Glen Wesley

Glen Wesley
Wesley with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006
Born (1968-10-02) October 2, 1968
Red Deer, Alberta, Canada
Height 6 ft 1 in (185 cm)
Weight 207 lb (94 kg; 14 st 11 lb)
Position Defence
Shot Left
Played for Boston Bruins
Hartford Whalers
Carolina Hurricanes
Toronto Maple Leafs
National team  Canada
NHL draft 3rd overall, 1987
Boston Bruins
Playing career 1987–2008
Medal record
Representing  Canada
World Championships
Silver medal – second place1996 Vienna

Glen Edwin Wesley (born October 2, 1968) is a Canadian former ice hockey defenceman who played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Boston Bruins, Hartford Whalers, Carolina Hurricanes, and Toronto Maple Leafs.

After excelling for the Portland Winter Hawks of the Western Hockey League, Wesley was drafted as the third overall pick by the Boston Bruins in 1987. He immediately made the team and recorded 37 points while making the NHL All-Rookie Team. With Boston, he reached the Stanley Cup Final twice in 1988 and 1990, losing each time. He recorded two 50-point seasons with the team before being traded for multiple first-round draft picks to the Hartford Whalers prior to the 1994–95 season. Wesley ultimately would play all but seven games of the next fourteen years with the team in Hartford and Carolina and reach the Stanley Cup Final in 2002 and 2006, with the latter seeing him win for his first championship after 169 playoff games, the most for active players without a championship. He retired after the 2007–08 season, having played over 1,500 combined regular season and playoff games. Wesley saw his number two jersey retired by the Hurricanes in 2009, making him the second Hurricane to receive the honor.[1]

After his playing career ended, he worked with the Hurricanes as their director of player development from 2008 to 2018. Currently, he serves as a development coach with the St. Louis Blues, who hired him in 2018.[2]

Playing career

Wesley was drafted third overall by the Boston Bruins in the 1987 NHL entry draft from the Portland Winter Hawks, appearing in 202 regular season games over 3+ seasons, scoring 49 goals and 175 assists for 224 points.

Wesley began his NHL career with the Boston Bruins, whom he played for from 1987 to 1994. He earned a berth on the 1988 All-Rookie team. He reached the Stanley Cup Final twice with the Bruins, in 1988 and 1990, though the Bruins lost both series to the Edmonton Oilers. As a rookie in the 1988 Final, Wesley scored two goals in game four, a contest which would eventually be suspended and replayed due to power failure at Boston Garden.[3][4] His dramatic last-minute goal in game five of the 1990 playoffs against Montreal would help the Bruins reach the Final for the second time in three years.[5][6]

Prior to the start of the 1994–95 season, Wesley was traded to the Hartford Whalers for their first-round draft picks in 1995, 1996, and 1997.[7] With the picks, the Bruins drafted Kyle McLaren (1995), Johnathan Aitken (1996) and Sergei Samsonov (1997), the latter of whom was Wesley's teammate in his final year in the NHL.[8]

Wesley moved with the Whalers to Carolina in 1997 and quickly became a leader. In the 2001–02 season, he reached the Stanley Cup Final for a third time, although the Hurricanes lost to the Detroit Red Wings in five games.[9] In March 2003, nearing the trade deadline as a soon to be unrestricted free agent with the Hurricanes out of contention, he was traded from Carolina to Toronto for a second-round pick, joining the Maple Leafs prior to the Stanley Cup playoffs. In his seventh game with the team, a blocked shot resulted in him breaking his foot, although the full extent of his injury wasn't known to the public at the time. He returned two games into the playoffs but not fully at 100 percent as the Maple Leafs lost in the first round in seven games.[10] He re-signed with the Hurricanes at the end of the season.[11] In the 2005–06 season, Wesley got his fourth trip to the Stanley Cup Final, which would see him matched against the Edmonton Oilers for the third time. The Hurricanes prevailed in game seven to give Wesley his first championship. With the victory, he ended one of the longest streaks for active players who had not yet won a Stanley Cup, having played 169 playoff games before winning his first Stanley Cup.[12] Wesley played two more seasons with the Hurricanes before retiring, leaving him as the only player to have played in each of the Hurricanes' first 10 seasons since the team relocated to North Carolina.[13]

On June 5, 2008, Wesley announced his retirement after his 20th NHL season, and his 10th with the Carolina Hurricanes.[13] He remains in the Hurricanes organization as Director of Defensemen Development. The Hurricanes retired Wesley's No. 2 jersey February 17, 2009, against the Boston Bruins, who Wesley began his NHL career with. Wesley was the only player to don #2 with the Hurricanes, as the number was previously retired by the Hartford Whalers in honor of Rick Ley. When the franchise relocated, Wesley changed his number from #20 to #2, marking the distinction of the number being retired by the same franchise for two different players in two different cities.

International play

Wesley represented Canada twice in his playing career. In 1987, he played in the World Junior Ice Hockey Championships alongside future NHL stars Theoren Fleury, Mike Keane, Brendan Shanahan, and Pierre Turgeon.[14] Infamously, the final game saw the Canadians get involved in a brawl (later dubbed the "Punch-up in Piestany") with the Soviet team (who was trailing 2–4 in a game Canada needed to win to potentially win the gold) that saw both teams disqualified.[15]

In 1996, he represented Canada for the 1996 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships, where Canada finished second.[16]

Personal life

Wesley and his wife, Barb, have three children, Amanda, Josh and Matthew. His son Josh was drafted by the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2014 NHL entry draft and was playing for the AHL's Utica Comets as of April 2021.[17]

Wesley lived in Danvers, Massachusetts in the early 1990s while a member of the Bruins and Avon, Connecticut from 1994 until 1997 before settling in Cary, North Carolina.

Wesley, a resident of the United States since he played junior hockey, became an American citizen in 2005. As part of his day with the Stanley Cup, Wesley took the trophy to Camp Lejeune.

Awards and achievements

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

    Regular season   Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1983–84 Red Deer Rustlers AJHL 57 9 20 29 40 — — — — —
1983–84 Portland Winter Hawks WHL 3 1 2 3 0 — — — — —
1984–85 Portland Winter Hawks WHL 67 16 52 68 76 6 1 6 7 8
1985–86 Portland Winter Hawks WHL 69 16 75 91 96 15 3 11 14 29
1985–86 Portland Winter Hawks MC — — — — — 4 0 2 2 4
1986–87 Portland Winter Hawks WHL 63 16 46 62 72 20 8 18 26 27
1987–88 Boston Bruins NHL 79 7 30 37 69 23 6 8 14 22
1988–89 Boston Bruins NHL 77 19 35 54 61 10 0 2 2 4
1989–90 Boston Bruins NHL 78 9 27 36 48 21 2 6 8 36
1990–91 Boston Bruins NHL 80 11 32 43 78 19 2 9 11 19
1991–92 Boston Bruins NHL 78 9 37 46 54 15 2 4 6 15
1992–93 Boston Bruins NHL 64 8 25 33 47 4 0 0 0 0
1993–94 Boston Bruins NHL 81 14 44 58 64 13 3 3 6 12
1994–95 Hartford Whalers NHL 48 2 14 16 50 — — — — —
1995–96 Hartford Whalers NHL 68 8 16 24 88 — — — — —
1996–97 Hartford Whalers NHL 68 8 26 32 40 — — — — —
1997–98 Carolina Hurricanes NHL 82 6 19 25 36 — — — — —
1998–99 Carolina Hurricanes NHL 74 7 17 24 44 6 0 1 1 2
1999–2000 Carolina Hurricanes NHL 78 7 15 22 38 — — — — —
2000–01 Carolina Hurricanes NHL 71 5 16 21 42 6 0 0 0 0
2001–02 Carolina Hurricanes NHL 77 5 13 18 56 22 0 2 2 12
2002–03 Carolina Hurricanes NHL 63 1 7 8 40 — — — — —
2002–03 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 7 0 3 3 4 5 0 1 1 2
2003–04 Carolina Hurricanes NHL 74 0 6 6 32 — — — — —
2005–06 Carolina Hurricanes NHL 64 2 8 10 46 25 0 2 2 16
2006–07 Carolina Hurricanes NHL 68 1 12 13 56 — — — — —
2007–08 Carolina Hurricanes NHL 78 1 7 8 52 — — — — —
NHL totals 1,457 128 409 537 1,045 169 15 38 53 141

International

Year Team Event Result   GP G A Pts PIM
1987 Canada WJC DQ 6 2 1 3 4
1996 Canada WC 2nd place, silver medalist(s) 8 0 1 1 4
Junior totals 6 2 1 3 4
Senior totals 8 0 1 1 4

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Hurricanes retire Wesley's No. 2". CBC.ca. Associated Press. February 17, 2009.
  2. ↑ "Mike Anthony: Josh Wesley, Glen Wesley's son, proud to be back 'Where it all started' in Hartford with Wolf Pack". March 10, 2019.
  3. ↑ "Stanley Cup Final Skater Records - Most Goals, Rookie, Stanley Cup Final Game". NHL Records. Retrieved July 17, 2026.
  4. ↑ K.P. Wee (October 2015). The End of the Montreal Jinx: Boston's Short-Lived Glory in the Historic Bruins-Canadiens Rivalry, 1988-1994. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. p. 46. ISBN 978-1517362911.
  5. ↑ K.P. Wee (October 2015). The End of the Montreal Jinx: Boston's Short-Lived Glory in the Historic Bruins-Canadiens Rivalry, 1988-1994. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. p. 84. ISBN 978-1517362911.
  6. ↑ Wee, KP (June 7, 2008). "Remembering Glen Wesley". Bleacher Report.
  7. ↑ "WHALERS ACQUIRE WESLEY". Hartford Courant. August 27, 1994. Retrieved July 17, 2026.
  8. ↑ Droschak, David (February 2, 2009). "Glen Wesley Tribute - Part 1: The Trade". NHL.com. Archived from the original on December 16, 2018.
  9. ↑ "Carolina Hurricanes Blast From The Past: Glen Wesley". Fox Sports. June 30, 2017. Retrieved July 17, 2026.
  10. ↑ "Trade ends Wesley's nine seasons with Carolina". ESPN.com. Associated Press. March 9, 2003.
  11. ↑ Siegel, Jonas; Kloke, Joshua (February 23, 2023). "The year the Maple Leafs went all in at the trade deadline – and how it went so wrong". The Athletic.
  12. ↑ DeCock, Luke (June 20, 2006). "The Cup stops here: Hurricanes hold off Oilers to win an NHL title". The News & Observer. Retrieved July 17, 2026.
  13. 1 2 "Original Hurricane Glen Wesley retires after 20 years". USA Today. Associated Press. June 5, 2008.
  14. ↑ Joyce, Gare (2007). When the lights went out : how one brawl ended hockey's cold war and changed the game. Canada: Random House. p. 16. ISBN 978-0-385-66275-8. Retrieved July 17, 2026.
  15. ↑ Cowan, Stu (January 3, 2017). "Father of Habs' Galchenyuk took part in Punch-up in Piestany at 1987 juniors". Toronto Sun.
  16. ↑ "1996 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship". Hockey Canada. Retrieved July 17, 2026.
  17. ↑ "Josh Wesley Stats and Player Profile". American Hockey League.
  18. ↑ "Hurricanes honor Wesley, retire No. 2". NHL.com. Associated Press. 2009. Archived from the original on June 4, 2011. Retrieved February 17, 2009.
  19. ↑ Bruins Announce “Historic 100” Ahead of All-Centennial Team Reveal
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