Global Series goalies Daccord, Bussi meet over coffee in Finland 

HELSINKI -- Joey Daccord and Brandon Bussi are together here, opposing goalies in the 2026 NHL Global Series Finland.

It’s a scenario neither could have imagined when they met for the first time as teenagers in Massachusetts.

“I've known you a long time now, going back for a while,” Daccord, a goalie with the Seattle Kraken, said as he joined Bussi, a goalie for the Carolina Hurricanes, for coffee and conversation for an NHL Studios production.

The meet up was part of many excursions the players and teams took while in Finland for the two-game series, which concludes Saturday at Veikkhaus Arena (1 p.m. ET; HHN, Prime Video, CARNHL, KONG, KING, NHLN, SN1).

They talked about their relationship, common friends in hockey and a variety of goalie topics in a 40-minute conversation that was erudite at times and silly at others.

The friendship between the two goalies dates back to 2018, when Bussi got more serious about his goaltending. He left his home on Long Island and cast his lot with Stop It Goaltending, a goalie camp in Massachusetts run by Daccord’s father, Brian. 

“That was the first time where I'm going to spend a full year away from my house, right?” Bussi said. “I'm taking my training away from my family, and it was a lot of fun, you know, a few of the goalies lived together.”

Among the goalies living together was Devin Cooley, who is taking a star turn with the Calgary Flames this season. 

“I was coaching (at the camp) while training and it felt like kind of everything kind of aligned for me playing-wise.” Bussi said.

For each at that point, the NHL was the goal, the dream, but it seemed uncertain at best. 

Daccord, then 22, had been selected by the Ottawa Senators in the seventh round (No. 199) in the 2015 NHL Draft and was playing for Arizona State University. Bussi was 20, playing for Muskegon in the USHL, passed over multiple times in the NHL Draft. 

Yet, each believed there was more to be had from the game they loved and they chased it across North America.

Bussi had stops in Muskegon and Western Michigan University. He spent three seasons with Providence in the American Hockey League, as well as a short sojourn with Maine in the ECHL.

Daccord played for ASU and then had stops with Belleville (AHL), Brampton (ECHL) and the Ottawa Senators. In 2021, he was claimed by the Kraken in the NHL Expansion Draft, but stops with Charlotte and Coachella Valley, each in the AHL, were needed before full-time NHL work materialized.  
Even then it was a white-knuckle experience for the first couple of seasons. 

“I remember like when I was first trying to make it in the League, you'd get basically a spot start here and there, and it would feel like life or death,” Daccord said. “It would feel like if you lost or didn't play well, it was like you're never going to get another chance again.

“Now I've played maybe almost 200 games, something like that, and I'm like thinking about my fourth, fifth, sixth start being like in that moment thinking if I didn't play well, I was never getting another chance. That's how it feels in the moment though.”

Bussi nodded in agreement, having felt the same fears.

“I wish for people it didn't feel like that, but it's a compliment to how good the League is and the depth, how many good goalies, good players there are. There are a lot of guys in the American Hockey League that could be in the NHL.

“It's just that opportunity and what do you do with it. You shouldn't be nervous about it, right?”

Bussi is fresh off a Stanley Cup championship with the Hurricanes in which he played an unexpected starring role after being claimed on waivers. 

Daccord has earned himself a platoon with Philipp Grubauer, his moment in the sun coming in the 2024 NHL Winter Classic when he had a shutout against the Vegas Golden Knights.

They have travelled far different roads to this intersection at the Global Series, but their friendship, forged on the ice at Stop It, has never wavered.   

Bussi played for the Hurricanes in a 4-1 victory against the Kraken on Thursday in the opener of this two-game set. Daccord was the backup to Grubauer. They could face each other on Saturday.

Bussi’s improbable trip from a second waiver claim in the same season to Stanley Cup champion was rehashed. 

He started the season with the Boston Bruins but was claimed on waivers by the Florida Panthers. Before he could play a game, he was claimed again, this time by the Hurricanes.

Injuries opened an opportunity and the 27-year-old ran with it. He came on in relief of an injured Frederik Andersen in Game 3 of the Final against the Vegas Golden Knights, losing in double overtime. But he won each of the next three games, including a 22-save shutout in Game 6, to help lead Carolina to the Cup. 

“It never really hit me what was going on,” Bussi said. “I just was taking it day by day because you can never take it for granted, right? It's tough to play in this League and it can humble you really quick. 

“Everything that happened was just super fortunate and we had a great team.”

Bussi is in a platoon with Pyotr Kochetkov on the best team in the League through a quarter of this season. He knows nothing is guaranteed. Almost a decade of riding buses has taught him that lesson. 

“It's tough to play in this League, man,” Bussi said. “It's like it makes you appreciate it every day and you want to do it for a long time.

“Last year was awesome, but there's so much you have to do to just to hang around because it's a lot of good players.”

Daccord has seemingly found a home in Seattle. He’s now in his fourth full season with the Kraken and in the second season of a five-year, $25 million contract he signed with them on Oct. 20, 2024. 

What each has done with the goaltending opportunities in their life has led each to this moment at the Kampf Hotel in the city center of the Finnish capital.

It’s almost hard to believe. 

“We're in Finland and now we're in Finland Global Series having coffee together, playing hockey in Helsinki,” Daccord said.