Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour is a finalist for the NHL’s top coaching award
In his third year as an NHL head coach, the Carolina Hurricanes’ Rod Brind’Amour is a finalist for the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year.
Brind’Amour was named a finalist Friday with Joel Quenneville of the Florida Panthers and Dean Evason of the Minnesota Wild. The winner will be announced Thursday, June 17.
Brind’Amour, the captain of Carolina’s 2006 Stanley Cup champions, has taken the Canes to the Stanley Cup playoffs in each of his three seasons as head coach. The Canes reached the Eastern Conference finals in 2019 — Carolina’s first playoff appearance since 2009 — and were beaten this season in the second round by the Tampa Bay Lightning, the 2020 Cup champion.
“He’s a great coach,” Canes captain Jordan Staal said Friday. “He’s got it figured out. He knows how to push the buttons and get the best out of everyone. He’s a guy I look up to in all aspects of life. The way he carries himself, what he does day to day, the way he treats people.”
The Canes won the Central Division with a 36-12-8 record despite having goalie Petr Mrazek and forward Teuvo Teravainen miss much of the season. The Canes finished ahead of Florida and Tampa Bay, and defeated the Nashville Predators in the opening round of the playoffs.
Brind’Amour’s nomination comes as he attempts to finalize a new contract extension with the Hurricanes.
“You look at where we were when he took over and where we are now, all across the board, top to bottom, in the locker room, on the ice, in the organization, it’s a night-and-day difference.,” defenseman Jaccob Slavin said Friday. “He has a huge role. He’s awesome. As a coach, he’s awesome. As a person, he’s awesome.”
Peter Laviolette was the team’s most recent Jack Adams finalist in 2005-06. Laviolette lost out that year to the Sabres’ Lindy Ruff.
The Jack Adams Award is presented by the National Hockey League Broadcasters Association.
“I can’t get over how good of a bench coach he has become,” Hurricanes analyst and broadcaster Tripp Tracy said in a recent interview. “What he does now, whether it’s who’s ‘going’ on a particular night and adjustments he makes, and putting combinations together with line pairs and D pairs and projecting what he’s going to do two or three shifts into the future to have an advantage at that time, I can’t get over how good of a bench coach he has become.”
Tracy said Hall of Fame coach Scotty Bowman has said the same in praising Brind’Amour’s development as coach, noting Bowman was the “greatest bench coach of all time.”
The Canes also have finalists for two other NHL awards: the Lady Byng Trophy (Slavin) and Calder Trophy (Alex Nedeljkovic).
This story was originally published June 11, 2021 at 11:26 AM.
