Panthers coach Maurice played key role in making Hurricanes grow

Whenever Paul Maurice returns to PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina, one of the things he notices first is the trees.

"When we first started there, they were just planting them and they were all about two feet high," the Florida Panthers coach said. "And now you can't see the building for the trees."

Maurice was Carolina Hurricanes coach when PNC Arena, originally Raleigh Entertainment & Sports Arena, opened in 1999, and, like those saplings outside the building, the Hurricanes have developed deep roots and grown proportionally in the nearly quarter-century since then. Maurice's legacy from his 11 seasons over two stints (1997-2003, 2008-2011) remains, no matter how "removed" he says he feels from it now as the Panthers prepare to face them in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; TNT, CBC, SN, TVAS).

Maurice has coached against Carolina before, but never in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and not with a trip to the Stanley Cup Final on the line.

"Yeah, it's a special place," Maurice said. "It feels like a lifetime ago, so there's not the same connection over time. It's a great building. It's a loud building."

Maurice played a significant role in making it that way. From the challenging first two seasons in Greensboro, North Carolina, where the relocated Hartford Whalers became the Hurricanes in 1997, through the move to Raleigh, he was a guiding force.

"He's so important to that operation," said Jeff O'Neill, who played for the franchise from 1997-04, spanning before and after the move. "To think of all the people, he's got to be amongst the top people in the organization being the coach when we got down there, being the coach when we went to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time (in 2002), being the coach that returned for the second time.

"I think if you looked at the important characters in the history of the Carolina Hurricanes, I don't have any doubt that Paul Maurice is right amongst the top of them."

RELATED: [Complete Hurricanes vs Panthers series coverage]

Maurice was the second youngest coach in League history, at 28 years old, when Jim Rutherford, then the general manager of the Whalers, promoted him from assistant 12 games into the 1995-96 season. Two years later, he was tasked with helping establish the NHL in a new, southern market.

They had made the move, which usually takes at least 18 months, in just five. And it was up to Maurice to sort it all out, changing and adapting to fit the situation.

"There was a lot of adversity at that time, but Paul was very strong," said Rutherford, now president of hockey operations for the Vancouver Canucks, who has known Maurice since he drafted him to the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League in 1984. "He never complained about one thing. He just dealt with each challenge as it came and did it in a positive way. And [he] really kept the glue on things in the early stages."

Rutherford had seen the promise in Maurice early after watching him come back from a damaging eye injury in his first preseason game with Windsor, still determined he was going to play. In his over-18 season, though, that dream ended, and Rutherford set him on his path to coaching, hiring him as an assistant with the Spitfires, as the head coach of the Detroit Jr. Red Wings, where his assistant was Peter DeBoer, another of the four coaches left in the playoffs, and then onto the Whalers.

"I remember at the year-end party he made a speech. I thought, man, you'd think this guy was 30 years old," Rutherford said. "He's so mature in what he said. And I thought right then, he's got a big future in hockey.

"As it turned out, he has."

In their first season in North Carolina, as the players racked up the miles driving from their homes and practice facility in Raleigh to their game rink in Greensboro, Maurice was tasked with keeping his players on track, with ensuring they were able to do their jobs despite the pitfalls.

O'Neill recalled staying in hotels in Greensboro the nights before games, driving back and forth and back, never really being settled.

"For those first couple years, I think Paul deserves a lot of credit for keeping it on the rails and trying to just focus on the hockey and try to have a competitive team," O'Neill said. "It was so crazy, so I think he did a very good job of, 'It's kind of all over the place, guys, but once you put the gear on, we've got to focus on what the task at hand here is,' and that was basically all we could do."

It was a matter of building not only the structure and the on-ice game of the Hurricanes, but creating a culture in the dressing room, something that was greatly enhanced as Carolina began to acquire the foundational players who would be instrumental for the future.

"I think he was excited about the opportunity, No. 1, to kind of building something here, which I think he was a huge part of it," said Shane Willis, who played 141 games for the Hurricanes from 1998-02 and now works as a studio analyst on Hurricanes telecasts and as their director of youth hockey and community outreach.

"Obviously, it showed. He came back and was rehired here (for a second stint). But he's one of those coaches have loves the game and knows what it takes to not only build a strong lineup, but a winning type of culture as well."

They didn't qualify for the playoffs that first season in Greensboro, as they hadn't for the final six seasons in Hartford. But in the second year, when Ron Francis returned to the organization, they reached the postseason, losing in the first round to the Boston Bruins in six games. After a down first season in Raleigh in 1999-00, the season that Rod Brind'Amour arrived in Carolina, the Hurricanes returned to the playoffs.

And, in 2001-02, they reached the Stanley Cup Final for the first time, losing to the Detroit Red Wings in five games.

"I think going to the Final in 2002 was massive," O'Neill said. "From my understanding, it's not like the city of Raleigh at that particular time was dying for us to get there. We just kind of moved there, and it was not like they were dying to have hockey.

"But once they got it, I think there was that feeling-out process when like, 'OK, this is interesting. Can they get into the playoffs to make a run to really kind of get people's attention. In 2002, we did that in going to the Final."

It was a huge moment for the franchise, the city, and for Maurice.

"I just remember skating out for warmup and every game it was just [crazy], and driving to the rink, seeing the whole parking lot packed was incredible," O'Neill said. "I think that kind of captured everyone's attention and really got some fans on board, and it took off from there."

And it was a building block for 2006 when, under coach Peter Laviolette, who replaced Maurice on Dec. 15, 2003, the Hurricanes would win the Stanley Cup for the first - and, so far, only -- time.

"Without those key wins in Toronto in overtime (in Game 6 of the 2002 Eastern Conference Final) to send them to a Cup Final and those type of things that he was behind, maybe this organization isn't where it is today, maybe the organization didn't get to the '06 Cup," Willis said. "All those things fall into place with what he's done."

These days, the "Caniacs" are some of the most passionate fans in the NHL. The "Storm Surge" has upped the ante on postgame celebrations, and the Hurricanes set a franchise record with 33 sellouts during the regular season and have sold out every playoff game. Carolina also hosted its first outdoor game with a sellout crowd of 56,961 at Carter-Finley Stadium for the 2023 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series against the Washington Capitals on Feb. 18.

Hockey is thriving in Carolina.

And it's thanks to Maurice, to the foundational work he did in the early years in Raleigh as he built up a record of 323-319-80 with 46 ties over his two stints. When one takes a look at the annals of Hurricanes hockey, there aren't many names that surpass that of Maurice, though the person he will be coaching against -- Brind'Amour -- is one of them.

"When you look at Rod and what he's done, and you look at Peter Laviolette because he won the Cup here," Willis said. "But in my mind, and maybe I'm biased because I played for him, Paul Maurice to me is the No. 3 (coach) and very close to Peter Laviolette, only because he won the Cup and Paul didn't. But Laviolette had a lot more talented team in front of him than Paul did."

Which is why it's so notable that when Game 1 begins, Maurice will be behind one bench, Brind'Amour the other. And as Carolina attempts to return to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since winning in 2006, it's clear both men have been part of what has brought the Hurricanes to this point.

"He's certainly on the short list of top people that had an impact," Rutherford said of Maurice. "He was there a long time, and he was part of growing that market and growing that franchise. It's interesting that he is the coach of the one team and the guy that's the coach of the other team probably had the biggest impact of anybody on the franchise.

"This is fun for me to watch."