Glen Wesley, Sami Kapanen Hang Up the Skates—Traded to Retirement

Two players, whose examples led me to become the hockey fan that I did have, called it quits this week.  Growing up in Raleigh, not being particularly concerned with sports on any plane was seen as kind of weird. 

"Duke or Carolina?" was the ubiquitous question asked by every male classmate to let them know if they could talk to another male or not, until probably 10th grade. 

I had no answer for this, and I guess that really told them the information they needed.  I wasn't even into NASCAR.

To this day, I have no real knowledge or emotional connection to NCAA basketball or automobile racing of any variety.  What I do know is that my neighbor, Dan Wiebke, had his dad's old hockey sticks in his garage, and I had a pair of roller blades. 

Street hockey became the only game I was interested in playing; when the other guys in my neighborhood would be playing baseball, basketball, football, whatever, I'd skate around and practice my backhand.

Anyway, this is getting overly nostalgic.  What I set out to communicate is that Kapanen and Wesley were two big names in the Hurricanes franchise; an organization that I've come to cherish almost as an extended family. 

I haven't stayed as familiar with Kapanen's career as I'd hoped I would (though watching him skate in Philadelphia was, as always, a joy to behold) and now that it's over, at least in the NHL, I feel like the league is losing an underrated great. 

Is he Hall of Fame material?  No, probably not.  But he certainly was always classy, productive, and a team player.  Wesley's name has been bandied about by some bloggers as a Hall of Fame candidate, and maybe that will happen and maybe it won't. 

I'm definitely not familiar enough with the qualifications of that institution to speculate, nor will I allow my homerdom to proclaim "WESLEY HHOF FTW!!!!" 

I know that Carolina would not have won a Stanley Cup without him, and I think that retiring his number is a good move by management.  The creation of a hockey legacy in Raleigh is something that probably seemed incredibly unlikely in 1996, and here it is, slowly but surely becoming realized.

So.  This became really sappy and lame, when I had hoped it would be wise-assed and funny.  Maybe in the future.  I have a few opinions on potential offseason moves for the Hurricanes, and (believe it or not) I actually pay attention to other teams too.