RALEIGH, N.C. — Wade Minter has spent the last eight seasons as the Carolina Hurricanes public address announcer at PNC Arena.
He has been the voice of the Canes for 352 consecutive games, but his relationship with the organization goes way beyond his time in the press box.
He’s made sure to keep every piece of memorabilia he has gotten.
“I’ve got the puck from my first playoff game. I’ve got the goal that I scored in that alumni game. My 100th, 200th and 300th NHL games. Every time I go up to my office, I walk past that (Rod Brind’Amour jersey) and say, ‘All right, I can’t quit!'” Minter said.
Minter is not solely glued to the press box to handle his responsibilities as the Canes’ PA announcer. He has a 9-5 grind just like any other Caniac. He is a product principal and a chief technology officer for a startup company.
“In this type of role, you really have to project confidence. Confidence that I know what I’m talking about, confidence that the company knows what we’re doing. So, the same thing that I do at the games where I have to be entertaining, be informative, react to weird things that are happening, I have to do that in my day job as well. I don’t necessarily have to use the big voice. Not necessarily doing this in front of 18-19,000 people, but a lot of the skills transfer,” Minter said.
Minter was in attendance for the first-ever game in the arena in November 1999, and he’s seen the organization go through the ups and downs from day one. He’ll always consider himself a Caniac, but he never expected to have such a prominent role with this organization.
We caught up with Minter during the playoffs and got an inside look at his work as a software engineer. Click on the video above to watch.