Storylines heading into 2026 Stanley Cup Final between Hurricanes, Golden Knights

The Carolina Hurricanes are hoping to win the Stanley Cup for a second time 20 years after winning it for the first time. The Vegas Golden Knights are looking for their second championship after raising the trophy three years ago.

The Stanley Cup Final is set. Game 1 is at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, SN, TVAS, CBC). Media Day at the Stanley Cup Final is Monday. There are storylines everywhere you turn in this series.

Here are seven to get you started, one for each game we're expecting before the Stanley Cup makes an appearance and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman hands it to either Vegas captain Mark Stone or Carolina captain Jordan Staal.

1. Marner's worlds colliding

In the ultimate irony, Mitch Marner is four wins away from the chance to bring the Stanley Cup home to Toronto, and the team standing in his way of his ultimate goal in his first season with the Golden Knights just happens to be the one he refused to go to last year.

So, yeah, Marner might be the most popular player at Stanley Cup Final Media Day on Monday.

Marner spent his first nine seasons playing in his backyard for the Toronto Maple Leafs. He never got past the second round.

Last year, with his contract expiring, the Maple Leafs tried to work a trade that would send Marner to the Hurricanes, but the forward used his no-trade clause to reject the deal because his wife was pregnant in her third trimester and he didn't want to leave her, or Toronto.

He stayed with the Maple Leafs, who were eliminated from the playoffs in the second round. Marner approved a sign-and-trade with the Golden Knights and signed an eight-year, $96 million contract on July 1.

He finished second on the team with 80 points (24 goals, 56 assists) in 81 regular season games, and now he leads the playoffs with 21 points (seven goals, 14 assists) in 16 games.

Now he has to find his way against the team he didn't want to go to in order to bring the Stanley Cup home to the city he left. And oh, how sweet it all would be for Marner and the Golden Knights.

2. All these years later, it's still Brind'Amour's team

From captain to coach, Rod Brind'Amour has played a role in all 174 games the Hurricanes have played in the Stanley Cup Playoffs since arriving in North Carolina via a trade from the Philadelphia Flyers on Jan. 23, 2000.

He can become the seventh person in NHL history, and the first since Toe Blake with the Montreal Canadiens in 1956, to win the Stanley Cup with the same franchise as a player and a coach.

Blake won the Cup with the Canadiens twice as a player and eight times as a coach. Frank Boucher and Lester Patrick each did it with the New York Rangers, Hap Day and Joe Primeau with the Maple Leafs, and Cooney Weiland with the Boston Bruins.

Brind'Amour is the seventh person in NHL history, and first in the modern-era, to reach the Stanley Cup Final with the same franchise as a captain and head coach, joining Sid Abel (Detroit Red Wings), Blake (Canadiens), Dit Clapper (Bruins), Day (Maple Leafs), Milt Schmidt (Bruins) and Weiland (Bruins).

The only time the Hurricanes have been in the playoffs without Brind'Amour serving as a player or coach was in 1999, when they lost in six games to the Bruins. 

Brind'Amour played in 72 playoff games, including 12 in the Stanley Cup Final (five in 2002 and seven in 2006), with the Hurricanes before retiring after the 2009-10 season. He was the captain when they won the Stanley Cup in 2006. Carolina went 39-33 with him on the ice.

Carolina did not make the playoffs from 2010-18. Brind'Amour took over as coach in 2018-19 and they haven't missed since. They are 59-43 in 102 playoff games under Brind'Amour, including 12-1 this year.

3. Tortorella's 22-year journey

John Tortorella was working for ESPN on March 28. The next day, he was in Las Vegas coaching the Golden Knights, replacing Bruce Cassidy, who won the Stanley Cup with Vegas in 2023.

There was hope in Vegas that the coaching change would work, but at the time, there was no way Tortorella was thinking that in a little over two months he'd be preparing his team for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, a chance for him to do something he hadn't done in 22 years.

Tortorella won the Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004, when they defeated the Calgary Flames in a seven-game series.

Since then, he has coached 1,335 regular season games and 125 in the playoffs, standing behind the bench for the Lightning, Rangers, Vancouver Canucks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Philadelphia Flyers and now the Golden Knights.

He is back in the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2004, a 22-year gap that is the longest in NHL history for coaches, besting Paul Maurice's 21-year gap from 2002-23, and no matter what you may think of him or the Golden Knights, whatever Tortorella does and says, or doesn't say, in this series will be worthy of coverage.

4. Staal looking to make history

Staal was 19 years old and in his second NHL season when he reached the Stanley Cup Final for the first time with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2008. The next year, he and the Penguins got back and won the Stanley Cup.

Staal has been chasing it ever since.

The most tenured player in team history with 1,074 combined regular season and playoff games played in a Hurricanes uniform, Staal has a chance to set the NHL record for longest time between Stanley Cup championships as a player.

It'll be 17 years if the Hurricanes win the Cup this year. Chris Chelios has the record with a 16-year gap between his first time winning the Cup with the Canadiens in 1986 and his second time with the Red Wings in 2002.

Staal and center Sebastian Aho are tied for the most playoff games played in a Hurricanes uniform with 102. Defenseman Jaccob Slavin is third with 99, and forwards Jordan Martinook (89) and Andrei Svechnikov (79) are fourth and fifth, respectively.

Brind'Amour is sixth with 72.

5. Andersen, Hart and unlikely goalie battle

Hurricanes goalie Frederik Andersen played 35 games in the regular season, four fewer than his goalie partner, Brandon Bussi, and tied for the 37th most in the League. Golden Knights goalie Carter Hart played 18 games. 

There were 66 goalies who played more.

So, yes, the Stanley Cup Final features one of the more unlikely goalie matchups, unless you have been paying attention since the playoffs began, because a big reason both teams are here is the play of Andersen and Hart.

Andersen is first in the playoffs with a .931 save percentage. Hart is second at .924. 

Andersen has allowed 20 goals in 13 games, a 1.41 goals-against average. He has three shutouts and set a Carolina playoff record for longest shutout streak (160:13) between Games 3-5 of the Eastern Conference Final.

He is the third goalie in NHL history with 12 wins in 13 games in a single postseason following Ken Dryden (1976 Canadiens) and Gerry Cheevers (1970 Bruins).

Hart is 12-4. He has allowed 37 goals in 16 games, a 2.22 GAA. 

They looked like longshots to lead their teams to the Stanley Cup Final a month and a half ago, but here they are and they are going to be arguably the most important players in the series.

6. The return of the 'Golden Misfits'

In 2017-18, Vegas' inaugural season, the Golden Knights took on the fun moniker, the "Golden Misfits," because the roster, selected in the expansion draft, was seen as a bunch of cast-offs from other teams that came together to make something special happen.

They went to the Stanley Cup Final and lost to the Washington Capitals in five games.

Many of the "Golden Misfits" from that inaugural season have since left Vegas, but this Cup Final will feature four of them, including one that will be competing against his former fellow "Misfits."

Vegas forwards William Karlsson and Reilly Smith, and defensemen Brayden McNabb and Shea Theodore are still carrying the "Misfits" legacy in Las Vegas as key members of the Golden Knights. 

Smith left for a while, but he's been back since last season. He, Karlsson and Jonathan Marchessault, who is now with the Nashville Predators, made up the original "Misfits Line."

William Carrier, an original "Misfit," is now a member of Carolina's all-important and impactful fourth line. Carrier was with the Golden Knights from 2017-24 before signing a six-year, $12 million contract with the Hurricanes on July 3, 2024.

7. Taylor's turn

After 16 seasons and 1,056 games played combined between the regular season and playoffs, Taylor Hall, the No. 1 pick in the 2010 NHL Draft, will play in the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in his career. 

Hall, the 34-year-old Hurricanes forward, will have the fourth most NHL games played before making his Stanley Cup Final debut among No. 1 draft picks in NHL history after Joe Thornton (1,517), Dale Hawerchuk (1,282) and Alex Ovechkin (1,119). 

He is making the most of his first run to the Stanley Cup Final, too. Hall leads the Hurricanes with 16 points (five goals, 11 assists) in 13 games. He had three points on a goal and two assists in Carolina's series-clinching 6-1 win against the Canadiens on Friday.

Hall has eight points (two goals, six assists) in Carolina's three series-clinching games, the most in a single postseason in Hurricanes history. Eric Staal and Cory Stillman each had seven points in eight potential series clinching games in Carolina's run to the 2006 championship.