The 1997–98

Carolina Hurricanes The Carolina Hurricanes (colloquially known as the Canes) are a professional ice hockey team based in Raleigh, North Carolina. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference, ...

season was the 26th season in franchise history, their 19th as a member of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

(NHL), and their first in

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. Formerly the

Hartford Whalers The Hartford Whalers were a professional ice hockey team based for most of its existence in Hartford, Connecticut. The club played in the World Hockey Association (WHA) from 1972 until 1979, and in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1979 to ...

, the team would play in

Greensboro Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte and Raleigh, the 69th-most populous city in the Un ...

while a new arena was being constructed in

Raleigh Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Southeas ...

. The club finished sub-.500 and failed to qualify for the

1998 Stanley Cup playoffs The 1998 Stanley Cup playoffs, the playoff tournament of the National Hockey League (NHL), began on April 22, 1998 following the 1997–98 regular season. The sixteen teams that qualified, eight from each conference, played best-of-7 series fo ...

Offseason

In March 1997, Whalers owner

Peter Karmanos Peter Karmanos Jr. (born March 11, 1943) is an American businessman who was most recently the minority owner and alternate governor of the Carolina Hurricanes franchise until June 30, 2021. He served as their principal owner from 1994 (when the Hu ...

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 to replace the

Hartford Civic Center Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

. In July, Karmanos announced that the Whalers would move to the

Research Triangle The Research Triangle, or simply The Triangle, are both common nicknames for a metropolitan area in the Piedmont region of North Carolina in the United States, anchored by the cities of Raleigh and Durham and the town of Chapel Hill, home to ...

area of

and the new

Entertainment and Sports Arena The Entertainment and Sports Arena is a multi-purpose events facility, located on the St. Elizabeths East Campus, in Congress Heights, a residential neighborhood in southeast Washington, D.C. The arena is home to the Washington Mystics of the ...

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. Unfortunately, the ESA would not be complete for two more years. The only arena in the Triangle with an ice plant was

Dorton Arena J. S. Dorton Arena is a 7,610-seat multi-purpose arena located in Raleigh, North Carolina, on the grounds of the North Carolina State Fair. It opened in 1952. Architect Maciej Nowicki of the North Carolina State University Department of Architect ...

in Raleigh, which only seated 5,100 people—too small even for temporary use. The Hurricanes decided to play home games in

, ninety minutes away from Raleigh, for their first two seasons after the move. This choice was disastrous for the franchise's attendance and reputation. With a capacity of over 21,000 people for hockey, the

Greensboro Coliseum The Greensboro Coliseum Complex, commonly referred to as Greensboro Coliseum (the first and biggest building on the site), is an entertainment and sports complex located in Greensboro, North Carolina. Opened in 1959, the complex holds eight venu ...

became the highest-capacity arena in the NHL, but Triangle-area fans proved unwilling to make the drive down

I-40 Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west Interstate Highway running through the south-central portion of the United States. At a length of , it is the third-longest Interstate Highway in the country, after I-90 and I-80. From west to ea ...

to Greensboro, and fans from the

Piedmont Triad The Piedmont Triad (or simply the Triad) is a metropolitan region in the north-central part of the U.S. state of North Carolina anchored by three cities: Greensboro, North Carolina, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Winston-Salem, and H ...

mostly refused to support a lame-duck team that had displaced the longtime Greensboro/Carolina Monarchs minor-league franchise. Furthermore, only 29 out of 82 games were televised, and radio play-by-play coverage on

WPTF WPTF (680 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station broadcasting a news/talk radio format. Licensed to Raleigh, the station serves the Research Triangle area of North Carolina. It is owned by the Curtis Media Group, with studios located on Highwood ...

was often pre-empted by

North Carolina State Wolfpack The NC State Wolfpack is the nickname of the athletic teams representing North Carolina State University. The Wolfpack competes at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I (Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) for college footb ...

basketball (for whose broadcasts WPTF was the flagship station), leaving these games totally unavailable to those who did not have a ticket. With by far the smallest season-ticket base in the NHL and attendance routinely well below the league average,

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

ran a story titled "Natural Disaster," and

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

anchors mocked the "

Green Acres ''Green Acres'' is an American television sitcom starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City to a country farm. Produced by Filmways as a sister show to ''Petticoat Junction'', the series was first broadcast on ...

" of empty seats; in a 2006 interview, Karmanos admitted that "as it turns out, reensborowas probably a mistake."

Regular season

Final standings

Schedule and results

October

Record for the month 3-8-3 (Home 2-2-2 Away 1-6-1)

November

Record for the month 7-5-1 (Home 5-3-1 Away 2-2-0)

December

Record for the month 5-8-1 (Home 5-3-1 Away 0-5-0)

January

Record for the month 5-7-1 (Home 1-3-1 Away 4-4-0)

February

Record for the month 1-2-1 (Home 0-1-1 Away 1-1-0)

March

Record for the month 8-5-1 (Home 2-3-1 Away 6-2-0)

April

Record for the month 4-6-0 (Home 1-3-0 Away 3-3-0)

Player statistics

Regular season

;Scoring ;Goaltending Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/- = Plus/minus; PIM = Penalty minutes; PPG=Power-play goals; SHG=Short-handed goals; GWG=Game-winning goals
MIN=Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; SO = Shutouts; SA=Shots against; SV=Shots saved; SV% = Save percentage;

Awards and records

Lester Patrick Trophy The Lester Patrick Trophy has been presented by the National Hockey League and USA Hockey since 1966 to honor a recipient's contribution to ice hockey in the United States. It is considered a non-NHL trophy because it may be awarded to players, c ...

Collins gem Hockey Facts and Stats 2009-10, p.426, Andrew Podnieks, Harper Collins Publishers Ltd, Toronto, Canada,

Transactions

The Hurricanes were involved in the following transactions during the 1997–98 season.

Trades

Free agents

Draft picks

Carolina's draft picks at the

1997 NHL Entry Draft The 1997 NHL Entry Draft was the 35th NHL Entry Draft. It was held at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on June 21, 1997. As of 2022, the only remaining active player in the NHL from the 1997 draft class is Joe Thornton. Selections ...

held at the Civic Arena in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

Farm teams

The

Beast of New Haven The Beast of New Haven were an ice hockey team in the American Hockey League in the 1997–98 and 1998–99 seasons. The team was based in New Haven, Connecticut, and played at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum, which was demolished in 2007. The Be ...

were the Hurricanes

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary Minor league#Ice hockey, developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 AHL se ...

affiliate for the 1998–99 AHL season.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:1997-98 Carolina Hurricanes season C C Carolina Hurricanes seasons Hurr Hurr