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…
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