Carolina Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour has a unique perspective on what his captain Jordan Staal is going through right now. Brind’Amour himself wore the captain’s ‘C’ when the franchise claimed the Stanley Cup two decades ago, and now he watched Staal lead the team to its second championship in franchise history.
Even before the Final against Vegas got underway, Brind’Amour made his feelings about Staal crystal clear.
“We’re not here today without Jordan Staal,” the coach said. “I can promise you that. We’re very lucky. And as a coach, you’re super fortunate to have a guy like that be your leader.”
Staal delivered the kind of performance that defines his entire NHL career — a shutdown center who dominates faceoffs and plays both ends of the ice — while also stepping up offensively when it mattered most. He led the team with six goals in the Final against the Golden Knights, and that combination earned him the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs’ most valuable player.
At 37 years old, Staal is now the oldest player in history to receive that honor.
“He’s always really good, but yeah, he’s stepped it up at such a pivotal time,” said teammate Seth Jarvis. “It’s incredible to watch, and it’s so much fun playing with him and being around him.”
Staal has been with the organization longer than any current player. He arrived in 2012 via a trade from Pittsburgh — on his wedding day, no less — and after previously winning the Cup with the Penguins in 2009, he endured four to five years with Carolina without even making the playoffs.
“I don’t want to say that the losing that he had to do for four, five years when he got here might have fueled him even more, but I think it did,” said fellow veteran Jordan Martinook. “The fact that he’s seen some pretty dark days here and then to be on the other side of it … he stuck through it the whole time.”
Over the past seven seasons, Staal and the Hurricanes consistently reached the postseason but could never break through to the Final. He took over as captain in 2020, following in the footsteps of Brind’Amour, who held the role from 2005 to 2010, and his older brother Eric, who served as captain from 2010 to 2016.
Staal has carried the weight of those repeated early exits with him.
“Each scar, each moment just drives a hunger even deeper into you,” Staal said. “Being a part of this core and all the scars that we’ve gone through just brings that care factor for each other that we want it for each other that much more.”
While Staal has never taken home the Selke Trophy — awarded to the league’s top defensive forward — he has been a finalist, and this postseason run demonstrated exactly why. He won more than 56% of his faceoffs and is so critical on draws that the team even uses him at the start of power plays simply to win possession.
When told about his coach’s remarks crediting him as essential to the team’s run, Staal deflected the praise back toward Brind’Amour and insisted he hadn’t changed his approach. The two shared a lengthy embrace on the ice following the Game 6 victory.
“I’m just being me,” Staal said. “I’m not really anyone different. But just my day-to-day presence is showing up and working. That’s all I’ve done since I got here in Carolina, and being consistent with that must have been enough.”
His offensive explosion against Vegas ultimately pushed him past Logan Stankoven and Taylor Hall, who had been considered the leading Conn Smythe candidates for Carolina. Though Staal never reached 30 goals in a regular season, his six in the Final place him alongside Hall of Famers Mario Lemieux and Mike Bossy in the record books.
“I’m not really surprised,” Brind’Amour said. “You take the goals away, it’d be the same impact. It’s just added that extra element.”
