#NHLPeachy @NHL Morning Skate: Stanley Cup Champions Edition – June 15, 2026
* In their eighth straight postseason appearance and five days short of the 20-year anniversary of the franchise’s first championship, Jordan Staal and the Hurricanes capped an historic Stanley Cup Final against the Golden Knights by becoming champions once again – ending a series of long waits for a title and capping one of the most dominant playoff runs in League history.
* Staal was voted as the 2026 Conn Smythe Trophy winner after his record-setting Final, becoming the oldest to win the award and claiming the first individual honor of his 20-season NHL career. One of the benefits of waiting that long is that you can be flanked at the post-game presser by your kids, the Conn Smythe Trophy and Stanley Cup.
* Teams with a chance to clinch the Stanley Cup in Las Vegas improved to a perfect 3-0, something a packed arena 2,300 miles away in Raleigh were ecstatic about as their club surged to a second championship.
Hurricanes blank Golden Knights for franchise’s second Stanley Cup
The players that propelled Carolina through each of its first three series-clinching games this year showed up again during their first opportunity to clinch the Stanley Cup this year, as Taylor Hall (1-0—1), Jackson Blake (1-1—2) and Logan Stankoven (0-1—1) all collected a point to go along with a 22-save shutout by Brandon Bussi and another dominant face-off performance by captain Jordan Staal (64.0%; 14-8) to secure their second championship 20 years after their first.
* Hall scored the opening goal just 3:47 into Game 6, extending his single-postseason franchise record for points in potential series-clinching games (3-6—9 in 4 GP) and setting a new club benchmark for road points in a single postseason (4-7—11 in 9 GP). He finished with a League-best and franchise record 12 points on go-ahead goals (5-7—12), just ahead of Blake (2-9—11).
* Blake finished as the team leader in assists (13) and points (20), trailing only Eric Staal (28 in 2006) and Cory Stillman (26 in 2006) for the highest point total in one playoff year in franchise history. Blake set a franchise record with his seventh multi-point outing of these playoffs, tied for second among all players in 2026 behind only Mitch Marner, who had eight en route to becoming the fourth player in the NHL’s modern era (since 1944) to lead the playoffs in scoring during his first season with a franchise.
* The Hurricanes scored 16 goals in potential series-clinching games this year, winning all four they played, with at least one of either Hall, Blake and/or Stankoven factoring on 10 of those tallies (62.5%) – 10-12—22 combined (Hall: 3-6—9; Blake: 4-3—7; Stankoven: 3-3—6).
* Bussi posted the ninth Stanley Cup-clinching shutout in the past 50 years – and first since Andrei Vasilevskiy did so in both 2020 and 2021 – and joined Bernie Parent (2x; 1975 PHI & 1974 PHI) as the second undrafted goaltender to clinch the Cup with a shutout (among goaltenders to debut after the first NHL Draft in 1963).
* Staal added to his already historic Stanley Cup Final performance by finishing with the highest face-off percentage ever recorded in a Final (min. 100 FO) – 68.0% across the entire series – to aid Carolina’s territorial advantage throughout the clincher and end a series of long waits for both himself and the franchise he has dedicated himself to for the past 14 seasons.
* Carolina improved to a perfect 4-0 in potential series-clinching games this year, the 11th team to post an unblemished mark in those contests since the first four-round postseason without byes in 1980 – each of the past two clinched the Stanley Cup in Las Vegas.
STAAL BECOMES OLDEST TO WIN CONN SMYTHE TROPHY
Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal was named the 2026 Conn Smythe Trophy winner, capping a postseason in which he tied the NHL record for longest goal streak in a Stanley Cup Final (5 GP) and became the first player in 70 years to score in each of the first five games of the Final. Staal (8-4—12 in 19 GP) collected more than half of his playoff point total during the Final, posting 6-1—7 (6 GP) to set a franchise record for goals in any series and equal the League benchmark for goals by a player age 37 or older in a single Final.
* Staal, the longest-tenured player in team history (since 1997-98), led the entire NHL with 235 face-off wins in these playoffs including a series-high of 83 in the Final – nearly double the closest player. Staal’s 68.0% face-off percentage in the Final was the highest on record (since 1998; min. 100 FO), besting the previous mark of 67.3% by Kris Draper with the 2008 Red Wings (72-35 on 107 FO).
* Staal (37 years, 277 days) became the oldest Conn Smythe Trophy winner and claimed the first individual award of his 20-season NHL career. That matches the longest wait in NHL history for a player to win his first individual award (min. 1 GP in regular season or playoffs), equaling Doug Weight (2010-11 King Clancy Trophy).
* Staal also became the first player in NHL history to go 17 years from one Stanley Cup to the next, adding to a championship he won with the 2009 Penguins.
* The victory also came 20 years after he attended the 2006 Final as a 17-year-old top prospect for the NHL Draft before his brother, Eric, became the first in the family to hoist the Stanley Cup. They are the 17th set of siblings in League history to each win at least one championship with the same franchise.
WIRE-TO-WIRE STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS
In a playoff spot the entire season, coached by the captain of their last championship, bolstered by a Danish duo, backed by an undrafted first-year netminder, anchored by a gold medal-winning American blueliner, supported by a No. 1 pick – the list of storylines for the 2026 Stanley Cup champions goes on in Carolina’s #NHLStats Pack with a few highlights included below.
* Carolina lost only one game on the way to the Final and only three in the entire postseason, to become the first team since the 2008 Red Wings to win the Stanley Cup after occupying a playoff spot for an entire 82-game season.
* Taylor Hall became the fourth No. 1 pick to score a Stanley Cup-clinching goal and also joined Alex Ovechkin as the only No. 1 picks to play 1,000 total NHL games before winning their first Stanley Cup – achieving the feat on the same ice at T-Mobile Arena.
* Jaccob Slavin and Seth Jarvis won the Stanley Cup together less than four months after Slavin helped Team USA defeat Jarvis and Team Canada in the gold medal game at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. Slavin became the second American (ninth from any country) to win the Cup and Olympic gold in the same season following Ken Morrow (1980 NYI).
* Rod Brind'Amour became the fourth individual in NHL history to captain a Stanley Cup winner and then lead that club to a championship as head coach, capping the feat with another iconic lift and joining the list alongside Toe Blake with the Canadiens (2 as captain, 8 as coach), Hap Day with the Maple Leafs (1 as captain, 5 as coach) and Cooney Weiland with the Bruins (1 as captain, 1 as coach).
* Frederik Andersen and Nikolaj Ehlers became the second and third Danish Stanley Cup winners in NHL history, doing so in the same building where the first player achieved the feat – Lars Eller netted the Cup-clinching goal at T-Mobile Arena for 2018 Capitals.
* Andersen claimed Carolina’s first 13 wins of the postseason before Brandon Bussi took over in net and eventually became the first American to secure a Stanley Cup-clinching win since Jonathan Quick with the 2014 Kings. The Hurricanes became the first Stanley Cup champions in 41 years to have multiple starting goaltenders in the Final and just the third to do so in the expansion era (since 1968).
* The Hurricanes went 8-1 as visitors during these playoffs to establish a single-postseason franchise record for road wins, besting the previous high set in 2002 (7-5 in 12 GP). They also set a franchise record for total wins in a playoff year (69).
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