Ray Whitney honored for thousandth game

Prior to the Sharks-hurricanes game today, Ray Whitney was honored for playing in his 1,000th game. During the broadcasts opening segment, Drew Remenda opined about Whitney, his 200 games for the Sharks, and that he played 805 after that, is still going, etc. To me, it seemed like he was taking a shot at previous management for letting Whitney go. My opinion, Drew has forgotten that Whits wasn't that effective for the Sharks. Right after the Sharks let him go, he went to the Oilers for 9 games, was let go, and then hooked on with the Panthers. After that, he had stops in Columbus and Detroit before going to Carolina. He's had a very up and down career, shining at times, and other times not. If memory serves, Detroit signed him to a decent sized free agent contract, then bought him out after a year. So, shame on you Drew for forgetting about the not so good times.

That said, it is something special for him to have lasted as long as he has, shined in spots, but I don't think he's a superstar. He might not have even realized the potential he has if the Sharks hadn't let him go. Also, there are two very key things that could have dramatically changed things for him. He went to Europe right out of the draft and played in Germany, but got out of that contract. Had he not played over there, he could have come back to the NHL. As it was, his only option was to play in the minor leagues. Had he spent that first year in the NHL, he could have developed differently. The other was a knee injury in early 1993. The Sharks had picked up Sergei Makarov and Igor Larionov. Everybody remembers Johan Garpenlov playing with them, but he wasn't the first one chosen. Whitney was playing with the two Russian superstars up until a knee injury. By the time Whitney came back, Garpenlov was looking good, so they didn't change things. Had that knee injury not happened, he might have stuck with that duo and done well.

My favorite Ray Whitney memory comes from the Cow Palace. I think it was early '93, with a preseason practice they had there. As the players were coming off, there were people trying to get autographs, etc. The carpet was too far from the stands for the players to get right over there, so he put down two sticks and stood on them. He wanted to protect his skates, not fall, but still take care of the fans.