How the oft-dismissed Hurricanes became an undeniable champion

For years the Carolina Hurricanes have been respected, but mostly hand-waved away as a serious Stanley Cup threat. But their dominant 2025-26 Stanley Cup victory casts a different light on the success the team had in the seasons prior. Some were starting to frame them as a regular season team not built for playoff hockey, despite repeatedly winning in the playoffs. 

Over the past six seasons, they’ve won the division outright four times, finishing second the other two. They’ve played in 16 playoff series, winning a round every year and 10 total which has included three trips to the Conference Final. Only Colorado has done better in the regular season over this span:

And they’re tied with Florida for most wins in the playoffs over that time, too:

It’s unimpeachable now, of course, but it’s crazy to reflect on the Hurricanes have been talked about despite their impressive track record. 

The list of reasons traditionalists in the hockey world have given for giving up on them has been long, if you recall. 

The first came with skepticism about an owner who some said was too involved, too cheap, or sometimes both. “Too” anything goes out the window when you win the Cup, and he’s shown himself to be progressive and driven, and the Canes families were there to see the Cup win happen in Vegas thanks to the team chartering them a flight. 

You can be eccentric if the eccentricities lead to results.

Skepticism came when Dundon hired Eric Tulsky to be his team’s general manager, a move which I’ve seen rebuked by several established hockey people. He works hand-in-hand with another analytics pro in Tyler Dellow, both of whom use numbers as just one of their tools to make decisions. “Analytics as an important tool” seems to make people particularly upset, but it’s not just what has helped them find good players, it’s what’s encouraged them to continue on the same path despite falling short of their ultimate goal in the past.

Rod Brind’Amour’s skating-intensive, man-on-man defending asks a lot from players, which brought skepticism. You heard people say the players were going to be too worn out to play like that over four rounds, but the Canes had the great skaters to make it work. It’s that marriage of coaching philosophy and commensurate roster which worked so well.

For a while the way Carolina lost in recent conference finals (two sweeps and a five-gamer prior to this year) was used to make it seem like they hadn’t played their way to that spot in the playoffs fairly, or that they weren’t even in the games that they lost those years. Brind’Amour caught flak for calling the games in the Florida sweep “close” despite the fact that they objectively were.

Carolina has had trouble landing and keeping superstars, as we saw when Jake Guentzel and Mikko Rantanen didn’t stick around. But prioritizing how you spend your cap space is at the root of important organizational decisions, and they didn’t fall all over themselves by throwing their pocketbook at a player who wasn’t all in. They found more efficient ways to spend that money.

They were skeptical about the ratio of “cost to value” they were going to get from Martin Necas in the playoffs, so they sought to upgrade as he moved towards the end of his contract. They made a huge move to land Rantanen, who we now know chose not to stay. But like the red paperclip trading game, they brought back a haul for the big forward, and targeted an under-appreciated young talent in Logan Stankhoven, who nearly won the Conn Smythe Trophy at 5-foot-8 and 23 years old. The Canes won the Cup, and still have four first-rounders over the next three summers thanks in part to the foresight in the second Rantanen trade.

We heard they weren’t big enough, or experienced enough, that their goaltending wasn’t good enough, and that you can’t win without a superstar. 

But then they were big enough, and experienced enough, they got the third-best save percentage in the post-season (.918), and they did, in fact, win without a superstar.

All the while they bought into Brind’Amour’s leadership and the tremendous culture he creates. They’ve been efficient at the fringes, and they ground four opponents to dust without anyone on the team earning $10 million. Brind’Amour deserves a ridiculous amount of credit for how they win.

As Carolina got close and fought to get it across the finish line these past few years, it’s clear they needed every small addition they made.

They forced the Rangers’ hand with the threat of an offer sheet and two draft picks to acquire K’Andre Miller, who they then signed for eight years. They signed Nikolaj Ehlers to a deal that’s already a win even if he never plays another game of it. And Jackson Blake, who just scored 53 points at age 22, was signed for just over $5 million a year until 2034. His 20 points in 19 playoff games look pretty good, too. 

The undrafted Brandon Bussi stepped in and brought it home. 

Separate from the additions, the play of some of their veterans deserves a nod. Obviously Jordan Staal was the heart of the team through the playoffs and won the Conn Smythe, but Taylor Hall was in that conversation too. And then there’s Jaccob Slavin. He was handling 23:31 per game against top opponents while racking up zero penalty minutes and somehow was still a plus-player to top it off. That should’ve earned him more Conn Smythe votes than the one he got. 

Of course, the Canes needed every break they could get, as do all Cup champs, and they got that with the fact that they stayed healthy. But part of the reason they stayed healthy is to their own credit: they polished off opponents quickly so as to play as few games as possible, and to get that rest.

I am curious now, as someone who went to school for psychology, how the rest of the league handles the Canes’ success. There’s something called “belief perseverance” in the field, which refers to the tendency of some people to cling to initial beliefs even after evidence of those beliefs has been proven entirely false. 

Will the Canes still have vocal doubters?

In what’s supposed to be a copycat league, those who’ve dismissed this team aren’t going to like this result, because it’s not so easy to copy. You can’t just go sign big players and say “Florida was big so they win.” You can’t just sign a guy who’s won and say “he’s a culture guy.”

Because Carolina’s success comes first from the culture created by Brind’Amour, who’s not going to coach someone else’s team any time soon. It comes from a front office that prioritizes play-driving forwards on efficient contracts, long defencemen who can skate and move the puck, and heart and soul depth guys who can still get around the ice and make some plays. 

“Copying” Carolina means building a complete team, establishing buy-in, and taking multiple runs into the playoffs over and over until one year the cards get dealt in your favour. 

Carolina went the long way, the hard way, the smart way, and that’s why it scares so many around the league. There’s no shortcut here for anyone looking for a quick fix.