Hurricanes’ Brind’Amour coaches in 600th game, owns record for most wins in that span
Carolina Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour was behind the bench for the 600th time on Saturday night when his team took on the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Regardless of the result, Brind’Amour made history in the process, as his 366 career wins give him the most of any head coach in NHL history through the first 600 games of a career.
Brind’Amour, who captained the Hurricanes to their first and only Stanley Cup championship in 2006, was elevated to the position ahead of the 2018-19 campaign.
There's only one Rod Brind'Amour 💪
The 55-year-old Ottawa native won the Jack Adams Award as the best head coach in the league in the pandemic-shortened 2021 season, and his 47 career wins in the Stanley Cup Playoffs are good enough to put him in a tie for 36th in NHL history with Mike Sullivan and Ron Wilson.
The Selke Trophy-winning center got the position after impressing new owner Tom Dundon, marking one of the first big decisions Dundon made after purchasing a controlling stake in the team earlier that year. Brind’Amour had been an assistant on Bill Peters’ staff prior to the promotion.
Brind’Amour also now has the longest single tenure as head coach of the Hurricanes, though he still has not coached the most games in team history, as Paul Maurice’s two separate tenures, one from 1997 to 2003 and another from 2008 to 2011, span a combined 768 games.
The Hurricanes have made the Stanley Cup Playoffs in each of Brind’Amour’s seven seasons behind the bench, and they’ve won at least one series on every occasion.
Carolina looks poised to make it eight consecutive appearances in the postseason this year, as their record of 41-18-6 pending the result of Saturday’s game gives them a comfortable cushion atop the Metropolitan Division.
The Hurricanes are looking to get over the hump, as three times in Brind’Amour’s prior seasons, they’ve made it to the Eastern Conference Final before falling short.