Carolina Hurricanes Blast From The Past: Glen Wesley

Cardiac Cane takes a look at Glen Wesley one of the Carolina Hurricanes best defensemen in franchise history.

Glen Wesley became a fan favorite during his tenure with the Carolina Hurricanes.  While he never excelled at any one thing, Wesley showed his skills by playing a 200 feet game when on the ice.  Wesley was a great all around defense and a steadying presence on the blue line for the first ten years of the Hurricanes existence.  In fact, Wesley is the only player to play every single year of the Hurricanes first decade.  So we couldn’t think of a better player to cover as our first defenseman in out Better Know a Hurricane series.

Starting Out in the NHL

The Boston Bruins drafted Glen Wesley third overall in the 1987 NHL entry draft.  Wesley made the jump to the team direct from his Canadian junior team the Portland Winterhawks.  He played 79 games for the Bruins in the 1987-88 and named to the 1998 all-rookie team.  In his very first season, Wesley and the Bruins made the Stanley Cup Finals but lost to the Edmonton Oilers. Wesley scored two goals in the infamous “lights out” game four of the series.  The game was postponed due to a power failure at the Boston Garden, and despite Wesley’s efforts, the Bruins would go on to lose the game and the series.  The series was also notable as it was the last one to feature Gretzky in an Oilers jersey and the Oilers traded him a little over two months later.

Wesley would make it to the cup finals with Boston two years later but again would lose.  In fact, three of Wesley’s four cup appearances were against the Oilers.  (Spoiler alert he would win the third one).  By the beginning of the 1995 season, the Bruins decided they needed a change and traded Glen to what was the Hartford Whalers.  In return for Wesley’s services, the Bruins received three

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first round picks from the Whalers.

Wait that can’t be right.  Double checks.  You mean to tell me Jim Rutherford has made awful trades for over twenty years now and somehow still has a job and two Stanley Cups?  Only in the NHL can you not be good at your job and still be considered a great success; just ask Martin Brodeur all about it.  So, yeah, the Bruins received three first round picks in the 95, 96, and 97 drafts.  With those picks the Burins selected Kyle McLaren, Sergei Samsonov, and Jonathan Aitken.  Samsonov would go on to be serviceable winger and eventually found his way to the Hurricanes; however his production would not be the same as when he was with Boston.

Wesley’s Time with Hurricanes

Starting with the 1998 season, Wesley played with the Hurricanes for ten years other than a short playoff rental to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2003 season.  The Carolina Hurricanes would do the same thing with Ron Francis the following season.  Neither moved helped the Leafs win a cup.  Wesley would be an integral part of the Hurricanes only two appearances in the Stanley Cup Finals.  In 2002, the Hurricanes faced off against Detroit and ended up losing 4-1.  But the Hurricanes lost to arguably greatest NHL team ever assembled despite a valiant effort.

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Only four years later, Wesley helped lead the team to the finals one more time in the 2006 season. Facing the Edmonton Oilers, his old nemesis from his days with the Bruins, Wesley and the Hurricanes won the Cup in a seven-game series.   Wesley was an alternate captain on the team and scored two assists while averaging over 16 minutes of ice time in the playoffs that year.  That was surprisingly the same amount of points as he scored in the 2002 cup run.  Two years later Wesley hung up his skates and retired from the NHL.

In over 13 years with the franchise, Wesley played in 913 games with 227 points and 51 goals.  For his entire career, he played in 1,457 games 537 points and 127 goals.  In a testament to his durability, Wesley only once played less than sixty games in a season.

Life After Hockey

In the next season after Wesley’s retirement, the Carolina Hurricanes retired his number 2 jersey in a game against his only other team the Boston Bruins.  Wesley now works with the team as the Director of Defenseman Development and him and his family live in Cary, NC.  His son Josh carries on the Wesley tradition as a defenceman and the Hurricanes drafted him in the 2014 NHL entry draft.  He currently plays for the Florida Everblades the Hurricanes’ ECHL affiliate.