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2025-26 NHL Season Retrospective

2025-26 NHL Season Retrospective · The Carolina Hurricanes are 2026 Stanley Cup Champions, ending a 20-year wait with a 4-2 Final win over the Vegas Golden Knights. Captain Jordan Staal won the Conn Smythe. Coach Rod Brind’Amour became the fourth person ever to lift the Cup as both captain and coach of the same team.

The 2025-26 NHL season ended in Las Vegas on Sunday 14 June with a 3-0 Carolina shutout — and the Hurricanes lifting the Stanley Cup for the second time in franchise history. It’s their first championship since 2006, when current head coach Rod Brind’Amour captained the team to its only previous Cup. Brind’Amour has now won the Stanley Cup as both captain and coach of the Hurricanes — the seventh person in NHL history to win the Cup with the same franchise as a player and a coach, and the fourth to do it as captain and coach. Here’s how Carolina got there, what Vegas’s improbable run looked like, and what it all meant for Australian fans.

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The Stanley Cup Final — Carolina 4, Vegas 2

The numbers say six games. The story says something more complicated. The first three games of the Stanley Cup Final were chaos — leads of two-plus goals evaporated in each of them. Vegas drew first blood in Game 1 on a late Tomas Hertl goal to win 5-4. Carolina answered with a multi-goal comeback for an overtime win in Game 2. Game 3 saw the Hurricanes mount a historic four-goal third-period rally only to lose in double overtime. By the time the series was 2-2 after Game 4, it was clear neither team could comfortably hold a lead.

That changed in Games 5 and 6. The Hurricanes — back home with renewed structure — held Vegas to five goals across the final two games combined. Game 6 in Las Vegas was the defensive masterclass that turned the series. Carolina got a goal from Taylor Hall at 3:47 of the first period off a stretch pass from Jaccob Slavin, added a Jackson Blake second-period goal, and then Brandon Bussi held the line. The Golden Knights went 18 minutes and 37 seconds between shots on goal in the second and third periods. Vegas had no answer. Nikolaj Ehlers added an empty-netter and Carolina were Cup champions.

Bussi finished with a 22-save shutout — his first career playoff shutout, in the game that won his team the Stanley Cup. The Hurricanes’ overall record across the entire 2026 playoffs was 16 wins and 3 losses, the second-best record in NHL history since the playoffs expanded to four rounds of seven-game series. Only the 1988 Edmonton Oilers (16-2) have ever done better.

Brind’Amour completes the cycle

Rod Brind’Amour was the captain of the 2006 Stanley Cup championship Hurricanes, scoring 12 playoff goals (including the game-winner in Game 1 of that Final) and lifting the trophy for the first time in franchise history. Twenty years later, he’s done it again — this time as the coach of the team that hired him to rebuild it.

“It’s just as awesome, but as a player it was a little different because I worked and dreamt of winning the Cup my whole life,” Brind’Amour said in the post-game press conference. “This time around it was for the group. I wanted them to feel what it’s like.”

The historical context: Brind’Amour is now the seventh person ever to win the Cup with the same franchise as both player and coach. He’s the fourth to do it as captain and coach — the previous one to manage that combination was Toe Blake with the 1956 Canadiens, 70 years ago.

“It was our time,” Brind’Amour said simply. “We weren’t going to be denied.”

The Hurricanes’ season — 16-3 in the playoffs

The Hurricanes were the best team in the NHL for most of the regular season and confirmed it in the playoffs. Their route:

  • Round 1: Swept the Ottawa Senators 4-0. Carolina never trailed in any of the four games. Frederik Andersen was outstanding in goal. Logan Stankoven scored in all four games as he emerged as the playoff goal-scoring leader for Carolina.
  • Round 2: Beat the Philadelphia Flyers comfortably. The Flyers had upset the Penguins in Round 1 and rode the momentum into Round 2, but Carolina were the better team across the series.
  • Eastern Conference Finals: Beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-1. After Montreal stunned Carolina in Game 1 on the road (one of the best playoff results of the entire postseason), the Hurricanes won four straight to close it out. Carolina’s depth, structure and goaltending eventually wore down the Canadiens’ Cinderella run.
  • Stanley Cup Final: Beat the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2 — the route described above.

The depth was the story. Jackson Blake led the team in playoff scoring with 20 points (7 goals, 13 assists). Taylor Hall — a former No. 1 overall pick who had been buried on Chicago before Carolina acquired him in 2025 — finished with 19 points (7 goals, 12 assists). Logan Stankoven led with 11 playoff goals. Captain Jordan Staal scored in each of the first five Cup Final games — the first time that has ever happened — and won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. He’s 37 years old, won his first Cup with Pittsburgh in 2009, and now has a second seventeen years later.

Vegas’s unlikely Final run

The Golden Knights weren’t supposed to be here. They went into the regular-season trade deadline with John Tortorella having just replaced Bruce Cassidy as head coach with eight games remaining — a coaching change few NHL franchises make that close to the playoffs. Vegas were third in the Pacific Division when Tortorella took over. They finished first.

The playoffs continued the unlikely run. Vegas beat the Utah Mammoth in six games in Round 1. They beat the Anaheim Ducks in six games in Round 2 — the same Anaheim team that had upset the Edmonton Oilers in Round 1. And then they swept the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference Finals — a stunning four-game sweep of the team that finished with the best regular-season record in the league.

The Final was Vegas’s third Stanley Cup Final appearance (they won in 2023, lost in 2018 to Washington). Their roster going into the season had been bolstered significantly via offseason trades — Mitch Marner from Toronto on an eight-year contract, Jérémy Lauzon and Colton Sissons from Nashville. Jack Eichel anchored the top line. Shea Theodore was the offensive defenceman. Pavel Dorofeyev had a breakout postseason. Tomas Hertl came up clutch. Carter Hart was solid in goal until Carolina’s defence overwhelmed him in Games 4 through 6.

The Golden Knights lost their final three games of the season — Games 4, 5, and 6 of the Final. They were shut out in Game 6 for the first time in the entire postseason. “We put some good minutes in but we couldn’t find our way,” Tortorella said afterwards. “It’s a find-a-way league. They did. We didn’t.”

Defining moments of the season

Several storylines from 2025-26 worth remembering:

Montreal’s Cinderella run. The Canadiens were a sixth seed in the East. They beat the second-seeded Tampa Bay Lightning in seven games in Round 1 — an upset few saw coming. They beat the Buffalo Sabres in seven games in Round 2, with that famous 8-3 demolition in Game 6 forcing a Game 7. They stunned Carolina on the road in East Finals Game 1. Then Carolina figured them out and they ran out of steam. But this was the best Montreal hockey since the 1990s — they’re a team to watch heading into next season.

Anaheim’s Round 1 upset of Edmonton. The Ducks beating the Oilers in the first round of the playoffs was one of the bigger upsets of the postseason — Edmonton came in as the favourite to come out of the West, and instead they were eliminated in Round 1. Anaheim went deep but ultimately couldn’t beat Vegas.

The Colorado sweep. The Avalanche won the Presidents’ Trophy as the best regular-season team. They were swept in four by Vegas in the Conference Finals. It’s the kind of result that defines how strange the 2026 playoffs were — chalk picks broke down everywhere, often badly.

Taylor Hall’s career arc. A former first overall pick and league MVP, Hall was barely getting minutes with the Chicago Blackhawks when Carolina traded for him in 2025. One year later he was a Stanley Cup champion with 19 playoff points and the opening goal of the Cup-clinching Game 6. One of the best low-key reclamation projects in recent NHL memory.

Brandon Bussi’s emergence. The 27-year-old goalie came into Game 3 of the Cup Final in relief of Frederik Andersen — Carolina was already trailing 4-0 — and helped stage the rally that lost in overtime but turned the series. Bussi started the rest of the way and finished it with a Cup-clinching shutout. He’s a name nobody had heard of three months ago. Now he has his name on the Stanley Cup.

For Australian fans — the broadcast year

The 2025-26 NHL season was a mixed bag for Australian viewing. Most playoff games sat at either 10:00am or 10:30am AEST — the same Australian-friendly window that made the NBA Finals such a viewable championship round. The Stanley Cup Final games were spread across morning and lunchtime AEST windows, with Game 6 in Vegas tipping at 10:00am AEST on Monday 15 June Australian time.

For broadcast platforms in Australia, NHL coverage in 2025-26 ran across Kayo Sports (which carried every ESPN-broadcast NHL game), Disney+ Australia (which started carrying NHL alongside the NBA via the ESPN streaming partnership), and NHL.TV (which remained the only way to watch every single game including those on TNT). The 9GO! free-to-air partnership continued to offer a small number of regular-season games on Australian free-to-air TV — a useful supplement for casual fans even if it didn’t extend to playoff coverage.

Australian NHL audience numbers won’t be released for several weeks. But anecdotal evidence from social media and sports discussion sites suggested NHL discussion in Australia is on a slow upward trend year-over-year, helped by Disney+ broadening accessibility.

For the full Australian platform breakdown and pricing, see our How to Watch NHL in Australia 2026 guide.

What’s next: the 2026-27 NHL season

The 2026 NHL Draft takes place on Friday 26 June (US time) in Los Angeles. Free agency opens Wednesday 1 July. The 2026-27 NHL regular season starts in early October.

Heading into next season:

Carolina as defending champions. The Hurricanes lose few key pieces. The roster will be largely intact. Brind’Amour continues. Bussi enters next year as the starting goalie. They’ll be near the top of the contender list.

Vegas reloads. The Golden Knights will be back next year and have shown they can build deep playoff runs through coaching changes and offseason trades. Jack Eichel, Marner, Theodore, Hart — all under contract.

Montreal as a rising team. The Canadiens have proven they’re not far away. Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki and the young core get another year of experience.

Colorado, Edmonton, Tampa Bay all need to figure something out. All three were among the preseason favourites. All three were out before the Conference Finals. The 2026-27 offseason will be busy for each.

What’s next?

All times shown in AEST. Mac Johannson covers US sports for Australian fans, with a focus on AEST schedules and broadcast platforms.

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