Whose legacies will be impacted with a Cup win?
The Stanley Cup Final between the Carolina Hurricanes and Vegas Golden Knights is set to get started with Game 1 from the Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina on Tuesday night.
Regardless of which team ends up victorious, the win would provide a major boost to the legacies of several key figures on both sides of the equation.
Golden Knights head coach John Tortorella would become the fourth coach in the history of the league to win the Cup with two different franchises, while Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour would join an exclusive list of those to both captain and coach the same franchise to the Cup.
On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by host of The Sheet, Jeff Marek, to discuss who can boost their legacy the most with a Stanley Cup win.
Tyler Yaremchuk: The word that always comes to mind is legacies. So when you look at this matchup and the teams and players and coaches who are going to be competing, who’s got the most to lose here when it comes to their legacies, or the most to gain, maybe, is a better way to phrase that, probably most to gain?
Jeff Marek: Well, one, John Tortorella. I mean, John Tortorella is poised to join one of the most exclusive clubs in the history of the NHL that goes back to 1917, we’ve talked about this plenty. All year long, we’ve been mentioning this. There’s only been three coaches that have won with multiple teams– Scotty Bowman, Tommy Gorman, and Dick Irvin. That’s it. And when you consider how often coaches get recycled, that is remarkable. Just remarkable. But if John Tortorella wins the Stanley Cup with the Vegas Golden Knights, that number goes from three to four. Only four coaches to win with multiple teams. Scotty did it with three, both the other guys with a pair. So I think that would cement a legacy for John Tortorella, even though he might not even be the full-time coach next season after this playoff run. We don’t even know that. But I think for John Tortorella, this is a big legacy moment. I think Taylor Hall, too. I really do. Like, this is the best hockey we’ve seen Taylor Hall play since he won the [Hart Trophy].
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…