Emmet E. "Tripp" Tracy III (born December 20, 1973) is a retired American professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two o ...

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as the goalie) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays in or near t ...

and the current television and radio color commentator for the

Carolina Hurricanes The Carolina Hurricanes (colloquially known as the Canes) are a professional ice hockey team based in Raleigh, North Carolina. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference ...

Playing career

Tracy was a goalie for

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

for four years. In his first two seasons, he shared goaltending minutes with classmate Aaron Israel; he became the lone starter in 1994, his junior year, when Israel left to join the

Philadelphia Flyers The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia. The Flyers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home games in Wel ...

' farm system. Tracy was drafted in the 9th round (218th overall) by the Flyers in the

1993 NHL Entry Draft The 1993 NHL Entry Draft was the 31st NHL Entry Draft. It took place on June 26, 1993, at the Colisée de Québec in Quebec City, Quebec. First overall pick Alexandre Daigle is widely regarded today as one of the all-time greatest draft bu ...

. After he graduated from Harvard in 1996, he signed a free agent contract with the

Hartford Whalers The Hartford Whalers were a professional ice hockey team based for most of its existence in Hartford, Connecticut. The club played in the World Hockey Association (WHA) from 1972–73 WHA season, 1972 until 1978–79 WHA season, 1979, and in the ...

; he played two seasons in the franchise’s farm system, in the

ECHL The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams scattered across the United States and Canada. It is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). Th ...

and AHL.

Broadcast career

After retiring from playing hockey in 1998, Tracy worked briefly for CNN before rejoining the Hurricanes organization as an announcer for the 1998-1999 season. He has been with the Hurricanes broadcast team ever since. On April 26, 2022, Tracy made several strange posts on Twitter referencing a personal struggle with alcohol while misspelling several words in the tweets. On April 27, 2022, Carolina Hurricanes President and General Manager Don Waddell said Tracy would miss the remainder of the season and playoffs to address a "personal matter"; Shane Willis, the Hurricanes Director of Youth Hockey and Community Outreach, stepped into Tracy's role alongside play-by-play announcer Mike Maniscalco. Tracy would later come out as a recovering

alcoholic Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomina ...

and discuss his struggles with sobriety. Tracy returned to the broadcast booth for start of the

2022–23 NHL season The 2022–23 NHL season is the 106th season of operation (105th season of play) of the National Hockey League (NHL). The regular season began on October 7, 2022, when the San Jose Sharks and the Nashville Predators played the first of two games ...

Awards and honors

References

External links

* 1973 births Living people American men's ice hockey goaltenders Beast of New Haven players Carolina Hurricanes announcers Harvard Crimson men's ice hockey players National Hockey League broadcasters Sportspeople from Detroit Philadelphia Flyers draft picks Richmond Renegades players Springfield Falcons players Ice hockey people from Michigan Ice hockey people from Detroit {{US-tv-bio-stub