Knight's Hurricane: who will get the NHL's main trophy

On the night of June 3, the final series of the NHL playoffs starts. Carolina and Vegas will compete for the main trophy this year. Both clubs have two Russians each, Svechnikov and Nikishin, against Barbashev and Dorofeev. Read more about the decisive series and its main characters in the Izvestia article.

Russian hockey players in the fight for the Stanley Cup

Four Russians will play in the Stanley Cup finals at once. Pavel Dorofeev and Ivan Barbashev play for Vegas, Andrey Svechnikov and Alexander Nikishin for Carolina. All of them have made an important contribution to the success of their teams.

Barbashev and Dorofeev are among the leading forwards of the Golden Knights. Ivan remains one of the team's most reliable forwards: he plays in top combinations, works a lot without the puck and regularly appears on the ice at key moments of matches. Dorofeev turned into a real scoring machine. In the current playoffs, the native of Nizhny Tagil is leading in the number of goals scored, and his performance has grown from series to series.

Svechnikov's performance in Carolina is less impressive from a statistical point of view, but he scored important goals in the Eastern Conference finals against Montreal. Even when Andrey doesn't score many points, he remains an important part of Rod Brindamore's attacking system.

Nikishin is spending his first full season in North America and immediately made it to the Stanley Cup Finals. The defender gradually got used to Carolina's schemes, although he still doesn't have much playing time in the playoffs. On average, Alexander spends 15 minutes and 15 seconds on the ice per match, and this is the worst indicator among the defenders of the team. Nevertheless, Nikishin is an experienced hockey player who has several serious cup campaigns in the KHL. You can definitely rely on such a player in a difficult moment.

Thus, regardless of the outcome of the final series, the Stanley Cup will once again go to Russian hockey players.

"Carolina" will play in the final after 20 years

Many colleagues may envy Rod Brindamore. The coach has been in charge of Carolina since 2018 and only now, in the 2025/26 season, was he able to lead the contender club to the Stanley Cup finals. The specialist, who is associated with the Hurricanes in much the same way as Sidney Crosby is with Pittsburgh or Alexander Ovechkin with Washington, has received a serious carte blanche.

Brindamore methodically built his own system, remaining faithful to aggressive vertical hockey with the highest tempo. With one significant drawback: after stable adjustments, failures invariably occurred in the playoffs. This trend has stopped only now, when Carolina reached the finals without any problems.

The Hurricanes got the easiest playoff bracket. This is not an attempt to belittle their merits, but a statement of fact. They took out Ottawa, exhausted by the struggle for the cup eight, in four matches. They also spent a minimum of time on Philadelphia. The conference finals with Montreal stretched over five meetings only because Carolina, in an uncharacteristic manner, overslept the start of the series and lost the first match. After that, the team won twice in overtime, and the fourth and fifth games remained for it unconditionally. The path of the best team in the East to the finals took only 13 matches.

However, only the final episode will be the main test of Brindamore's philosophy. Either he will finally get rid of the reputation of a loser coach, or he will go down in franchise history as a man who won the Stanley Cup both as a player and as a head coach.

— When I bought the team, the main goal was to make the brand special. One that you can be proud of," Carolina owner Tom Dundon, who acquired the team in early 2018, told the NHL's official website. — We had to do some work in this direction. And we're lucky to have hired Rod Brindamore. We had good players, but we continued to strengthen the squad. Reaching the finals is something incredible. I want to go there every year, but it took a long time. I am very glad that we have finally succeeded.

The Golden Knights dealt with Colorado unexpectedly quickly and loudly in a parallel series. The best team of the regular season was hit by injuries to the leaders: Nathan McKinnon, Cale Makar and Valery Nichushkin. As a result, the Avalanche could not take a single match. The Knights' organized defense literally strangled the opponent's attacking hockey. "Carolina" looks more variable in terms of playing with the puck, even if it is inferior in individual skill. At least, there are no McKinnon or Makar-scale figures in its composition. The final promises to be a series where every scoring opportunity will be literally squeezed out of stone.

At the same time, "Carolina" is considered the favorite. The NHL's official website interviewed 15 leading journalists. As a result, the Hurricanes received 10 votes, the Golden Knights — 5. Carolina goalkeeper Frederik Andersen (8 votes) was named the main contender for the award for the best player of the playoffs. The second is Mitch Marner from Vegas (4). One vote each was cast for Logan Stankoven, Taylor Hall (both from Carolina) and Jack Aikel (Vegas).