RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – John Forslund admits, he did not see this coming.
“It’s tough,” said the long time Carolina Hurricanes play-by-play announcer. “It’s not something I was braced for.”
After nearly 30 years with the organization, two and a half decades as the team’s play-by-play announcer, Forslund finds himself searching for a job in these uncertain times.
“It’s a tough time like it is for our entire society right now,” Forslund admitted. “Based on the pandemic, based on where the NHL is and the job opportunities are I’m confident I’ll be OK in this next season. We’ll just see a bridge to where it leads and we’ll go from there.”
Forslund has some feelers out and his part-time work announcing games for NBC Sports once again looks promising.
Still, it will be strange not hearing Forslund calling Hurricanes games this upcoming season.
“I wasn’t complacent,” Forslund demanded. “I just was very proud of what I did here since 1997 and was proud of my body of work and wanted to continue. That was my wish but that’s not reality.”
Forslund wants to be clear, he’s not bitter – the two sides could not work out a deal.
Still, he is surprised at what he was offered and that he will no longer be working for an organization he devoted more than half his life to.
“I say ‘we’ a lot when I look at the moves the team has made and will make,” Forslund said. “So what I need to do is take whatever the Hurricanes do and put it in a compartment with all the other 30 teams and look at it nationally. It’s hard for me to do though I’ve still got a big place in my heart for the Hurricanes.”
And for the place he calls home.
“We feel privileged to be North Carolinians now,” gushed Forslund. “It’s how we view ourselves and whatever happens in the future will be a new adventure and that’s the only way to look at it.”
