NHL Announces Carolina Hurricanes Quarter-Century Team – The Hockey Writers Carolina Hurricanes Latest News, Analysis & More

The NHL on Friday, Jan. 17 announced the Carolina Hurricanes’ Quarter-Century team as part of the league’s plans to celebrate the first 25 years of the 2000s. The members were voted on by a panel comprised of local media, retired players, and club executives. There is a first-team and second-team comprised of five skaters and one goalie each. Who made the coveted Hurricanes coveted Quarter Century team?

Hurricanes First-Team

The Hurricanes’ First-Team for the franchise’s first 25 years of existence comprised of Sebastian Aho, Rod Brind’Amour, Eric Staal, Glen Wesley, Jaccob Slavin, and Cam Ward. It comes as no surprise that three of the four retired jerseys of Brind’Amour, Staal, and Wesley made the first team given that they were a part of the 2006 Stanley Cup team. Brind’Amour joined the team on Jan. 23, 2000, in a trade with the Philadelphia Flyers and from there the rest was history. He was the face of the team for the next 10 seasons and now is the team’s head coach, spending six days shy of 25 years with the organization as of writing. He played a crucial role in the Cup-winning season, scoring 12 goals and recording 18 points in 25 playoff games. Furthermore, he went on and won the Frank J. Selke Trophy twice as the league’s best defensive forward in 2006 and 2007. 

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Staal was selected second overall in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft and went on to become one of the best homegrown players for the franchise. He went on to play 909 regular-season games with the Hurricanes while accumulating 322 goals and 775 points. Furthermore, he is still the only player (since relocation) to notch 100 points in one season (2005-06). Staal is the most recent player to get his jersey retired (Jan. 12) for what he did for the Hurricanes from 2003 to 2016.

As one of the more recent players for the Hurricanes, Aho has accumulated 266 goals and 597 points in 635 regular-season games between the 2016-17 regular season and Dec. 31, 2024. He is currently second in many categories for the team and is on pace to become the most prolific player in franchise history, with seven seasons left on his current contract after this season.

Defensively, it was a no-brainer that Slavin was going to be on the First-Team. He has played the most games for the team as a defenseman (702) in the past quarter-century. He leads all defensemen with 232 assists, 282 points, and a plus-157 rating, and was second with 50 goals. Since the 2015-16 season, Slavin has been the Hurricanes’ best defenseman and will one day be considered the greatest defenseman of all time for the franchise. The other defenseman, Wesley, moved with the team in the 1997-98 season from Hartford. In his time after the relocation, he tallied 20 goals and 95 points while being one of the key cogs to the 2006 Stanley Cup team. He was the second player to have his jersey retired by the team, with his number 2 retired on Feb. 17, 2009.

Finally, it comes down to the goaltender. Ward, in the first 25 years of the franchise, was the Hurricanes’ best goalie, playing in 668 regular-season games winning 318 of them. Furthermore, Ward finished his time with the Hurricanes with 27 shutouts, and he had the only goalie goal over that span. The 2006 playoffs was when Ward really burst onto the scene, going 15-8 with a 2.14 goals-against average (GAA) and a .920 save percentage (SV%). He also ended up winning the Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP.

Hurricanes Second-Team

The Hurricanes Second-Team came down to Ron Francis, Jordan Staal, Justin Williams, Justin Faulk, Bret Hedican, and Arturs Irbe. Francis joined the team as a free agent in 1998 and played until 2004 helping take the Hurricanes to the 2002 Stanley Cup Final against the Detroit Red Wings. He tallied 88 goals and 271 points in 355 games from 2000 to 2004. Francis ultimately became the general manager from 2014 to 2018. It comes as no surprise that the current captain and little brother to Eric, Jordan joined the Second-Team. He has compiled 169 goals and 441 points in 859 regular-season gamed and there can be a case to be made that he could have made the First-Team. He has played in 13 seasons, and counting, for the team and should see his number 11 in the rafters alongside his brother’s number 12. No list is not complete without “Mr. Game 7,” also known as Justin Williams, after his iconic Game 7 game-winning goal of the 2006 Stanley Cup final. Williams, in 47 postseason games, he had 12 goals and 26 points. He finished with 128 goals and 316 points in 449 regular-season games.

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The defense has the addition of Hedican, who was also a part of the 2006 Stanley Cup team and compiled 19 goals and 101 points over six seasons and 369 games from 2001-08. He, along with current assistant coach Tim Gleason, were the two main cogs on that roster that went on to win the cup. The last defenseman who made the Quarter-Century team is Faulk who was a co-captain for a season with Staal (2017-18). Over his time with the Hurricanes, he had 85 goals and 258 points in 559 regular-season games. There could be a case made for Gleason or Brett Pesce to make the Second-Team over Faulk, but either way, he made it.

Finally, in goal for the Hurricanes’ Second-Team we have Irbe. He played six seasons with the Hurricanes and set an NHL career high in starts (77) in 2000-01. He finished that season with a 37-29-9 record along with a 2.45 GAA, and a .908 SV%. Irbe went on to win 130 games with the Hurricanes.

Onto the Next 25 Years

While we know who made the Hurricanes Quarter-Century team, now we begin to wonder who makes the Half-Century team. We know Aho and Slavin will make it. However, do we see Seth Jarvis make it? Maybe even Jordan Martinook and Andrei Svechnikov? Either way, the next 25 years will be ones to watch for the Hurricanes who look to capture a plethora of cups and have NHL Hall-of-Famers within their ranks. While this franchise is still relatively young compared to other franchises around the NHL, it’s going to be fun seeing this team grow and leave a massive footprint not only in North Carolina but on hockey as a whole.