Kay Whitmore

Kay Whitmore, Jr. (born April 10, 1967) is a Canadian former ice hockey goaltender. He played for the Hartford Whalers, Vancouver Canucks, Boston Bruins, and Calgary Flames during his career, as well as several teams in the minor American Hockey League and International Hockey League, from 1987 until 2002.

Hockey career As a youth, Whitmore played in the 1979 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with a minor ice hockey team from Greater Sudbury.

In 1983-84, Whitmore joined the OHL's Peterborough Petes and went 17-8-0 as a major junior rookie. The following season, he paced the league with 53 games by a goalie and 35 wins. In the playoffs, he went 10-4. In 1985-86, he went 27-12-2 with a league-best three shutouts and 2.77 GAA. At year's end, he was named an OHL First Team All-Star.

Whitmore was drafted 26th overall in the 1985 Entry Draft by the Hartford Whalers. He played most of his first four professional seasons for Hartford's minor league teams in Binghamton and Springfield, with some spot duty for the Whalers in 1989, 1990 and 1991. In the 1991 American Hockey League season, Whitmore led the Springfield Indians to the franchise's seventh and final Calder Cup, and was named the winner of the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as playoff MVP.

The following season, Whitmore stuck in the NHL, platooning with Peter Sidorkiewicz in the Whalers' nets but losing his job to Frank Pietrangelo at season's end and in the playoffs.

In the 1992 offseason, he was traded to the Vancouver Canucks for Corrie D'Alessio and cash. That season, he played 31 games behind Kirk McLean and helped the Canucks win the Smythe Division season title, going 18-8-4 with a 3.10 GAA. In 1994, he played 32 games and posted an 18-14-0 record. In the playoffs, he helped his team win the Clarence Campbell Bowl in the Western Conference finals before losing to the New York Rangers in the Stanley Cup finals. In the shortened 1994-95 season, Kay played eleven games for the Canucks.

His contract expiring thereafter, Whitmore spent the next five seasons in the minor leagues, his most successful season being 1998, when he led the Long Beach Ice Dogs of the International Hockey League into the league semi-finals, as well as winning First Team All-Star accolades.

Being traded to the Boston Bruins in 1999 for future considerations, he was recalled from Boston's Providence farm team in the 2000-01 season when Bruins goaltenders Byron Dafoe and John Grahame were both injured. Whitmore, getting his first NHL start in over six years, posted a 5–4 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on November 2, 2000. In five games with the Bruins, Whitmore's save percentage stood at .809, and he was sent back down to the minors. The following season Whitmore signed as a free agent with the Calgary Flames, but only played in one game for them, seeing most of his action for their American Hockey League farm team, the Saint John Flames. He retired from professional hockey thereafter, save for a three-game playoff stint for the Nuremberg Ice Tigers of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga in 2005.

Post-playing career Following his hockey career, Whitmore was the goaltending coach for the Peterborough Petes from 2002-2004. From 2005-2006, Whitmore worked as a studio analyst on the NHL Network program On the Fly, as well as a guest studio analyst on The NHL on OLN Post Game Report. Whitmore was also a guest analyst on the Versus Network. Currently, Whitmore is serving as a goaltending supervisor for the NHL.

Career statistics Regular season and playoffs Regular season Playoffs Season Team League GP W L T/OT MIN GA SO GAA SV% GP W L MIN GA SO GAA SV% 1982–83 Sudbury Legionnaires NOHA 43 — — — 2580 108 4 2.51 — — — — — — — — — 1983–84 Peterborough Petes OHL 29 17 8 0 1471 110 0 4.49 .858 — — — — — — — — 1984–85 Peterborough Petes OHL 53 35 16 2 3077 172 2 3.35 .901 17 10 4 1020 58 0 3.41 — 1985–86 Peterborough Petes OHL 41 27 12 2 2467 114 3 2.77 .901 14 8 5 837 40 0 2.87 — 1986–87 Peterborough Petes OHL 36 14 17 5 2159 118 1 3.28 — 7 3 3 366 17 1 2.79 — 1987–88 Binghamton Whalers AHL 38 17 15 4 2137 121 3 3.40 .885 2 0 2 118 10 0 5.08 .873 1988–89 Hartford Whalers NHL 3 2 1 0 180 10 0 3.33 .896 2 0 2 135 10 0 4.44 .863 1988–89 Binghamton Whalers AHL 56 21 29 4 3200 241 1 4.52 .864 — — — — — — — — 1989–90 Hartford Whalers NHL 9 4 2 1 442 26 0 3.53 .858 — — — — — — — — 1989–90 Binghamton Whalers AHL 24 3 19 2 1386 109 0 4.72 .858 — — — — — — — — 1990–91 Hartford Whalers NHL 18 3 9 3 850 52 0 3.67 .863 — — — — — — — — 1990–91 Springfield Indians AHL 33 22 9 1 1916 98 1 3.07 .892 15 11 4 926 37 0 2.40 — 1991–92 Hartford Whalers NHL 45 14 21 6 2567 155 3 3.62 .880 1 0 0 19 1 0 3.23 .800 1992–93 Vancouver Canucks NHL 31 18 8 4 1817 94 1 3.10 .890 — — — — — — — — 1993–94 Vancouver Canucks NHL 32 18 14 0 1921 113 0 3.53 .867 — — — — — — — — 1994–95 Vancouver Canucks NHL 11 0 6 2 558 37 0 3.98 .867 1 0 0 20 2 0 6.00 .889 1995–96 Detroit Vipers IHL 10 3 5 0 501 33 0 3.95 .860 — — — — — — — — 1995–96 Los Angeles Ice Dogs IHL 30 10 9 7 1563 99 1 3.80 .891 — — — — — — — — 1995–96 Syracuse Crunch AHL 11 6 4 1 663 37 0 3.35 .896 — — — — — — — — 1995–96 Binghamton Rangers AHL — — — — — — — — — 2 0 2 127 9 0 4.27 .868 1996–97 Södertälje SK SWE 25 — — — 1320 85 0 3.86 .858 — — — — — — — — 1997–98 Long Beach Ice Dogs IHL 46 28 12 3 2516 109 3 2.60 .898 14 9 5 838 43 0 3.08 — 1998–99 Hartford Wolf Pack AHL 18 8 8 2 1080 47 0 2.61 .903 — — — — — — — — 1998–99 Milwaukee Admirals IHL 23 10 6 4 1304 64 2 2.95 .904 — — — — — — — — 1999–00 Providence Bruins AHL 43 17 19 3 2393 127 1 3.18 .899 1 0 1 59 2 0 2.04 .939 2000–01 Boston Bruins NHL 5 1 2 0 203 18 0 5.33 .809 — — — — — — — — 2000–01 Providence Bruins AHL 26 13 8 2 1460 65 2 2.67 .917 — — — — — — — — 2001–02 Calgary Flames NHL 1 0 1 0 58 3 0 3.08 .857 — — — — — — — — 2001–02 Saint John Flames AHL 36 10 16 8 2001 83 0 2.49 .908 — — — — — — — — 2004–05 Nürnberg Ice Tigers DEL — — — — — — — — — 3 — — — — — — — NHL totals 155 60 64 16 8597 508 4 3.55 .875 4 0 2 174 13 0 4.49 .865