AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
Jordan Staal was the first to lift the Stanley Cup, the Carolina Hurricanes captain letting out a few howling screams Sunday night at T-Mobile Arena.
Read more Drug overdose leads to manslaughter charge in Chatham County
Staal then skated toward his joyous teammates for the first handoff and gave the coveted trophy to … Frederik Andersen?
“I was surprised,” Andersen would say. “I was taken aback, a deer in the headlights for a bit there.”
It could have been Sebastian Aho or Jaccob Slavin or Jordan Martinook, who have joined Staal in being the Canes’ leadership group the past eight years in the quest for the Cup. But Staal picked out Andersen, who was not in the lineup or on the bench for Game 6 of the Cup Final against the Vegas Golden Knights, but joined the postgame celebration after the 3-0 clinching victory.
Why Freddie?
“Obviously he’s been grinding the longest and I think he got us going in the playoffs,” Staal said.
At 36, Andersen started the first 16 playoff games and won 13 as the Canes marched their way into their first Stanley Cup Final since 2006. Slavin called him an “absolute brick wall” and the veteran’s focus was super intense. He was dialed in.
Things changed for Andersen on May 28. That was the day it was learned that Andersen’s longtime agent and close friend, Claude Lemieux, had died, taking his own life.
Lemieux, a four-time Stanley Cup champion, had been the honored torchbearer into Montreal’s Bell Centre before Game 3 of the Eastern Conference final. Andersen was beaming that day, happy that Lemieux had his big moment, even if Andersen was in net for the Canes and his friend and agent was revving up the sellout crowd.
Only Andersen knows how Lemieux’s death affected him. He said Sunday he “tweaked” his knee in Game 2 of the Cup Final against Vegas. The Canes won that one in overtime, but Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour made a change in Game 3, the first in Las Vegas, after the Golden Knights took a 4-0 lead after two periods.
It was Brandon Bussi time.
It would stay that way until the end of Game 6, when the Canes closed out the shutout win, the gloves and helmets came flying off and the on-ice party began at T-Mobile Arena. Bussi took a tough loss in Game 3 after an unfortunate bounce in the second overtime, but was rock-solid in starting and winning the next three games as the Canes claimed the Cup.
Bussi quickly became the focus of the Cup Final. His enticing story of going from waiver-wire claim to Stanley Cup champion this season was featured by all the sports media as the “Bus” squeezed everything out of his opportunity to shine, to star.
Andersen, meanwhile, was left in the shadows, all but disappearing from sight, at least publicly, until going on the ice Sunday to celebrate. Pyotr Kochetkov, not Andersen, was Bussi’s backup the last three games of the Cup Final.
Read more Collin Gosselin’s New Book to Reveal What Really Happened in His Childhood
“I had a lot of ups and downs, through this series, the playoffs and the years where we were a part of different emotional swings,” Andersen said. “The way we’ve been supporting each other throughout that has meant the world, to me especially but also to everyone who experienced their ups and downs. We’ve always been there for everyone.”
Andersen was emotional after the Canes finished off the conference final in Game 5 against Montreal in Lenovo Center. And again Sunday, in some postgame interviews after the Canes won the Cup against Vegas.
Asked about Lemieux by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Freidman, Andersen said, “It’s tough to really describe how much he meant to me and how cool it is to have my name on that trophy with him.”
Andersen had nothing but praise for Bussi, who won 31 games for the Canes in the regular season, then was Andersen’s backup for the first 16 playoff games.
“It’s really hard to find words for how good he was,” Andersen said. “The way he came in like that, having sat probably two months, coming in and playing with that calmness and assertiveness right away, that’s really hard to do. That’s something I was impressed by and won’t forget for a long time.”
The question now for Andersen is what’s next?
Andersen has played 13 NHL seasons, the last five with the Hurricanes. He has a Stanley Cup. He competed for Denmark in the Milan Olympics — fulfilling another lifelong dream — along with Canes teammate Nikolaj Ehlers.
Andersen, who has 324 career regular-season wins, has been sidelined at times with knee issues. He had to cope with a serious blood clotting issue in the 2023-24 season.
Andersen is due to become an unrestricted free agent. Only general manager Eric Tulsky knows what the team’s future plans are with their goalies – Bussi was signed to a three-year contract in February and Kochetkov has a year left on his contract.
In his 35 regular-season games this season, Andersen had career-worsts in goals-against average (3.05) and save percentage (.874), even though Tulsky said his goalie played better than his numbers. He had a 1.89 GAA and .910 percentage in his 16 playoff games.
During the playoffs a year ago, Andersen and Tulsky agreed on a one-year, $2.75 million contract for 2025-26 that was packed with incentives. That could again be an option as Tulsky clearly appreciates — and has said so in interviews — Andersen’s resiliency and his contributions to the Hurricanes.
Read more Chicken and a champion. Raising Canes hosts Andrei Svechnikov for promo event
This story was originally published June 17, 2026 at 5:30 AM.