The man who ripped the Whalers from Hartford is going to the Hockey Hall of Fame

One of America’s great sports franchises died in 1997. AP

By Gary Dzen

June 30, 2015

1 minute to read

COMMENTARY

On March 26, 1997, Peter Karmanos Jr. announced that the Hartford Whalers would be no more.

Following that fateful press conference, the now 72-year-old NHL owner plucked the team from Hartford and moved them to North Carolina, killing Connecticut’s only major professional sports team and the dreams of 14-year-old me in the process. The franchise now called the Carolina Hurricanes (dumb, right?) won the Stanley Cup in 2006.

Connecticut residents never really forgave Karmanos, and who could blame them? It wasn’t that he took away a great team. The Whalers never won much of anything, and they lacked the glamour of an NBA or NFL franchise (let’s not talk about that). But they made it onto Sportscenter sometimes, impressive for a team that played its games in a mall. Karmanos took away our team, and it hurt.

Karmanos has a career in hockey spanning 40 years. He’s the creator of the Detroit Compuware Hockey program, an organization which produced 235 Division 1 hockey players and 14 NHL first-round picks. In addition to the Hurricanes, he owned franchises in the Ontario Hockey League.

Connecticut has not forgotten the Whalers. A small group of loyalists still maintains a booster club that marches in parades. And the team’s merchandise still sells like mad. But as much as some would like to see NHL hockey return return to Hartford, it doesn’t look like Sami Kapanen is walking through that door anytime soon.