Former Quebec goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguère is not only the last Quebecer to have been drafted by the Hartford Whalers, but he was also the last active player in the National League to have worn the colors of this team.
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When Giguère played his last professional game in a Colorado Avalanche uniform on April 13, 2014, no other player who had played with the Whalers was yet in the NHL.
“I have good memories of the Whalers,” said Giguère. You always remember the team that drafted you and your first experiences in the NHL.
The goaltender was 18 when he was selected in the first round by the Whalers, with the 13e overall pick in the 1995 draft.
“It was a surprise for me,” remembers Giguère, about this draft session which took place in Edmonton. I didn’t expect to come out that high, I expected to get drafted towards the end of the first round. When the Whalers called my name I wasn’t listening and it’s my dad [Claude]with me in the stands, who told me I had just been drafted. I couldn’t believe it even though I hadn’t had any discussions with the Whalers before the draft.
Anyone but the Canadian
In addition to being pleasantly surprised by his selection rank, Giguère agrees that he was quite happy to join the Whalers.
“It’s a little weird, because I’ve always been a huge fan of the Quebec Nordiques since I was very young, but I also loved the Whalers,” says the former goalie. For me, it was anyone except the Montreal Canadiens.”
Growing up in Blainville, on the north shore of Montreal, Giguère was an alien in his own family while everyone encouraged the Canadian. Now aged 47, the former goalkeeper has made peace with the Habs, but he still retains a precious place for the Whalers in his heart. He also displays, in the basement of his house, a frame with the jersey he was given during his draft.
Giguère ultimately played in eight games with the Whalers during the 1996-1997 season. During the following summer, when the club moved from Hartford to become the Carolina Hurricanes, he was traded to the Calgary Flames along with Andrew Cassels in exchange for veteran Gary Roberts and goaltender Trevor Kidd.
Only one victory, his first
Interesting fact: Giguère was credited with only one victory in a Whalers uniform, his first in his NHL career. That evening, December 28, 1996, the young Quebec goalie defeated the Ottawa Senators by a score of 3 to 2 at the Civic Center in Hartford.
-Alexandre Daigle had also scored the only two goals for the Senators.
“On two escapes,” specifies Giguère.
“Hartford was a special place to play,” agrees the Quebecer, laughing. The Whalers were in their last season, the arena was already old, there weren’t always many fans in the stands, but I still have good memories. When you’re 19 and playing in the NHL, everything is fun. I also remember the Brass Bonanza, That’s what was at stake when we got on the ice and when we scored a goal at home, that put us into it.”
- Beyond his beginnings in Hartford, Jean-Sébastien Giguère mainly enjoyed success in Anaheim, California. He was also elected goaltender to the Ducks’ first team by the NHL, as part of this organization’s quarter century at the beginning of January.
The slight regret of Jean-Sébastien Giguère
Remembering his beginnings with the Hartford Whalers, Jean-Sébastien Giguère cannot help but share a decision made that still haunts him 28 years later.
“It was the World Junior Hockey Championship and the Whalers gave me the option of joining the Canadian team or staying with them in the NHL,” he says. “I was promised that I would play if I didn’t go to the tournament and that promise was kept.”
“At the time, it was Marc Denis who was pretty sure of being the number 1 goalie for Canada since he had already participated in the Junior Championship the previous year,” added Giguère. I chose to stay with the Whalers, but if I had to do it again, I don’t know if I would have made the same decision, now that I know the career I had.
At only 19 years old
Giguère savored winning the Stanley Cup with the Anaheim Ducks in 2007. Four years earlier, despite a defeat in the final against Martin Brodeur and the New Jersey Devils, he was awarded the Conn-Smythe Trophy to playoff MVP award. Looking back, Giguère admits that he would certainly have liked to have the experience of a World Junior Championship.
Jean-Sébastien Giguère lifted the Stanley Cup in 2007 with the Anaheim Ducks.
Photo Shaun Best / REUTERS / ARCHIVES
“At that time, I was 19 years old, I was in the National League and that had always been my main goal,” explains the former goalkeeper. Plus, the Whalers made me a promise that I would play and they kept it.”
Giguère therefore does not have a Canadian team jersey that he could have worn during a World Junior Championship in his basement, but the Whalers one that he keeps still evokes many memories for him.
