The NHL’s Hartford Whalers packed up and moved to North Carolina in 1997. That was almost 30 years ago. But for many the memories are priceless and the enthusiasm lingers as their time in Hartford is not forgotten.
Sports writer Pat Pickens released a book in 2021 - The Whalers: The Rise, Fall, and Enduring Mystique of New England's (Second) Greatest NHL Franchise. It was his book that led him to being approached by a documentary filmmaker named Tal Pinchevsky who previously worked as a national sportswriter with the New York Times, ESPN, the Wall Street Journal and NHL.com to make a film about the Whalers mystique.
“We became close covering the Rangers. We would meet a couple of times a year in Bryant Park for lunch at this place for Cuban sandwiches and (Tal) said to me ‘you want to do a documentary?” I said ‘I don’t know. Sounds like fun. Maybe’. But I didn’t think it was something we could do. He wore me down. We got going in 2022 and did the production in 2023 and 2024 and a little in 2025.”
Pickens thanked Sacred Heart for their support.
After three years of tireless work, the movie was released in time to coincide with a 50-year celebration of hockey in Connecticut’s capital city of Hartford. The movie was shown at Trinity College prior to a Hartford Wolfpack game on January 11 and more than 10,000 fans packed the XL Center to celebrate the 50th anniversary of hockey in Hartford. Players from the franchise were honored in a ceremony hosted by the Whalers’ radio voice, Chuck Kaiton.
The Whalers, born in 1972, were originally based in Boston, they were charter members of the WHA (World Hockey Association) The team was known as the New England Whalers for all seven seasons. After their second season, the team moved one hundred miles southwest to Hartford in April 1974.
Stadium Journey had the opportunity to screen the movie at a public event at Sacred Heart University Public Theater in Fairfield Connecticut last month. The evening featured the hockey band The Zambonis kicking the night off by playing a pre-concert (they only perform songs about hockey), then the 1:35 movie was shown and the evening concluded with a few remarks from Moderator was Geno Gonnello a Sacred Heart University graduate and a Q/A with Pickens and Pinchevsky.
“The logo is everywhere,” said Pinchevsky, the director and producer of the movie. “It doesn’t compare to any professional sports team. Maybe it compares to teams in Europe, but the team was only around 18 years.”
The movie chronicled the birth of the New England Whalers and their infancy seasons playing at both the Boston Garden and Boston Arena.
“It was a huge undertaking,” said Pickens. “We had enough content to make a three-hour movie.”
A fan who attended the screening and the final game in Hartford recounted how after the game the players were going back into the locker room and coming out with souvenirs and throwing them up in the crowd. The fan was lucky enough to catch a puck tossed into the seats by defenseman Steve Chiasson and that moment was captured on the documentary.
The movie was well researched with many interviews of everyone from former team executives, coaches and former players. ESPN legend Chris Berman makes frequent appearances. The original owner Harold Baldwin had a prominent role in the documentary. Baldwin became one of the youngest executives in professional sports when he became a founder and partner of the WHA's Boston-based New England Whalers in 1971 at the age of 28. Five years later he was president of the league.
The Whalers first season in the WHA was a success both on and off the ice with coach Jack Kelley's team winning the 1973 AVCO World Cup Championship.
In 1974, Baldwin determined that the team needed its own building and he moved the Whalers from Boston to Hartford's new Civic Center Coliseum, with the team playing their first game there in 1975. In 1979, Baldwin guided the WHA into a historic merger 1979 NHL Expansion with his New England Whalers making the transition to the more established league and their identity was changed to the Hartford Whalers. Baldwin served as the managing general partner of the Whalers until the team was sold to local ownership in 1988.
In 1977, legendary superstar Gordie Howe came to Hartford came to Hartford to play with his sons Mark and Marty and finish out his career. He played two seasons for the New England Whalers and then played his final season in Hartford when the team joined the NHL. Howe recorded 15 goals and 26 assists in his final campaign (1979-80) with the Hartford Whalers at age 50.
The Whalers have been a merchandising favorite for years as Peter Good designed the iconic logo with the H inside the blue whale tail and the green W. The logo lives on as one of the most popular in professional sports. Good, who passed in 2023, is interviewed for the movie.
The Whalers benefitted from a number of factors. Hartford, the insurance capital of Connecticut, was thriving in the 80s and a number of the big companies (Aetna, Travelers and Hartford Fire) were a few of the sponsors. The team played in a mall which was quirky but different as fans packed the Civic Center pre and post game. The city was the smallest market in the NHL but benefitted from having a close community vibe as the players knew the fans and the fans knew them.
The movie covers the closing of the building for two years from January 1978 until January 1980 due to a roof collapse Civic Center Roof Collapse. The Whalers had to play in Springfield, Massachusetts at the Springfield Civic Center. The collapse was sort of a blessing as the Civic Center was expanded from 10,507 to 15,635 which made it viable for an NHL franchise. Other than their first season, the Whalers averaged over 10,000 every season hitting an apex of 14,574 in 1987-88.
In 1994, Peter Karmanos (CEO of Compuware), along with partners Thomas Thewes and Jim Rutherford, purchased the Hartford Whalers for $47.5 million and made a four-year commitment to keeping the team in Hartford. After negotiations between Karmanos and the state to keep the Whalers in Hartford broke down and the Whalers left for North Carolina in the spring of 1997. The Whalers played its first two seasons in Greensboro while its stadium in Raleigh was constructed.
The fans turned out for the final season as the Civic Center averaged 13,680 a nice bump from 11,983 in 1995-96, but it was not enough to keep their beloved Whale in Hartford. The final game was a 2-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on April 13, 1997. The fans rocked the building behind a raucous and emotional capacity crowd of 14,660. The game featured signs, chants, ovations and tears as the final second came off the clock with the crowd on its feet After a stick salute, the team circled the ice to the sounds of Brass Bonanza and said goodbye to the fans and captain Kevin Dineen took the microphone and addressed the vociferous crowd. The song (AKA The Hartford Whalers Victory March) became the unofficial song in 1975 and was played as the Whalers took the ice, following goals and wins. The coach for the final game was no other than Paul Maurice who guided the Whalers for its final two seasons. He coached Carolina for seven seasons, losing in the Stanley Cup Finals in 2002. Maurice won the Cup in 2024 as coach of the Florida Panthers.
The Whalers, who amazingly only won one playoff series in their existence, were gone, but never forgotten. Despite the NY Rangers AHL affiliate the Hartford Wolfpack occupying the CIvic Center since 1997, Connecticut made a couple of overtures to bring the NHL back. The latest effort in 2024 did not succeed as the Arizona Coyotes relocated to Salt Lake City, Utah. The Whale is gone but the memories cannot be erased.
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