Paul Ranheim Autograph Card

It's now official: the Boston Bruins have swept the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final, in a show of force unseen since the days of the Adams Division and the lowly Hartford Whalers.

Which brings me to Paul Ranheim, who has played for the Whalers and the Canes, spending parts of seven seasons in the organization before spending some time with the Philadelphia Flyers and Phoenix Coyotes.

His best season, statistically, though, was his rookie year with the Calgary Flames, in 1989-90, scoring 26 goals with 28 assists for 94 points - all career highs. As a matter of fact, all three of his 20-goal seasons came in Calgary, and he never went over 10 in any of his other NHL seasons. He never hit the 40-point plateau with any other team either, with a 30-point season (10 goals, 20 assists) with the Whalers in 1995-96 standing as the other outlier year in a career spent as a checking forward.

Here he is wearing the Whalers' dark (away) mid-1990s uniform on the signed insert version of card #87 from Upper Deck's 1995-96 Be A Player set:

I must admit I felt some nice nostalgia when the Canes sported their retro Whalers uniforms this season, especially since they did so against the Bruins.