Rod Brind'Amour arrived in Raleigh, North Carolina, from Philadelphia 23 years ago just in time for a blizzard that dropped two feet of snow on the Triangle. He played his first home game in front of fewer than 9,000 fans. The front desk clerk at the hotel he was staying at didn't know where the Carolina Hurricanes played and barely knew who they were.
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"Right away I knew that it was different," Brind'Amour said.
Brind'Amour didn't know then what he knows with absolute certainty now, that Raleigh is home for him, and no one is more synonymous with the Hurricanes than he is.
He is Carolina's former Stanley Cup-winning captain and its current coach, who hopes to bring the trophy back to Raleigh as soon as June.
"It's not even close that the most important transaction in Hurricanes history is trading for Rod Brind'Amour," long-time Hurricanes broadcaster Tripp Tracy said. "It led to a Stanley Cup as a player and it's led to relevance in what he's done as a coach. Those are just the sheer numbers and accomplishments, but that only begins to tell the tale."
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Brind'Amour is a unicorn in the modern-day NHL; the past face of a franchise because of what he did for it as a player and the present face of the very same franchise for what he's doing as a coach.
The Hurricanes are hosting the 2023 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series at Carter-Finley Stadium against the Washington Capitals on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; ESPN+, ABC, SN360, TVAS2). It's their first appearance in an NHL outdoor game and it will be Brind'Amour's first time attending one in any fashion.
It can be argued that the Hurricanes have the event because of Brind'Amour and what he has meant to the team and the community since he was acquired in a trade from the Philadelphia Flyers on Jan. 23, 2000.
"For all the great things he did in Philadelphia, how they honored him there a few years ago and how a lot of people thought he had the Flyers tattooed on his rear end, he really is a Hurricane," former longtime Hurricanes broadcaster Chuck Kaiton said.
Carolina went to the Stanley Cup Final in 2002, won the Stanley Cup in 2006 and got back to the Eastern Conference Final in 2009, the latter two with Brind'Amour as captain. He's second in Hurricanes history in scoring (473 points) and fourth in games played (694).
He joined the coaching staff in a player development role in 2010-11, after retiring as a player. That extended into an assistant role in 2011-12. He took over as coach prior to the start of the 2018-19 season.
Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice was Carolina's coach for Brind'Amour's last two seasons as a player and his first on the coaching staff.
"He absolutely didn't need to come on my staff," Maurice said. "We had an almost contentious relationship toward the end. I sat him out and it was not easy for the two of us. Then he joined the staff and that's when the decision gets made, 'OK, I want to do this.' It's after the first month, you realize how early we get to the rink, and that was right up his alley."
The Hurricanes hadn't made the playoffs in nine straight seasons when Brind'Amour took over as coach.
They have made it every year since, reaching the conference final in 2019.
Carolina has the third-most wins and points in the NHL with Brind'Amour as coach.
"He's definitely our most important person," Carolina owner Tom Dundon said. "You have to separate players from everybody else, obviously, but this wouldn't have worked without him."
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For proof of Brind'Amour's impact, Tracy went back to what it was like inside PNC Arena during the pregame introductions before the season-opener against the Columbus Blue Jackets this season.
"The ovation that Rod got this year was unbelievable," Tracy said. "I mean, it just kept going and going. I make fun of him because in gratitude he almost does some form of the famous Jaromir Jagr salute, and I think it's just because he gets nervous and he gets uncomfortable with the praise. But that was simply extraordinary."
The fact that Brind'Amour is a full-time Raleigh resident resonates with the community.
His wife, Amy, went to North Carolina State. They spend summers at her parents' beach house about two hours from Raleigh. Brind'Amour said their 11-year-old son Brooks goes from surf camp in the morning to hockey school in the afternoon.
Brind'Amour himself is available, accessible, around.
"It's been home since I got here and I've been here 23 years now," Brind'Amour said. "It's a great place to play hockey. Everyone knows that now. It's the other stuff for me. I really like raising my family here. It's an incredible place to raise a family. It always takes me 15-20 minutes to get to the rink every day and it has for 23 years now, though some days now it's a little bit longer because it's getting more congested. There are great schools."
It all begs the question what will Brind'Amour do when his time as the Hurricanes coach has to end; either by his own choice, a mutual agreement with the team or, gasp, if he's fired?
"I can't envision coaching anywhere else," Brind'Amour said. "I already had my career. I'm doing this for a lot of other reasons. It would be hard. I can't say it won't happen. I don't know. I have great friends who are GMs in other places and I'd love to be around them, but it would be hard for me. I can't sit here and say I would never do it because I don't know, but it would be hard."
Tracy thinks when that time comes Brind'Amour will find his way into a management role with the Hurricanes.
"He so desperately wants to win a second championship here," Tracy said.
If he does it, Brind'Amour would become the fourth person in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup as the captain and coach of the same team, joining Toe Blake (Montreal Canadiens), Hap Day (Toronto Maple Leafs) and Cooney Weiland (Boston Bruins).
"There are people that are around a long time that care about the Carolina Hurricanes and truly are a Carolina Hurricane, but nobody moreso than him," Tracy said. "I'm not an NHL historian, but I think you'd be hard pressed throughout the years in the NHL to find another Stanley Cup-winning captain who now as a coach is the face of the franchise. He'd be the first guy to annihilate that thought because it's all about the players, but he is."
