What Really Happened to the Hartford Whalers?

The Hartford Whalers played their last NHL game in 1997, and the franchise is more popular than ever. How can a team that won just one playoff series in 18 seasons still stay in the hearts and minds of hockey fans? 

We’re not the only ones taking an interest. A book about the Whalers was released in 2021, and a thriving social media presence online is dedicated to keeping their memory alive. 

Here’s a look at what made the Hartford Whalers so special to fans during their brief time in the NHL and before and why their popularity has endured almost three decades since they left Connecticut. 

Every discussion about the enduring popularity of the Hartford Whalers can be traced back to the team’s logo. Hands down, it is one of the greatest logos in the history of North American professional sports. 

The original Hartford Whalers design came into existence when the team joined the NHL in 1979. They were previously the New England Whalers in the WHA (World Hockey Association) and had an entirely different logo. 

Designed by Connecticut native Peter Good, the Hartford Whalers logo blends a green “W” with a blue whale’s tail and uses the negative space between to create an “H.” So simple and yet so perfect. 

The World Hockey Association awarded a Boston franchise to a group of local businessmen led by film producer Howard Baldwin in 1971. That team became the New England Whalers, and they began play in the 1972-73 season. 

The Whalers won the 1973 WHA championship in their first season. They played the first two years in Boston, splitting home games between the Boston Garden and Boston Arena, where they were the fourth team in priority booking behind the NBA’s Boston Celtics, NHL’s Boston Bruins and American Hockey League’s Boston Braves. 

Hartford, Connecticut, wanted professional sports in the worst way. The city was building the Hartford Civic Center in hopes of landing an American Basketball Association franchise but came up short. 

New England Whalers owner Howard Baldwin, who had grown beyond frustrated with his team’s situation as a fourth wheel in Boston, saw an opportunity. 

Baldwin engineered the move to Hartford for the 1974-75 season, playing the first half of the season’s games in West Springfield, Massachusetts, before opening play at the Hartford Civic Center on Jan. 11, 1975, in front of a sellout crowd of almost 15,000 fans. 

It’s worth pointing out that the reason the Hartford Whalers ever even came to be was because the New England Whalers were a pretty decent franchise. 

In seven seasons in the WHA, the Whalers never missed the playoffs and made the WHA Finals twice, winning in 1973 and losing in 1978. 

They also grabbed headlines by having a stable roster and signing high-profile players like hockey legend Gordie Howe and his two sons, Mark and Marty Howe, away from the Houston Aeros in 1977.