Coach of the Year signs extension with Hurricanes
Turns out there's no place like home for Rod Brind'amour.
Though there's been no shortage of speculation the 50-year-old Brind'amour was a top candidate to be the first head coach of the expansion Seattle Kraken, he opted to sign a three-year contract extension with the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday. His contract was set to expire June 30.
Brind'amour — who won the Jack Adams Award for coach of the year Thursday night — didn't give much thought to joining his old friend Ron Francis with the Kraken, and really didn't look anywhere else, for that matter. Carolina GM Don Waddell called the negotiations easy because the Hurricanes wanted to keep Brind'amour, who wanted to stay.
“Don and I talked throughout the year occasionally and I thought we were on the same page,” Brind'amour said. “It was just a matter of time, really. He knew I wanted to be a part of this and I knew he wanted to be a part of it, too, so we figured it out.”
Brind'amour confirmed the reason the extension took so long to complete was that he wanted to make sure all of the club's staff — including assistant coaches, training and equipment people — were signed to new deals as well. If he was going to return, he wanted to make sure the people with him were on board.
If Brind'amour had gone to market, he would have been a valuable commodity. But he never felt like he was leaving.
“There's always temptation to listen to the outside noise a little bit,” he said. “I sat here with Don three years ago and I have a hard time thinking I could do the same job I'm doing here somewhere else. I've been here forever and, again, it's more about the people I get to come to work with every day.
“That wouldn't be the case somewhere else. It just wouldn't be. It's special to me. When I had my end-of-the-year meetings with the players, that really solidified why I want to be here. We've got a special group of players, and that's something I didn't want to leave. It just didn't really ever enter my mind that I wanted to leave because of what we've got going on here.”
The value of Brind'amour's deal wasn't made public, but it was noted when he took the job three years ago he was the lowest-paid coach in the league. He reiterated this wasn't about money, and owner Tom Dundon has treated him well, along with Waddell.
DEFENCEMAN HAMILTON ON THE MARKET
The Hurricanes are getting ready to move on from defenceman Dougie Hamilton.
An unrestricted free agent on July 28, Hamilton has been given permission to work out a sign-andtrade with another team before he's officially allowed to shop himself around. That gives the 28-year-old the ability to sign an eight-year contract elsewhere because Waddell wasn't optimistic anything would get done in Carolina.
“We've had discussions with Dougie and his representation,” Waddell said. “There's a difference of opinion right now.”