Captains of the Carolina Hurricanes: A Retrospective

Captaincy is revered in the NHL, to a greater extent, I would argue, than in other professional leagues. The Carolina Hurricanes have had some excellent leaders don the ‘C’ over the years, and today we take a look back.

Effective leadership is crucial to any endeavor.  You can have the greatest group of people assembled but, without proper guidance, achieving anything can be more about blind luck than skillful execution.  The right leader knows their group and knows how best to reach them.  An ineffective one can become little more than a petulant tyrant.

Through their two-plus decades in The Old North State, the Carolina Hurricanes have been fortunate in having some very effective captains, players who were able to inspire through their words, actions, or a combination of both.

Today, we’ll take a look at the eight men who have led the Hurricanes over the years.  We’ll focus primarily on the player’s time as captain and the success (or lack thereof) that the team experienced during their reign.

Note: I’m going to skip over the 2016-17 season in which the Hurricanes utilized four alternates in lieu of naming a captain.

Keith Primeau

As the Whalers’ time in Connecticut began to wane, power forward Brendan Shanahan not-so-subtly requested a trade out of Hartford.  On October 9th, 1996, Shanahan got his wish and was shipped to the Detroit Red Wings along with Brian Glynn in return for future Hall of Famer Paul Coffey, Keith Primeau, and the 1997 first-round pick that became Nikos Tselios.

Primeau, a 25-year-old power forward, was the centerpiece of the deal for Hartford.  The physical, offensively talented center was destined for the captaincy.  Prior to the 1998-99 season, that came to fruition as Primeau was named the second captain of the Carolina Hurricanes.

Primeau responded by leading the Hurricanes in goals (30) and points (62) while the team finished first in the newly-formed Southeast Division.  This earned them a first-round matchup against the Boston Bruins, a series that the Hurricanes lost in six games.  The first taste of postseason hockey in North Carolina saw Primeau manage only three assists through six games, accompanied by a -3 rating.

As it turned out, Game 6 against the Bruins would be Primeau’s last as a Hurricane.  With the team moving to their new home in Raleigh at the ESA, Primeau entered into a prolonged holdout.  After nearly being dealt to Phoenix in exchange for Keith Tkachuk (a move vetoed by Peter Karmanos), Primeau was shipped (along with a 5th round pick) to the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for Rod Brind’Amour, Jean-Marc Pelletier, and a 2nd round pick.

Primeau went on to post 213 points in 312 games with the Flyers before retiring due to the effects of post-concussion syndrome.

Memorable moment: Primeau started the 1998-99 season with a 7 game point streak (4G, 4A)

Ron Francis

The Carolina Hurricanes made a free agent splash in the summer of 1998, bringing Ron Francis back to the franchise that his career began with.  During his time as captain of the Hurricanes, Francis put up 302 points (97G, 205A).  His tenure also saw the Hurricanes make the Stanley Cup Playoffs twice, including their first run to the Finals in 2002.

At 35 years of age, Francis was on the backside of his career when he joined the Hurricanes, though his importance cannot be overlooked.  He was a big-name player, though often overshadowed during his time as a player.  To 17-year-old me, the fact that such a known player would sign with the Hurricanes was astonishing.  I had been to a lot of games in the inaugural season, games where I had an entire row of seats in the Greensboro Coliseum to myself.

Yet here was an established player, a two-time Stanley Cup champion, coming to play for my team, a player who I had watched on National Hockey Night countless times.  His signing brought an air of credibility to a team struggling to establish a foothold in a non-traditional market, a team that was being mocked in sports media.

It was a big deal.

Francis was traded to Toronto at the 2004 trade deadline to give him one more shot at a Stanley Cup, marking the end of his playing career with the Hurricanes.  After his retirement, Francis spent time with the Raleigh Youth Hockey Association before rejoining the Hurricanes as their Director of Hockey Operations.  Francis went on to serve 4 years as the team’s General Manager, drafting Hurricanes’ star Sebastian Aho and trading for Teuvo Teravainen.

In July, Francis was named the General Manager of Seattle’s upcoming expansion team.

Memorable moment: This is one I’ll never forget: Ron Francis scoring the overtime game-winner in Game One of the 2002 Stanley Cup Finals.  That said, I could just as easily point to the day that he signed with the Hurricanes.  No, it wasn’t a Cup Final game-winner, but it was a huge step for a fledgling team.

Rod Brind’Amour

No matter how much respect I have for Justin Williams (and I have a lot), there is one name that comes to my mind when I think of “The Captain”: Rod Brind’Amour.

Despite their captain being engaged in a contract holdout, the Carolina Hurricanes managed to win their first two games of the 1999-2000 season.  This proved to be an anomaly as the team stumbled to a 14-16-7 record as 1999 drew to a close.  The start of the new year brought much of the same as the Hurricanes traded wins and losses before falling into a 5 game losing streak.

They broke that skid with a 4-1 win at home over the equally unimpressive Buffalo Sabres.  The following day saw the end of the personnel drama: Keith Primeau was out; Rod Brind’Amour was in.  Being familiar with the new addition from his time in Philadelphia, I was excited.  Brind’Amour was a strong two-way player who could put up points.  More importantly, he was playing.

My friend Bryan and I were at Brind’Amour’s first game as a Hurricane, a 3-2 overtime win over the Montreal Canadiens.  I vividly remember this game, not only for his Carolina debut but also for the arrival of January 2000 North American Blizzard.  Needless to say, the drive to Halifax County from Raleigh was slow throughout and squirrely at times but hey, the Canes won.

Through his first four seasons as captain, Brind’Amour averaged 63 points per season, including an 82 point performance in 2006-07 (the 4th highest output of his 20-year career).  His play dropped off sharply in the 2009-10 season, a year that saw him relinquish the ‘C’ to Eric Staal.

Brind’Amour’s tenure as captain is best-remembered by me for the playoff success that the Hurricanes saw.  Having been part of playoff runs in 2001 and 2002, he played a huge role in leading the Hurricanes to the 2006 Stanley Cup, including the game-winning goal in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

He followed that up by scoring two goals in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, opening the scoring for Carolina and adding the game-winner after Edmonton backup Ty Conklin misplayed the puck behind his net.

Following the Hurricanes’ feast-or-famine playoff history, the team followed up their championship with two non-playoff seasons before making a return in 2009.  Brind’Amour’s offensive output dipped noticeably from where it was in 2006, though he continued to contribute at the dot and with his veteran leadership.

After retiring, Brind’Amour joined the Hurricanes in the dual role of assistant coach and development coach.  After Bill Peters opted out of the final year of his contract following the 2017-18 season, Brind’Amour was named as the Hurricanes head coach.  His first season in that role saw the Hurricanes post their second-best season (following only the 2005-06 season in which he was captain) and return to the playoffs for the first time since 2009.

Memorable moment: There are several to choose from but none better than seeing the pure joy on Brind’Amour’s face as he raised the Stanley Cup in 2006

Eric Staal

Eric Staal seemed to be the logical choice to inherit the captaincy from Rod Brind’Amour.  The issue is that Staal’s tenure marked a time where the Hurricanes had emptied the well and had to begin restocking.

This era saw three coaches and two GMs and an offense that never finished above 13th.  While none of this falls on Staal’s shoulders directly, it did affect the success of the team during this time.  It should also be noted that Staal was the top scorer for the Hurricanes during every season in which he was captain, save for 2015-16.

Part of that can be attributed to Staal being traded to the New York Rangers after 63 games, but it should also be noted that he only managed 10 goals and 23 assists in those 63 games (0.52PPG).  To put that in perspective, during the five full seasons that he spent as captain, Staal put up 314 points in 367 games (0.86PPG).

I view Staal’s time with the Hurricanes much the same as I do Cam Ward‘s: Both players were talented but did not have a very strong team around them, with precious few exceptions.  The Hurricanes failed to qualify for the playoffs in each season of Staal’s captaincy, though I would attribute that more to the mediocre teams he was a part of as opposed to his leadership.

Memorable moment: While Staal scored some memorable goals and was instrumental in both the 2006 and 2009 playoff runs, neither occurred during his captaincy.  Instead, I’ll opt for 2011 NHL All-Star Game which was played in Raleigh and featured Team Staal vs. Team Lidstrom

Jordan Staal and Justin Faulk

Okay, raise your hand if you thought the decision to name co-captains was a good one.

You can’t see me, but I promise you that my hands remained firmly planted on my keyboard.

Following a season that saw the Hurricanes go without a captain, head coach Bill Peters decided that going the other direction would yield better results.

It didn’t.

I love Jordan Staal as much as the next guy and I appreciate what he brings to the team.  Despite the way that 2017-18 went, I would fully support his return to the captaincy should Justin Williams decided against returning.

I won’t dog Justin Faulk either, but I never got the sense in having two captains.  It didn’t play particularly well for the team either as the Hurricanes saw their point total drop by four from the prior season.  Playoffs remained a dream.

To Staal’s credit, his production was in line with what we’ve come to expect.  His demeanor seemed well-suited to serve as captain and, if it negatively affected his mindset, it didn’t show.  Faulk, on the other hand, saw his goal output drop from a career-high 17 down to 8, while he also posted the worst plus/minus of his career.

Memorable moment: The day the co-captaincy ended.

Justin Williams

Talk about a player who captured the hearts of the fans.  From the moment he returned to the Carolina Hurricanes, Justin Williams made it clear what led to his decision: He wanted to return the excitement around the team that he had seen.  Not satisfied with missing the playoffs for a tenth consecutive year, Williams was named captain for the 2018-19 season.

All he did after was build engagement and get his teammates to buy into what lies at the base of the game: having fun.

The Storm Surge became a fixture following victories by the Hurricanes on their home ice.  Fans waited to see what the team would do, Don Cherry ranted, and The Surge won ‘Best Celebration’ at the NHL Fan Choice Awards.

Above all else, Justin Williams succeeded.  No, the Hurricanes did not win the Stanley Cup, but fan engagement was reinvigorated and, for the first time since 2009, the Hurricanes returned to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.  The captain did his part to get them there, posting 53 points, his highest total since the 2011-12 season.

Williams added seven points in the playoffs, setting up Brock McGinn’s overtime winner in Game 7 against the Washington Capitals and scoring the game-winner in Game 3 against the New York Islanders.

Now, Hurricanes fans wait and wonder whether Williams will return and take another shot at bringing Lord Stanley’s Cup back to Raleigh.  I, for one, hope to see the captain back in the sightless eye for at least one more season.

Memorable moment: Despite the fact that Williams only served one season as captain (so far), there are a lot of choices here.  Me, being sentimental, decided on the exhausted joy that we saw as Williams played to the PNC crowd after eliminating the New York Islanders

Is it October yet?