06/14/26 10:17:00
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06/14 22:16 CDT Carolina's Jordan Staal wins the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff
MVP, oldest on record at age 37
Carolina's Jordan Staal wins the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, oldest on
record at age 37
By STEPHEN WHYNO
AP Hockey Writer
Rod Brind'Amour knows a thing or two about how Jordan Staal is feeling. Now the
Carolina Hurricanes' coach, Brind'Amour was their captain when they won the
Stanley Cup two decades ago, and now Staal wears the "C."
Before the final against Vegas started, Brind'Amour was clear about one thing.
"We're not here today without Jordan Staal," he said. "I can promise you that.
We're very lucky. And as a coach, you're super fortunate to have a guy like
that be your leader."
Staal led the Hurricanes to the second championship in franchise history by
being the two-way shutdown center and faceoff ace he has been his entire NHL
career. By elevating his game and leading them in goals with six in the final
against the Golden Knights in addition to all those things, he won the Conn
Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.
At 37, Staal is the oldest player to win the honor.
"He's always really good, but yeah, he's stepped it up at such a pivotal time,"
teammate Seth Jarvis said. "It's incredible to watch, and it's so much fun
playing with him and being around him."
Staal is the longest-tenured player in the organization. He joined in 2012 in a
trade from Pittsburgh on his wedding day, and after winning the Cup with the
Penguins in '09, his first half-dozen years with the Hurricanes passed without
a postseason appearance.
"I don't want to say that the losing that he had to do for four, five years
when he got here might have fueled him even more, but I think it did," fellow
veteran Jordan Martinook said. "The fact that he's seen some pretty dark days
here and then to be on the other side of it ... he stuck through it the whole
time."
The past seven seasons, Staal and the Hurricanes made the playoffs but failed
to reach the final. He became captain in the middle of that stretch in 2020,
taking on a role once filled by Brind'Amour from 2005-10 and older brother Eric
from 2010-16.
Staal took on the weight of those premature exits.
"Each scar, each moment just drives a hunger even deeper into you," Staal said.
"Being a part of this core and all the scars that we've gone through just
brings that care factor for each other that we want it for each other that much
more."
Staal has never gotten the Selke Trophy as the league's best defensive forward,
but he has been a finalist and this run shows why. He won more than 56% of his
faceoffs and is so valuable on draws that he begins power plays just to get the
Hurricanes the puck.
Told of Brind'Amour's comment that the team would not have gotten this far
without him, Staal praised his coach and downplayed changing anything in his
game. The two shared a long hug on the ice in the moments after the Game 6 win.
"I'm just being me," Staal said. "I'm not really anyone different. But just my
day-to-day presence is showing up and working. That's all I've done since I got
here in Carolina, and being consistent with that must have been enough."
The offensive outburst against Vegas put Staal over the top for the Conn Smythe
after it looked like Logan Stankoven and Taylor Hall were Carolina's
front-runners. He never scored 30 goals in a season, but his six in the final
put him in the record books with the likes of Hall of Famers Mario Lemieux and
Mike Bossy.
"I'm not really surprised," Brind'Amour said. "You take the goals away, it'd be
the same impact. It's just added that extra element."
___
AP Sports Writer Aaron Beard in Raleigh, North Carolina, contributed to this
report.
___
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
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