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Perfect Storm: The Carolina Hurricanes Incredible Run to the 2026 Stanley Cup is a new book chronicling and commemorating this past season, written by North State Journals managing editor Cory Lavalette.
Its available at Triumph Books website and at retail bookstores around North Carolina.
Heres an excerpt from the books introduction.
Twenty years after lifting the Stanley Cup as captain and eight years after he took the head coaching job with the goal of returning hockey relevancy back to Raleigh, Rod BrindAmour has the Hurricanes back on top of the NHL.
Carolina completed its road to redemption in Game 6, beating the Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup final to win the franchises second championship.
Carolinas two-decade climb one filled with missteps, few highs and, once BrindAmour was hired, a return to the top of the league without the end goal fulfilled wasnt made in a day.
The franchises rise had several flashpoints.
Billionaire Tom Dundon bought the franchise from Peter Karmanos Jr.
and made hiring BrindAmour one of his first actions.
How many coaches can do their job where they live and where theyre from, had a footprint in everything thats going on here over the last 20 years? BrindAmour said in 2021 when he signed a contract extension.
I dont know what kind of value you can put on that.
Dundon also infused cash into a payroll that often lagged behind the rest of the league under the previous regime.
The owners decisions to promote Don Waddell to general manager and give Eric Tulsky a bigger role in the organization before elevating him to GM two years ago also helped turn around a franchise mired in mediocrity.
Waddell put his stamp on the franchise with several bold moves that helped the team return to the playoffs under BrindAmours guidance, and Tulsky took it to the next level since taking over June 18, 2024.
With a core of players acquired by the three general managers who came before him Jim Rutherford, who orchestrated the trade that brought Jordan Staal to Raleigh in 2012 and drafted Jaccob Slavin two summers later; Ron Francis, who selected Sebastian Aho in the second round of the 2015 draft; and Waddell, who was in the big seat when the team traded for Jordan Martinook, signed Jalen Chatfield, drafted Andrei Svechnikov second overall, acquired the first round pick that led to the franchise landing Seth Jarvis, and also selected Jackson Blake, Pyotr Kochetkov and Alexander Nikishin Tulsky reshaped the rest of the team in two summers.
Big swings that ultimately failed didnt deter Tulsky.
Most notably, he dealt away Mikko Rantanen in a swap that landed the team Logan Stankoven and Taylor Hall along with a surplus of draft capital that helped him trade for KAndre Miller.
Tulsky signed last summers biggest free agent, Nikolaj Ehlers, and previous under-the-radar free agent signings Shayne Gostisbehere and Sean Walker on defense, William Carrier and Eric Robinson up front were supplemented by moves that drew even less fanfare, such as trading for Mark Jankowski and claiming Brandon Bussi.
When injuries struck during the 2025-26 regular season, Carolinas organizational depth came through.
Rookie defensemen Joel Nystrom and Charles Alexis Legault stepped in and kept the Hurricanes near the top of the conference.
The regular season was much like the last few under BrindAmour, with Carolina staying near the top of the standings, though this year included sending several of its players to Italy midseason for the Olympics.
Three returned with medals including Slavins gold with Team USA.
Meanwhile, Bussi proved to be exactly what Carolina needed when Kochetkov was lost to injury and Frederik Andersen stumbled through the regular season.
Down the stretch, Andersen returned to form, leading the Hurricanes to the top seed in the Eastern Conference.
He got the nod in net to start the playoffs, and Carolina steamrolled through the first three rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs, losing just once in three series against the Senators, Flyers and Canadiens.
The matchup with the Golden Knights proved to be more difficult than the previous three rounds, and Bussi stepped in for Andersen in the third period of Game 3.
The Golden Knights won that game despite a furious four-goal comeback by the Hurricanes, with a fluke bounce getting past Bussi in double overtime.
But Bussi who at 27 had never played in an NHL playoff game and was now on hockeys biggest stage won Games 4 and 5, and in Game 6 earned his first career playoff shutout.
And after the Stanley Cup made its way through the Hurricanes players, each lifting it triumphantly over their heads, it again found its way to BrindAmour, two decades after he realized his childhood dream of winning it as a player.
He raised it again this time not fulfilling a lifetime goal but rather one he shared with the players, coaches, staff and fans of the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Stanley Cup is back in Raleigh, right where BrindAmour always thought it belonged.