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

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) 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. Tw ...

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as goalie or netminder) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their own team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays ...

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. The Hurricanes compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Con ...

Playing career

Tracy played

junior hockey Junior ice hockey is amateur-level ice hockey for 16 to 20 year-old players. National Junior teams compete annually for the IIHF World Junior Championship. The United States men's national junior ice hockey team are the defending champions from t ...

for the Detroit Compuware Ambassadors of the

NAHL Nahl or NAHL may refer to: * Nahl (surname) * National Accident Helpline, a British personal injury lawyer service * North American Hockey League, an American junior hockey league * North American Hockey League (1973–1977), an American profession ...

for two years and was then a goalie for

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

for four years. In his first two seasons at Harvard, 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 (NHL), Eastern Conference. The team play ...

' farm system. Tracy was drafted in the 9th round (218th overall) by the Flyers in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft. 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 25-year existence in Hartford, Connecticut. The club played in the World Hockey Association (WHA) from 1972 until 1979, and in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1 ...

(who soon after became the Carolina Hurricanes); he played two seasons in the franchise’s farm system, in the

ECHL The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a minor professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams across the United States and Canada. Competitively, it is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The ...

and AHL.

Career Stats

Broadcast career

After retiring from playing hockey in 1998, Tracy worked briefly for

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

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 the continued drinking of alcohol despite it causing problems. Some definitions require evidence of dependence and withdrawal. Problematic use of alcohol has been mentioned in the earliest historical records. The World Hea ...

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

2022–23 NHL season The 2022–23 NHL season was 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 game ...

. On January 7, 2025 it was announced that Tracy shared the title of 2024 North Carolina's Sportscaster of the Year by

National Sports Media Association The National Sports Media Association (NSMA), formerly the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, is an organization of sports journalism, sports media members in the United States, and constitutes the American chapter of the Inte ...

Awards and honors

References

External links

* 1973 births Living people American men's ice hockey goaltenders Beast of New Haven players Carolina Hurricanes announcers Tripp Tracy Harvard Crimson men's ice hockey players National Hockey League broadcasters Philadelphia Flyers draft picks Richmond Renegades players Springfield Falcons players Ice hockey people from Michigan Ice hockey people from Detroit 20th-century American sportsmen {{US-tv-bio-stub