the NHL with the New England/Hartford Whalers and was a huge piece of the 1979-80 team. He scored 56 goals, a record that no one in Hurricanes history has ever broken.
In his eight years in the NHL, he scored 258 goals and 219 of them came with the Whalers. While he is not remembered as an all-time great, he had one great season that helped indoctrinate the team into the league.
#8: Glen Wesley
The first defenseman on our list clocks in at number eight. Glen Wesley played 913 games for the Whalers and Hurricanes and was an anchor on their blueline for a decade. He is second in games played in franchise history and was important on the first Hurricanes team. With a solid defender like Wesley, they were able to have a solid season despite not having a very good team.
Wesley stuck around long enough to win the 2006 Stanley Cup at 37 years old. He played 67 games in the regular season and 25 in the playoffs to help them win the Cup. His number 2 is one of three numbers retired by the Hurricanes.
#9: Jeff O'Neill
Another star of the original Hurricanes team, Jeff O'Neill was just 21 years old when the franchise up and moved. He played 74 games and scored 31 points in that first season and became a mainstay of the lineup for the next decade. O'Neill ranks seventh in games played, seventh in goals, tenth in assists, and seventh in points in franchise history.
He played 22 games during the Hurricanes' run to the 2006 Stanley Cup. O'Neill scored eight goals and added five assists to help them win the title. Now, you can see him on TSN during the Canadian stations' hockey coverage.
#10: Jaccob Slavin
The second current player on our list, Jaccob Slavin has been one of the best defensemen in the league during his career. As the top defender for the Hurricanes. he has played over 20 minutes per night in the playoffs and regular season every year so far. He has received Norris Trophy votes in each of his eight seasons and just signed a long-term extension to stay with the Hurricanes.
Slavin already ranks tenth on the Hurricanes' franchise games played list. Another 82 games would launch him to fifth on the list. The team has a chance of making a deep playoff run with a star defenseman in Jaccob Slavin on their team.
