How a ‘blast from the past’ is driving the Hurricanes’ most successful line

When Taylor Hall made his NHL debut in 2010, Logan Stankoven and Jackson Blake were 7.

Asked what he was doing when Hall entered the league, the now 22-year-old Blake laughed.

“I was probably annoying my parents, annoying my mom,” Blake said. “I don’t know what I was doing, but yeah, it’s crazy to think of stuff like that.”

Stankoven admits he doesn’t remember much about Hall’s rookie season with the Edmonton Oilers either. But he remembers the hype: Hall was the can’t miss prospect, the No. 1 overall pick destined to become one of hockey’s next great stars.

The crescendo of Hall’s career perfectly coincided with the growing hockey conscious of Blake and Stankoven as young boys. Blake remembers watching Hall’s “special” 2017-18 MVP season with the New Jersey Devils.

Stankoven mostly remembers Hall’s speed. It’s the same speed the 23-year-old center still witnesses from the veteran and current teammate at age 34.

“It’s like a blast from the past, the way he’s been playing lately,” Stankoven said, “He’s so skilled out there. He sees the ice really well.”

Back then, Hall was a superstar Stankoven and Blake watched on television. Today, he’s simply “Hallsy.” He’s their linemate.

And together, the trio of Hall, Stankoven and Blake has become one of the biggest reasons the Hurricanes are in the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in 20 years.

The timing could hardly be more fitting for Hall.

Sixteen years after Hall entered the league, the veteran forward is playing some of the best hockey of his career. Hall leads the Hurricanes with 16 playoff points, and his linemates are right behind him. Blake is second with 15 and Stankoven is third with 12 while leading the Canes with nine goals.

With Hall’s line leading the way, the Hurricanes reached the Stanley Cup Final in just 13 games — becoming the first team to get there in 13 games or fewer since the NHL adopted its current four-round, best-of-seven playoff format in 1986-87.

With a Stanley Cup win, Hall would make history by tying the longest gap between being selected No. 1 overall and winning a first Cup. Alex Ovechkin’s 16-year wait from the 2004 draft to Washington’s 2018 championship set the record. Erik Johnson, drafted first overall by St. Louis in 2006, waited 16 years before winning his first Stanley Cup with Colorado in 2022.

Hall would be the third. And for many of the Canes, that adds an extra layer of motivation to the Cup Final.

“Obviously, we want to win it in general, for everyone” said defender Shayne Gostisbehere, who turned 33 in April. “But especially Hallsy and the older guys like myself, it’s our first time here out of our whole careers. We just want to win it all.”

‘They’ve given me a lot of energy’

Not long ago, Hall’s career appeared to be headed in a different direction.

Carolina acquired Hall from the Chicago Blackhawks in January 2025 as part of the blockbuster deal that brought Mikko Rantanen to Raleigh. Rantanen was the star. Hall joined the Canes as the far-less heralded player.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Hurricanes general manager Eric Tulsky believed Hall’s combination of speed, skill and physicality would fit Carolina’s system. Hall believed there was more hockey left in him than many outsiders realized, but understood the Canes were taking a swing.

The Canes’ bet has paid off.

“We talked about injuries. We talked with people who had played with him on other teams, people who had coached him on other teams,” Tulsky said. “What he was like as a person? How he would adapt if we bring him in? Because you never know until they get here.

“But on that one it worked out,” Tulsky continued. “He’s been incredible, absolutely incredible.”

Hall arrived from a difficult situation in Chicago and initially spent time lower in Carolina’s lineup while learning coach Rod Brind’Amour’s demanding puck-possession system.

Soon, everything clicked. Hall was so comfortable that he signed a three-year extension less than four months after arriving.

Raleigh felt like home.

“The way we play is conducive to how I play hockey and how I think about hockey,” Hall said. “Once I got the system down and the details of where I need to be, that allowed me to not have to think a lot out there.”

The result has been a late-career renaissance. Hall has leaned into his physicality. His teammates attest to his warmth off the ice, but Hall’s a bully in the rink, and his line with Stankoven and Blake has been the best in the league all postseason.

The trio combined for 16 points in Carolina’s first-round sweep of Ottawa, led by seven from Hall on two goals and five assists. Hall led the way again in a second-round sweep of Philadelphia, accounting for seven of the trio’s 15 points in the series.

Hall and Co. started more slowly against Montreal, but the line still produced 12 points in five games, with Hall, Stankoven and Blake each recording four.

Hall doesn’t look like a player hanging on.

He looks like the player Stankoven and Blake remembered watching years ago.

“They’ve given me a lot of energy,” Hall said of Stankoven and Blake. “They’re great players. They’re very unique players — their size and how they go to the hard areas of the ice.”

“They seem young,” Hall continued, “but they’re very mature in the way that they play — and mature in a way that I wasn’t at that age.”

‘I love playing with those two’

Blake (22) and Stankoven (23) have known each other since youth hockey. They’ve been roommates on the road since Stankoven arrived in Carolina last year.

Now, one of their childhood idols has become the veteran presence in the middle of their friendship.

“We talk a lot,” Hall said. “We talk about soccer. They’re great kids. They have a lot of fun playing here.

“It’s been really good for me personally,” Hall added, “just playing with them and getting to know them.”

Blake sees the relationship the same way.

“I love playing with those two,” he said. “Hopefully we can play together for a long time.”

That may be true for Blake and Stankoven. But Hall likely won’t be hanging around for long.

The veteran has played nearly 1,000 NHL games since hearing his name called first overall in 2010. He won a Hart Trophy. He made five All-Star teams. He has played for seven franchises and experienced the highs and lows of professional hockey.

What he has never done is lift the Stanley Cup. More than anything, that is what continues to drive Hall at age 34.

If Carolina wins four more games, Hall would cap one of the most unexpected revivals in the sport.

Stankoven and Blake understand the significance.

They grew up watching him become a star. Now, they want to help him pen the storybook ending.

“The other day, I told him how well he is in the interviews, and how well spoken he is,” Stankoven said. “He’s like, ‘Yeah, I’ve had a microphone in my face since I was 18.’ He knows how to handle things, and he’s a veteran guy.”

“That’s what you play in these big games for,” Stankoven added. “You want to try and win the Cup for guys like that.”