The Finnish winger signed with the team that originally drafted him at the opening of free agency.
Finnish winger Teuvo Teravainen is leaving the Carolina Hurricanes after signing a three-year deal with the Chicago Blackhawks at the opening of free agency.
Teravainen, 29, played eight seasons in Raleigh and was a big part of the Hurricanes' transformation into one of the league's top clubs.
"Carolina, thank you for eight unbelievable years!," Teravainen wrote on an Instagram post. "To the staff, my teammates, and most importantly the fans, thank you for making my time here truly unforgettable. It’s hard to leave, but I’m excited for the next chapter and to call myself a Blackhawk again!"
Teravainen was originally drafted by the Blackhawks in the first-round of the 2012 draft and even helped the team lift the Stanley Cup in 2015, but he was sent to Carolina in 2016 from Chicago as the sweetener in a cap dump of Brian Bickell's contract.
"I was a young player at that time and I kind of knew the situation that they had at that time," Teravainen said in his first media availability with Chicago media. "They had to move something to get the cap at the right place, so I knew something was happening maybe, but of course I didn't know it was going to be me. It took a couple of days but then I was pretty excited about Carolina. It was kind of like a similar situation where I'm going right now. A younger team trying to get better. So at that time it was good for me. I got to play bigger minutes and grow as a player. But it did take a couple of days to get over the shock at that time."
And Teravainen did have some good times in Raleigh as he became a core piece in the franchise's turnaround.
The Finnish forward leaves Carolina with 138 goals and 415 points in 555 games played while also having climbed quite a few ranks of the franchise's record books.
Teravainen is sixth in franchise history in assists (277), eighth in total points (415), third in plus/minus (+105), and ninth in short-handed goals (7).
"Been a long time in Carolina so I kind of learned to play how they play over there," Teravainen said. "It's been great years over there."
The Hurricanes went all in for the Stanley Cup this year, but after unfortunately coming up short in the second round to the New York Rangers, they knew they were going to be losing quite a few good pieces just due to the nature of the salary cap.
Teravainen was one of those pieces, but he at least got to choose where he was going and signed in a place that was very familiar to himself.
"I knew the city and have good memories from there," Teravainen said. "It just felt like a good path for me right now. I can join a young team and hopefully help them get back into the playoffs where the good teams are. I feel like that's really nice and an exciting chance for me to be part of something like that."
While he's going from one of the top team's in the league to a bottom of the standings club, 'Turbo' views the Blackhawks as a team on the rise.
"Of course winning is more fun than losing so I want to win right away, but hopefully we can get there as soon as we can," Teravainen said. "It was some great years and we had a great team in Carolina and had good chances to win the past years but just didn't go our way. Pretty disappointed about that, but of course, let's get to work in Chicago so we can get there too."
