The New England Whalers were established in November 1971 when the World Hockey Association (WHA) awarded a franchise to begin play in Boston, Massachusetts.

As one of the most stable WHA teams, the Whalers, along with the Edmonton Oilers, Quebec Nordiques and Winnipeg Jets, were admitted to the NHL when the rival leagues merged in 1979.

For years, the organization maintained many Whalers connections among its off-ice personnel; in addition to many members of executive management and the coaching staff, broadcasters Chuck Kaiton, John Forslund and Tripp Tracy (at the time a minor-league player), and equipment managers Wally Tatomir, Skip Cunningham and Bob Gorman all made the move to North Carolina with the team.

Hartford was the smallest American market in the league and was located on the traditional dividing line between the home territories for New York City and Boston teams.

On May 6, 1997, Karmanos announced that the Whalers would move to the Research Triangle area of North Carolina and the new Entertainment and Sports Arena (ESA) in Raleigh.

Due to the relatively short time frame for the move, Karmanos himself thought of and decided upon the new name for the club, the Carolina Hurricanes, rather than holding a contest as is sometimes done.

With by far the smallest season-ticket base in the NHL and attendance figures routinely well below the league average, Sports Illustrated ran a story titled "Natural Disaster",[9] and ESPN anchors mocked the "Green Acres" of empty seats; in a 2006 interview, Karmanos admitted that "as it turns out, [Greensboro] was probably a mistake.

Conversely, on the ice the Hurricanes' performance improved led by the return of longtime Whalers' captain Ron Francis, Keith Primeau's 30 goals, and Gary Roberts' 178 penalty minutes.

Tragedy struck hours after the team's first-round loss to the Bruins, when defenseman Steve Chiasson was thrown from his pickup truck and killed in a single-vehicle drunk-driving crash.

[11] The aforementioned season was marked by an ultimately franchise-altering mid-season trade which saw Primeau dealt to the Philadelphia Flyers for several players, including future captain Rod Brind'Amour.

In 2000–01, the Hurricanes managed to claim the eighth seed, nosing out the Boston Bruins, and landed a first-round match-up with the defending champions, the New Jersey Devils.

They survived a late charge from the Washington Capitals to win the division, but expectations were low entering the first round against the defending Eastern Conference champion New Jersey Devils.

During this series, several Hurricanes fan traditions drew hockey-wide media attention for the first time: fans met the team at the Raleigh-Durham International Airport on the return from every road trip and echoed football-season habits honed for games across the parking lot by hosting massive tailgate parties before each home game, a relative novelty in the cold-weather-centric NHL.

Game three in Raleigh featured a triple-overtime thriller eventually won by Detroit's Igor Larionov, the oldest player to score a last-round goal.

Under Laviolette, Weekes remained tough, but the offense was suspect; center Josef Vasicek led the team with a mere 19 goals and 26 assists for 45 points.

[15] In the playoffs, after losing the first two games of the conference quarterfinals series against the Montreal Canadiens, Laviolette lifted goalkeeper Martin Gerber, who had been struggling to regain his form after playing through a bout of intestinal flu, in favor of rookie Cam Ward.

In game 6 in Edmonton, Carolina was soundly defeated 4–0; the only bright point for the Hurricanes was the return of forward Erik Cole from a broken neck that had sidelined him since March.

On the managerial side, general manager Jim Rutherford finally won the Cup in his twelfth year with the franchise since joining the Whalers in 1994.

After a slow start to the 2008–09 season, Cup-winning coach Peter Laviolette was fired in early December and replaced by his own predecessor, Paul Maurice.

Teetering on the edge of the playoff picture again, the club, on February 7, acquired utility forward Jussi Jokinen from the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for Wade Brookbank, Josef Melichar and Carolina's fourth-round draft pick in 2009, then reacquired winger Erik Cole from the Edmonton Oilers at the March trade deadline and proceeded on a 12–3–2 run to close out the season.

With 1:20 to play, Tim Gleason saved a puck on his knees at the right point, passed it to Joni Pitkanen on the left boards, who then hit game 4 hero Jussi Jokinen at the far post for the tying goal.

The Hurricanes would end up with the seventh overall pick in the 2010 NHL entry draft, eventually selecting Jeff Skinner from the Kitchener Rangers of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL).

The Hurricanes contended for a playoff slot for the entire season aided by Skinner's emergence as an offensive phenomenon who, as the youngest player in the league, would lead all rookies in points.

Early in the Hurricanes' search for a replacement general manager, it was reported that Dundon's salary offerings for the position could be prohibitive in attracting quality candidates.

[39] Sportsnet's Nick Kypreos reported that the Hurricanes were offering "in the ballpark of $400,000 a year",[40] a fraction of the salary figures of many other teams' coaches,[41] let alone those of their general managers, who serve in a higher-ranking position.

The team would then go on to defeat the New York Islanders in four straight games in the second round, recording the first best-of-seven playoff series sweep in franchise history, and advancing to the conference finals for the first time since 2009.

Warren Foegele was traded to Edmonton for Ethan Bear, Ian Cole and Brendan Smith was signed to complement the depth on defense.

In addition, longtime franchise radio play-by-play announcer Chuck Kaiton received the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award in 2004, an honor granted by the Hall of Fame.

[66] Color commentary for Bally Sports' broadcast is performed by Tripp Tracy or former player Shane Willis, while play-by-play is provided by Mike Maniscalco.

[68] On the television side, John Forslund was the play-by-play voice of the franchise starting in 1995, but left prior to the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs and has since moved to NBC and later with TNT and the Seattle Kraken.