How the Carolina Hurricanes could become an NHL dynasty

The Carolina Hurricanes winning the Stanley Cup was about a lot more than hoisting the toughest prize in sports; it was proof of concept. For years the Canes had played bridesmaid, having unprecedented regular-season and playoff success under head coach Rod Brind-Amour, only to see it vanish when it mattered the most in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Carolina became a meme. They were the choke job, the organization destined to catch the flowers, but never make it to the altar. It raised questions about the Canes’ roster construction, the organizational approach, and made people wonder if Brind-Amour’s team-based, “no stars” hockey philosophy was too outdated for a modern league that put a premium on individual excellence. That all changed on Sunday night.

The Hurricanes bet on themselves in so many ways, but none more profoundly than how GM Eric Tulsky believed in the potential of his young players to such an extent that he signed them ALL to long-term extensions without needing to see the production to back it up. This is the backbone of the Canes’ organization, and why the winners of the Stanley Cup are going to be a long-term problem for the NHL for YEARS to come.

Typically when a team wins the Cup you can look over the roster and find the obvious pain points. There will be a star or two ready to hit free agency, a handful of trade-deadline acquisitions coming off contract, and young players waiting in the wings to get a massive payday. This is the roster turnover we’re accustomed to seeing in order to knock elite teams down a peg and restore the competitive parity in the league. When it comes to Carolina this simply doesn’t exist.

As we approach NHL free agency the Canes only have one starting player set to hit UFA, and that’s goaltender Freddie Andersen who was replaced in the Stanley Cup Finals by Brandon Bussi. That’s it. Other than Andersen the team will likely lose Nicolas Deslauriers and Mike Reilly, who were veteran defensemen largely signed to act as tutors to the younger talent, without playing a huge role themselves.

It’s tempting to say “but that’s just one year,” but it’s not. Look ahead to 2027 and there’s definitely more turnover in Jordan Staal, Shayne Gostisbehere, and Jalen Chatfield — but Staal is likely facing retirement, while the two defensemen are both hitting their mid-30s and probably due for roster turnover anyway. Look at 2028, 2029, 2030 — it keeps being the same story. The Hurricanes aren’t slated to potentially lose a top-tier skating forward until 2029 when Andrei Svechnikov is poised to be a UFA, and that assumes he won’t re-up with the organization he clearly loves being a part of.

So, where the hell are all the Canes players? Tulsky locked them up. He locked them ALL up. Every single player who showed a glimmer of promise inside Brind-Amour’s system was signed ahead of the curve, and rather than give them three or four-year “prove-it” deals, Tulsky went full analytics nerd on the process to secure their services into the next decade.

Not only do the Hurricanes have their entire core locked down for the foreseeable future, but they haven’t broken the $10M AAV mark for any player. Cap all this off with the fact that Carolina’s two most important young forwards in Stankoven and Blake are locked in on discount long-term deals, and it spells a horror story for the rest of the league. This is not the future a Stanley Cup winning team should have, and to add to the nightmare we have an organization that already has over $11M in open cap space, will open up more when they waive Jesperi Kotkaniemi, and a rising salary cap that not only means Carolina has their whole core locked in, but can be SERIOUS players in free agency to lure stars to Raleigh, now with the proof that they have an organization that can win the cup. It might just be enough to break the Vegas/Dallas/Florida stranglehold as tax shelters in the league.

Oh, but it gets worse. The Hurricanes’ prospect system was ranked No. 11 in the NHL by The Hockey Writers, with Kurban Limatov, Bradly Nadeau, Dominik Badinka, Felix Unger-Sörum, and Nikita Artamonov all poised to make their debuts in the next few years. Teams that consistently go so deep in the playoffs and routinely pick in the late-20s or early 30s simply shouldn’t have a prospect pool with the depth of Carolina’s.

The Carolina Hurricanes were built through disruption. Brind-Amour and Tulsky had specific visions on how they were going to build a team based on strength at every position, a de-emphasis on individual play, and a premium on team over stars. It hasn’t managed to lure top players, but it has now created a champion. That is an undeniable allure, and there’s no stopping this team for a long time.

Here’s the final kicker: Brandon Bussi, the free agent goalie turned Stanley Cup superstar? Yeah, Tulsky signed him to a three-year extension before the playoffs that will keep him in Carolina until 2029 for just $1.9M AAV.

Like it or not, the Canes are here to stay.