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Carolina Hurricanes 2006 Stanley Cup Champions
Twenty years ago, the Carolina Hurricanes galvanized hockey in the Triangle by winning the Stanley Cup. Here’s a look back at that pivotal season, and where the players and coaches are now.
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Raleigh
It has long been a familiar sight for anyone who follows the Carolina Hurricanes: Rod Brind’Amour, eyes wide, jaw clenched, the broken nose, the intensity oozing from him.
Brind’Amour was that way in the faceoff circle and on the ice in 2006, when he captained the Hurricanes to a Stanley Cup championship. He remains that way today on the bench as the coach of the Hurricanes, especially in the heat of the games and especially when there’s a bad call — as Brind’Amour sees it — on the ice.
In many sports, hockey in particular, a team often is a reflection of its coach. So it has been with the Hurricanes since 2018, when Brind’Amour was promoted to head coach. Ever since, he has commanded the same consistency and performance from his players that he always expected from himself as a center in the NHL for 20 years, especially in that special championship season.
“He’s one of the best coaches in the league,” said Peter Laviolette, who coached the 2006 champs. “His teams always play hard. They resemble him and reflect him. It’s pretty amazing to watch. They’re a super-aggressive team — their constant puck pressure, they skate everywhere, they try to swarm you.”
Carolina Hurricanes Coach Rod Brind’Amour poses for a portrait Dec. 3, 2021, at PNC Arena in Raleigh, N.C. Brind’Amour played 20 years in the NHL, leading the Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup championship in 2006. He has been coach of the Hurricanes since 2018 and was awarded the Jack Adams award in 2021. Robert Willett rwillett@newsobserver.com
Buffalo Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams was a center on the 2006 champions, trying to emulate Brind’Amour’s play, just as he’d like to see his Sabres teams emulate the Canes’ style of play and success.
“After playing with Roddy, one of his gifts is he’s able to simplify everything,” Adams said. “Playing with him, nothing was complicated. Do this, do that, and do your job.
“And that’s exactly how he coaches. The players understand what’s expected of them and they go and do it. There’s no gray area, and that’s not surprising knowing Roddy as well as I do.”
A trade with the Flyers started it all
Brind’Amour’s journey with the Canes began long before his promotion to head coach.
In January 2000, he arrived in Carolina via trade, acquired from Philadelphia along with goalie Jean-Marc Pelletier and a second-round pick for Keith Primeau and a fifth-round draft pick. He made an immediate impact, and helped lend legitimacy to the franchise in the aftermath of its relocation from Hartford three years earlier.
In 2002, he helped the team reach the Stanley Cup Final. Four years later, as captain, he helped the team finish the job.
Brind’Amour had what many believe was a playing career worthy of a spot in the Hockey Hall of Fame. He played more than 1,600 regular-season and playoff games. He wore the “C” on a Stanley Cup winner. He also won the Selke Award two times as the league’s best defensive forward, a testament to his relentless 200-foot game.
“To watch him and what he did that year was unbelievable,” Laviolette said. “He really set the tone. We were going to work hard, we were going to compete every night. He’s the guy who did that. Which is what you need, you need the guy in charge everybody is looking at to be that guy.”
Then-Carolina Hurricanes Captain Rod Brind’Amour hoists the Stanley Cup after the Canes defeated Edmonton 3-1 on June 19, 2006 in game seven of the Stanley Cup finals at the RBC Center. Robert Willett rwillett@newsobserver.com
When Brind’Amour retired from playing after the 2009-10 season, he immediately transitioned to a front-office role with the Hurricanes, and assumed a role as assistant coach.
Soon after Tom Dundon became the Hurricanes’ owner in 2018, Brind’Amour was named head coach. Brind’Amour, in turn, has molded teams based on that aggressiveness, constant puck pressure and 200-foot awareness, fundamentally sound teams that pay attention to all the details needed to win.
During his tenure with the Hurricanes as a player, Brind’Amour played for Laviolette and Paul Maurice. He listened and learned, as a player and later an assistant coach, once saying Maurice was so smart and that “if every coach was like that I had no shot.” But once he was the head coach …
“Roddy is a huge presence,” Laviolette said. “His demeanor. His leadership. His ‘want’ to be successful. He’s pretty amazing to be around.”
Cam Ward, left, and Rod Brind’Amour embrace after the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 of the 2006 Stanley Cup at the RBC Center in Raleigh. Chris Seward File photo
Justin Williams was a winger on Brind’Amour’s line in the 2005-2006 season. He won two more Stanley Cups with the Los Angeles Kings after leaving Carolina, but returned to the Canes and served as the team captain with Brind’Amour his coach.
“Roddy’s an all-in guy,” Williams said. “He’s going to put all the chips in and make it his own. It’s very similar to what he was as a player.”
Williams laughed, adding, “He does talk a lot more now because he has to as a coach. He didn’t talk as much as the captain, but the intensity was always there, the purpose.”
‘He carries his weight’
A fitness freak, Brind’Amour would not be outdone in the weight room, either. That hasn’t changed for a coach who is 55 and still looks in playing shape.
“The older he gets, the harder he works,” current Hurricanes forward Jordan Martinook said, smiling. “He kind of makes the rest of us look bad.”
Assistant coach Jeff Daniels often arrives early in the morning at the Lenovo Center or Invisalign Arena, the Canes’ practice facility, to find Brind’Amour banging the weights or already done with a strenuous workout and prepared for the rest of the day.
Daniels had Brind’Amour as a Canes teammate in the early 2000s and was an assistant under Laviolette on the 2006 champs. He has been by Brind’Amour’s side for all of his eight years as head coach — the first seven being playoff seasons.
Rod Brind’Amour, right, then-captain of the Carolina Hurricanes, takes the team on a sprint during practice at the RecZone in Raleigh in 2006. Chris Seward File photo
“The work ethic he expects of the team, he puts on himself,” Daniels said. “He was the same as a player. No one outworked him, whether in practice, a game or after a game. He doesn’t ask anything of his players he wouldn’t do.
“He set the tone for the (2006) team and has set the tone for this team, too. He’s always the first one in each morning, and the team sees him, too.”
Brind’Amour was a difference maker with a stick in his hands and on the ice. No one was better on draws. Few were tougher in the corners, fighting for pucks, where willpower and experience can be the decider. He treated the defensive zone as a battleground and Brind’Amour won a lot of the puck-possession battles.
As Laviolette once put it, “He carries his weight.”
An internal drive that never wanes
As the coach, Brind’Amour now can only stand and watch from behind the bench. But not stoically, with little expression. He paces. He madly chews gum. He has the fire and he shows it.
“He does get antsy sometimes, and I know he wants to be out there and playing,” Daniels said. “That’s the toughest part. When you’re coaching, there’s no way to get on the ice and help the team. You can show video and you can do the pregame and the game prep and all that stuff, but once the puck drops, you just hope everyone has bought in and will do what they need to do.”
Brind’Amour wants players who not only buy into his system, to his way of doing things, but to “do it right,” as he likes to say.
Make the right play. Be in the right position. Make each shift count.
Those who don’t, at least in his mind and those in management, often have moved on to other teams regardless of their skill set or talent or draft selection.
“You want to win. That’s what it’s about,” Brind’Amour said. “But there’s a process there. Is it looking right? Are we doing the things we’ve been preaching for years on how we want to play? Do we see that in our game?
“You do that enough and the wins will take care of themselves.”
Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour, far left, speaks to right wing Andrei Svechnikov (37) in the second period against the Washington Capitols during Game 3 on May 10, 2025, at Lenovo Center in Raleigh. Robert Willett rwillett@newsobserver.com
The 2006 Stanley Cup champions had 52 wins and 112 points in the regular season, then franchise records. Brind’Amour’s 2021-22 team had 54 wins and 116 points, setting new highs, albeit without a Cup.
Maurice, who has coached back-to-back Stanley Cup champions with the Florida Panthers, has said Brind’Amour might be the best coach in the league because of the Canes’ sustained consistency of play. Brind’Amour, Maurice said, teaches the kind of game he wants and then holds his players accountable.
“Rod was the kind of player always reaching for perfection, almost to a fault,” said John Forslund, the play-by-play man on the Canes’ broadcasts when Brind’Amour played. “He was demanding of himself first and then wanted to see that demand show up in others.
“He can demand players’ commitment. He can demand their ability to seek perfection, and can do it without wearing them down. He was the kind of player whenever you gave him a compliment he’d say, ‘I just did my job’ or ‘I’m just doing what I’m supposed to do.’ That sums it up. That’s what he wants from his players.”
How current Canes resemble ‘06 champs
Like the 2006 champions, this season’s Hurricanes have a captain in Jordan Staal who is an older player – Brind’Amour was 35 in 2006; Staal is 37 – and a defense-first kind of player who has the full respect of his teammates and coaches. Staal, like Brind’Amour in 2006, is the players’ conduit to the coach, feeling the pulse of the team.
The 2006 Hurricanes had a 100-point scorer in a young Eric Staal, then 21. Brind’Amour has had sum-of-the-parts offensive teams, with stars but no superstars.
“Similarities? We did have a goalie-by-committee thing that season,” Williams said.
In 2006, it was Martin Gerber and then Cam Ward, a rookie who would be selected the Conn Smythe Trophy winner as the playoffs MVP. The Canes in recent seasons have relied on goalies Frederik Andersen and Pyotr Kochetkov, while rolling in backups such as Spencer Martin and now Brandon Bussi, with good results.
Carolina Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour walks towards the locker room after the Florida Panthers’ 5-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals at the Lenovo Center in Raleigh, May 20, 2025. Ethan Hyman ehyman@newsobserver.com
But the constant is Brind’Amour. At 55, he’s still much as he was at 35, Williams said.
“He hasn’t changed,” Williams said. “It hasn’t blown his ego up with the success he had as a player and now as the coach. He’s the same guy.”
Forslund agreed, saying. “He’s the kind who always wears his heart on his sleeve. He’s always been like that, and it’s always been refreshing. He’s always been the kind of person where you knew exactly where you stood with him.”
The players know. And It helps that Brind’Amour can empathize with any of his players in any situation. He captained a Cup winner but also was a fourth-line center and a healthy scratch. He had every conceivable injury during his career and gamely played through many of them.
“I always said when he played, he had a fourth-line mentality as a star player,” Forslund said. “He was always relatable to everybody. He knew it took everybody, together.”
Canes center Logan Stankoven said Brind’Amour always has his office door open and is willing to talk things over or watch video together.
“For me personally, he lets me give my two cents a little more,” winger Seth Jarvis said. “Before, it was more keep my mouth shut, listen and do what I was told. I’m older and a little more experienced now, so he listens a little more to what I say.”
Jarvis grinned, adding, “He has the rebuttal all the time, but he does let me get it out, which is nice.”
Family atmosphere endures
One throwback to the 2006 Hurricanes, and to Laviolette’s way of coaching that Brind’Amour has maintained is to bring a “family” feeling to his teams.
After many home games at Lenovo Center, some of the players’ kids can be seen in the locker room, some playing ping pong. Brooks Brind’Amour, the coach’s youngest son, is one of them now. Years ago, it was Skyler Brind’Amour.
Rod Brind’Amour, right, gets a kiss from his son Brooks Brind’Amour during a red carpet reception held before an NHL game played between the Carolina Hurricanes and the Pittsburgh Penguins at the PNC Arena in 2016 celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Stanley Cup championship. Chris Seward File photo
In 2006, one was Riley Stillman, then 8 and the son of Canes winger Cory Stillman. Riley Stillman, now 28, is an NHL defenseman who played a few games last season for the Hurricanes along with Skyler Brind’Amour in a full-circle moment.
“That’s what Roddy has built here, that family atmosphere,” Williams said. “Everybody is important. Everybody is treated the same, from the chef to the GM.
“That’s really important to a team. It’s critical, really. You have to care about the people you’re playing with. You have to know about the people you’re playing with.”
The 2006 Stanley Cup champions remain tight-knit. They have memories that will never fade. As many have said, champions walk together forever. Their names are on the Cup.
And Brind’Amour, who often speaks to his players of creating new memories, would like to one day join his players in holding up the Cup as their coach.
Each season, he said, is a “new journey.” The possibilities are many but there is just one “ultimate prize,” as he calls the Stanley Cup.
“Whatever you’ve done in the past is irrelevant,” Brind’Amour said. “What’s exciting is what’s ahead.”
Then-Carolina Hurricanes captain Rod Brind’Amour rides in a red convertible at the victory parade for the Stanley Cup champions June 21, 2006. Robert Willett rwillett@newsobserver.com
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Chip Alexander
The News & Observer
In more than 40 years at The N&O, Chip Alexander has covered the N.C. State, UNC, Duke and East Carolina beats, and now is in his 15th season on the Carolina Hurricanes beat. Alexander, who has won numerous writing awards at the state and national level, covered the Hurricanes’ move to North Carolina in 1997 and was a part of The N&O’s coverage of the Canes’ 2006 Stanley Cup run.
