Walt Ruff: Carolina Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour on all the talk about his contract situation the last 24-48 hours: “I had a great conversation yesterday with Don and again this morning. I feel really good that we’ll figure it out quickly. I’m not concerned.”
TSN: Darren Dreger on TSN 1050 radio yesterday on what is going on down in Carolina with head coach Rod Brind’Amour and his contract situation.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Jeff O’Neill: “So Dregs, you had a report out of Carolina. What the hell’s that all about? Like, what, where does that leave everything down there? Like is it just, is this, I don’t know, I just, describe what’s goes on down there. What is going on?”
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Dreger: “Well, what was going on was that there was a healthy contract extension negotiation taking place with Rod Brind’amour, which also included the assistant coaches and the staff.
And I think Brind’Amour and company felt like you know, as of a week, 10 days ago, that they were right there. They were closing in on an extension. And then my understanding is that General Manager Don Waddell, who has since been quoted in a piece by the Daily Faceoff, which is interesting to me, and saying they feel like they’re close. Well they were, you know, 10 days ago, and then Waddell was pushed out of the equation and I believe that Tom Dundon took control and basically said, alright, well, we’re not doing this and we’re not doing that. And effectively, the offer to Brind’Amour was taken off the table.
Now, could it change with a phone call or a face-to-face discussion? Sure it could. We know that Rod Brind’Amour prefers to stay in Carolina. But I’m not reporting what I reported earlier without knowing that Rod Brind’Amour is willing to become a free agent and see what the market brings.
His focus right now is on winning the Stanley Cup. Who’s going to question that in the possibility with the Carolina Hurricanes and way that that team is, is moving going into the second round? It just doesn’t make any sense to anybody who has reached out to me since I reported that, in the approach by ownership of the Carolina Hurricanes and why they’re doing this to bring them more.
I mean, this guy fellas, again in digging in a little bit deeper, he was, in the last six years has been half of what the league average is among NHL head coaches in terms of being paid. And the extension that I believe they were working on would have put him just outside the top 10 of NHL head coaches paid in the National Hockey League.
Does that make sense to any of you guys? Doesn’t make sense to me.”
Brian Hayes: “No kidding. No kidding. I mean that’s, that’s really beneficial. What you’re saying is Rod Brind’amour still want to give a hometown discount because he wants to stay there.”
Dreger: “He wants to stay but he’s willing to leave. He is.”
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Hayes: “Yeah, yeah. Well, listen, if he does, like what kind of activity are we talking? You know, how many teams in the league are are immediately all- in on Rod Brind’Amour.”
Everyone. All of them. All of them. And including teams that have active head coaches who are still in the playoffs, that may not be in the playoffs for much longer.”