The coach is the same. The system is the same. The core is the same.
That is nothing against Rod Brind'Amour, considered one of the best behind the bench in the NHL, or Jordan Staal, Jaccob Slavin, Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis, who have been the centerpiece of the Carolina Hurricanes making the playoffs year after year.
But the difference this year came from all the new talent general manager Eric Tulsky added over the past 17 months to get over the hump.
It added up to the franchise winning the Stanley Cup for the second time and first since 2006.
Tulsky took a big swing by acquiring elite winger Mikko Rantanen from Colorado in January 2025 and also got veteran Taylor Hall from Chicago as part of the three-team blockbuster. When Rantanen didn't want to be part of Carolina's long-term future, Tulsky traded him to Dallas and received center Logan Stankoven and two first-round picks, one of which became part of getting defenseman K'Andre Miller on July 1.
Two days later, the Hurricanes won the bidding competition to sign top free agent Nikolaj Ehlers, the speedy winger who gave them just what they needed after seven consecutive postseason appearances without a trip to the final. Falling one goal short so many times in key situations, Ehlers, Stankoven, Hall and Miller put an end to the rite of spring of wondering where that would come from.
All of them fit in with Brind'Amour, who requires his players to commit to a demanding brand of hockey that isn't for everyone.
“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.”
Trading for Rantanen was a huge risk. It involved sending talented forwards Martin Necas and Jack Drury to the Avalanche in a gamble that the big Finnish winger was the missing piece.
Rantanen had six points in 13 games with Carolina, and it became clear it was not a good fit. Discussions with Toronto involving Mitch Marner did not lead to him waiving his no-trade clause, and he instead wound up in Las Vegas and was key to the Golden Knights' run to the final.
Rather than letting the situation play out with the likelihood he would depart in free agency, Tulsky flipped Rantanen to Dallas for Stankoven and a pair of first-round picks. One went to the New York Rangers for Miller, whose presence shored up depth on the blue line.
“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 led the team with 11 goals during this dominant run of 16 victories in 19 games.
It was the same old story every time. The Hurricanes weren't just a great regular-season team that failed in the playoffs. They won at least one series in six of Brind'Amour's first seven years as coach, including three trips to the East final.
Tulsky, a former scientist who got into the sport by blogging about it as a fan and was promoted to succeed Don Waddell two years ago, didn't blow it up. But he didn't stand pat, either.
The changes — including claiming goaltender Brandon Bussi off waivers from back-to-back champion Florida just before opening night in October — worked out swimmingly. Playing in the NHL for the first time at 27, Bussi won 31 of 39 starts during the season, then stepped in during the final in place of Frederik Andersen and backstopped them the rest of the way, including a shutout in the Game 6 clincher Sunday night.
“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.”
Aggressive is the Golden Knights' way, going after every big-name free agent or trade candidate, and it led to the Stanley Cup in 2023 and three runs to the final in their first nine years of existence. But Carolina has also become that team.
“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 turned out to be key and scored the empty-netter that sealed the title. Getting him, Stankoven, Hall, Miller and others also made longtime holdovers like Staal and grinding forward Jordan Martinook believe they could get the job done.
“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 of 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."
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AP Sports Writer Aaron Beard in Raleigh, North Carolina, contributed to this report.
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