The coach hasn’t changed. The system hasn’t changed. The core group of players hasn’t changed either.
That’s no knock on Rod Brind’Amour, widely regarded as one of the finest coaches in the NHL, or on cornerstones Jordan Staal, Jaccob Slavin, Sebastian Aho, and Seth Jarvis — the players who have kept the Carolina Hurricanes in the postseason year after year.
What made this season different was the wave of fresh talent that general manager Eric Tulsky brought in over the past 17 months. Those moves added up to the franchise claiming the Stanley Cup for the second time ever, and the first since 2006.
Tulsky made a high-stakes move by acquiring star winger Mikko Rantanen from Colorado in January 2025, also landing veteran Taylor Hall from Chicago in the same three-team deal. When it became apparent that Rantanen had no interest in staying long-term in Carolina, Tulsky shipped him to Dallas in exchange for center Logan Stankoven and two first-round draft picks. One of those picks was later used to land defenseman K’Andre Miller on July 1.
Just two days after that, the Hurricanes won the race to sign top free agent Nikolaj Ehlers, a swift winger who filled the exact void that had plagued the team through seven straight postseason trips without ever reaching the Stanley Cup Final. Ehlers, Stankoven, Hall, and Miller collectively answered the question that had haunted Carolina fans every spring.
All of the new arrivals proved to be a good fit under Brind’Amour, whose demanding style of play isn’t suited to every player.
“We’ve really focused on finding people who fit the way we want to play,” Tulsky said. “We ask players to play a very distinctive style, and our scouts have done a great job finding players who can come in and look their best playing the way Rod needs them to play.”
The Rantanen trade carried significant risk. Carolina gave up talented forwards Martin Necas and Jack Drury to Colorado on the bet that the Finnish winger was the missing piece. But Rantanen managed only six points in 13 games with the Hurricanes, and the pairing clearly wasn’t working. Talks with Toronto about Mitch Marner never resulted in a trade waiver, and Marner ultimately ended up in Las Vegas, where he played a key role in the Golden Knights’ run to the final.
Rather than watching the situation deteriorate with Rantanen likely to walk in free agency, Tulsky moved quickly and dealt him to Dallas for Stankoven and two first-round picks. One of those selections was sent to the New York Rangers to acquire Miller, who strengthened Carolina’s defensive depth.
“We never want to get worried about the what ifs,” Tulsky said. “That being said, sometimes it doesn’t go the way you hoped, and you’ve got to be ready to figure out how you’re going to move forward from there.”
Stankoven finished as the team’s leading scorer during the championship run, netting 11 goals across a dominant stretch of 16 wins in 19 games.
For years, the Hurricanes’ playoff struggles weren’t a matter of simply being a regular-season team that fell apart in the postseason. Under Brind’Amour’s first seven seasons, they won at least one series in six of them, including three trips to the Eastern Conference Final. The breakthrough just kept eluding them.
Tulsky — a former scientist who first entered the hockey world by writing about it as a fan on a blog, before being promoted to replace Don Waddell two years ago — didn’t tear the roster apart. But he wasn’t content to leave it as-is, either.
The moves paid off, including a seemingly routine decision to claim goaltender Brandon Bussi off waivers from back-to-back champion Florida just before the season opened in October. Making his NHL debut at age 27, Bussi went 31-8 in 39 starts during the regular season, then stepped in during the Stanley Cup Final for Frederik Andersen and carried the team the rest of the way — including a shutout in Sunday night’s Game 6 clincher.
“We have the confidence in Bus,” Brind’Amour said. “He makes a ton of big saves. Even when there’s breakdowns, we trust him back there, gives us tons of confidence to play our game and just be aggressive all night.”
Aggression has long defined the Vegas Golden Knights’ approach — pursuing every major free agent and trade target available — a strategy that delivered a Stanley Cup in 2023 and three final appearances in their first nine years. Now, Carolina has adopted that same mindset.
“Fundamentally, we want to be aggressive,” Tulsky said. “Rod has the team playing very aggressive on the ice. We want to be aggressive off the ice, too. And when you have a chance to add a really high-end player, we never want to miss out on it.”
Carolina did not miss on Ehlers, who proved to be a crucial piece and scored the empty-net goal that sealed the championship. The additions of Ehlers, Stankoven, Hall, Miller, and others also energized longtime veterans like Staal and forward Jordan Martinook, who felt the team had finally assembled what it needed to win it all.
“When your team is trying to get better all the time, it’s something that you can get behind,” Martinook said. “Obviously, we took a run at Mikko, it didn’t work out, but look what we got from it. Stanks and Key, those are two of the pieces that we got from it. Hallsy was part of that, too. Those are three incredibly important pieces to our team. It just shows that they’re ready to take chances all the time.”
