LAS VEGAS — Lord Stanley’s Cup is returning to Raleigh.
And a new batch of Carolina Hurricanes will forever be immortalized on the Cup — and in the hearts of Caniacs.
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Carolina secured the Cup with a 3-0 Game 6 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday night in Las Vegas to win the series 4-2, setting off a celebration among the hundreds of Canes fans that witnessed the clincher in person and tens of thousands more that attended watch parties across Raleigh to celebrate the triumph – eight years in the making.
It’s been eight years since Tom Dundon purchased a majority stake in the flailing franchise and hired former captain and assistant coach Rod Brind’Amour as head coach. Eight years of sustained success and expanding a fan base. Eight years of playoff busts and seeking, finding, tweaking pieces around the core.
Now: Pure joy and dominance.
“Championships are the ultimate goal, and they link you forever,” said former No. 1 overall pick and MVP Taylor Hall, who scored the first goal in Game 6.
Hall scored in the first period, linemate Jackson Blake added another in the second, Nikolaj Ehlers had an empty-net goal, and rookie goaltender Brandon Bussi shut out Vegas in the finale.
The top seed in the Eastern Conference, Carolina went 16-3 in the postseason — a mark bettered by just one team in the current NHL postseason structure. The Edmonton Oilers of Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier went 16-2 in 1988.
Against Vegas, which led the series 1-0 and 2-1, the Hurricanes won the final three games after turning to rookie goaltender Brandon Bussi. The 27-year-old, who rewrote the record book for best start to a career, was too old to be considered for rookie of the year. Undrafted. A career minor leaguer. Waived and picked up by Carolina just days ahead of the season opener.
Now he’s a Stanley Cup champion.
For a second time, so is the 37-year-old captain, 17 years removed from his last Stanley Cup Final appearance, carrying his team — on faceoffs, on defense, in the locker room — and earning the Conn Smythe Award, given to the postseason MVP.
Jordan Staal drew the toughest defensive assignments each series, shutting down the top performers for each opponent. When the puck dropped in the first round, Staal fought Ottawa agitator Brady Tkachuk, setting a tone for the entire run. When Vegas opened the scoring in Game 5 of the Final, Staal brought the Hurricanes level with his sixth goal of the series.
The man they call “Jordo,” a relentless worker whose jersey will no doubt hang alongside his brother Erik’s in the Lenovo Center rafters, is one of five players that have been with Brind’Amour for the entire eight-year run. Defenseman Jaccob Slavin and forwards Andrei Svechnikov, Sebastian Aho and Jordan Martinook have been there, too.
“The eight years we’ve been doing this with Roddy, it’s the game we’ve built,” Staal said. “It doesn’t ever change. It’s just the same thing over and over again. It doesn’t matter what the score is — up, down, left or right. We’re just going to show up and we’re going to work and do the things that we do. And it’s going to give us the best chance to win.”
Win, they did.
And they changed the fortunes of the franchise, too. Carolina had missed the playoffs in 11 of 12 seasons following the 2006 title, including nine years in a row from 2010 to 2018. The Hurricanes, who moved to North Carolina in 1997, were often rumored to be headed elsewhere, a prime relocation candidate.
Brind’Amour changed that immediately.
A 21-year NHL veteran, Brind’Amour was a tough, two-way center who put together a Hall of Fame-caliber career, even if he hasn’t gotten that call yet. The No. 9 overall pick in 1989, he played in nearly 1,500 regular-season games for the Blues, Flyers and Hurricanes, where he was traded in 2000. He won the Selke Trophy in back-to-back years as the NHL’s top defensive forward in Carolina. And now he’s spent a quarter century in the organization — as a player, assistant coach and head coach.
Brind’Amour is Hurricanes hockey and now he’s been a part of both Stanley Cup championship teams.
“Respect. He respects us, he respects the game, he respects what it takes to be an NHL player,” Slavin said. “Obviously, he had an unbelievable career. For guys coming in, they get a coach who’s real with them, who's going to treat them well, but who's also going to let them know what is demanded and expected of them. What keeps him successful is work ethic, but then how real he is.”
Brind'Amour is just the fourth person in NHL history to win the Cup with the same organization as a captain and a coach.
“I can’t conceive of success without him," Dundon said after the game. "He is literally the most important thing we have in Carolina. He was proud of the Hurricanes when nobody else was. One of the reasons I hired him is he loved the Hurricanes and now he keeps it every day in a way that I know I can be proud.”
Whatever questions there were about Raleigh as a hockey market — questions that, in hindsight, look absurd given the hold these Canes have taken on the area — have disappeared. The fans turned Lenovo Center into the loudest house in the NHL. The fans packed an outdoor game at next-door Carter-Finley Stadium. They sold out more than 160 consecutive games. The young fans of 2006 are now grown, many with Canes-loving kids of their own.
When the city and county agreed to renovate Lenovo Center, Dundon committed to a 20-year lease and to develop an entertainment district. No more relocation rumors.
“Tom Dundon has been an extraordinary owner in terms of what he’s brought to the operation of this franchise on and off the ice,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final. “Obviously, his work in terms of creating a competitive and successful team is the reason we’re here [in Raleigh]. This team is more part of the community than it’s ever been.”
Everything was great — usually until sometime in May. The Hurricanes went 1-12 in three previous Eastern Conference Final appearances under Brind’Amour. Sure, the Canes’ style worked in the regular season and for a round or two in the postseason. But that’s it. No match for Boston or Florida or Tampa Bay.
“We’re not going to change,” Brind’Amour said. “If you do, and try to do something different in regards to how you think, it’s not going to be successful. We won’t even be knocking on the door. So we take a lot of heat because we haven’t won or gotten to the Final. I know why we didn’t get to the Final. You’ve got to be healthy. We’re healthy this year. I don’t think you want to change what you’re doing when you’re missing some big pieces.”
Instead, the Canes kept building, kept adding big pieces.
Its front office – led by a nanoscientist who got his foot in the hockey door with insightful blog posts — swung for the stars and also unearthed overlooked gems. Former general manager Don Waddell, who took over when Dundon and Brind’Amour did, deserves credit for much of the core. But of the 22 players who appeared in at least one game in the postseason, the Hurricanes acquired eight of them since Eric Tulsky was promoted to general manager in 2024.
“We’re always looking to get better,” said Tulsky, who has been with the organization since 2014. “It’s really just about accumulating as much talent as we can.”
In a series of moves before and at the 2025 trade deadline, Tulsky traded for and then shipped away star Mikko Rantanen. The net effect of the deals left the Hurricanes with Taylor Hall, Logan Stankoven and K’Andre Miller, acquired in the offseason with a draft pick from the trades.
Hall, Blake and Stankoven carried the Hurricanes offensively throughout the postseason. The trio combined for 55 points in the playoffs. Blake and Stankoven signed long-term contracts to remain in Carolina.
Miller, acquired from the Rangers and signed to a long-term deal, emerged as, perhaps, the team’s top defender in the playoffs — and that includes Slavin, long considered among the top defensive defenseman in the world.
“There’s a few of us that have played for multiple teams, and we’ve come here and played a lot better and have bigger roles than we had other places,” Hall said.
With the salary cap space the Hurricanes carefully accrued, they signed winger Nikolaj Ehlers in the offseason. He’s a player capable of making something out of nothing or a sensational pass — both of which he did routinely in the Canes’ Cup run. A missing piece, Brind’Amour called him.
“You’re just excited that your team isn’t going to sit and just be OK with what you have,” Martinook said. “ “You’re always trying to look to get better. As a player on the team, when your team is trying to get better all the time, it’s something you can get behind. … It shows that they’re ready to take a chance at all times.”
It takes everyone to win the title. Star Seth Jarvis had the game-winner in Game 2 of the Final. The fourth line of Eric Robinson, William Carrier and Mark Jankowski delivered over and over again in the postseason, a big part of the Hurricanes depth advantage.
Tulsky revamped the team’s defense after the 2024 season, adding Shayne Gostisbehere and Sean Walker. Alexander Nikishin, a highly-touted Russian rookie, joined full-time this season. Jalen Chatfield’s path was winding, but he played a pivotal role on the top defensive pairing and finished plus-five in the Final.
For three rounds, veteran goaltender Frederik Andersen was unflappable. He won 12 of his first 13 starts, rebonding from the worst regular-season of his career. He started the first three Cup games before giving way to Bussi, who finished the job.
“The front office, as a whole, has been performing at its peak,” Tulsky said on the ice after the game. “The coaches have been performing at their peak, and the players have done their job, too. Just up and down the organization, everything is clicking right now and it’s really a rewarding feeling to get to be a part of that.”
A team forever bonded, a franchise renewed, a fan base exhilarated and a Cup secured.