RALEIGH, N.C. — The NHL awarded the 2011 All-Star Game to the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday, coming through on a pledge commissioner Gary Bettman once made to the franchise.
“You have all been asking me for years when the All-Star Game was coming to Raleigh,” Bettman told a crowd of about 1,000 Hurricanes fans who packed the RBC Center’s lawn. “I did make a promise a number of years ago. So, today, I will fulfill that promise.”
Next year’s game originally was to be played in Phoenix, but when the Coyotes filed for bankruptcy, the league reopened its options. Bettman said that 14 teams applied either to host All-Star Games from 2011-13 or upcoming NHL drafts.
Telling the other franchises that “your time will come,” Bettman said awarding the game to Carolina “is a testimony to the strength of this franchise.”
Footnotes.
Former NHL coach Pat Burns has been released from the hospital in Tampa, Fla., after having complications from lung and colon cancer.
• The Sabres signed 2008 second-round draft pick Luke Adam to a three-year contract and assigned him to their American Hockey League affiliate in Portland, Maine.
The Associated Press
