What happens when a top NHL coach takes the helm of a Pee Wee team?
Matthew Barrera
Published Apr 07, 2026
RALEIGH, N.C. – Rod Brind’Amour props open the bench door, leans over the ice and yells:
“Hunt it, Brooks! Hunt for it.”
Brind’Amour, the head coach of the Carolina Hurricanes, is at a near-empty Polar Ice rink a little north of downtown. Brooks is his 11-year-old son, playing for the 11-and-under Junior Canes. And he’s skating hard on the forecheck, fighting for the puck. Brooks, the youngest and smallest player on the team, wears No. 17, just like his father. One of his linemates is Jagger Burns, 11, son of current Hurricanes defenseman Brent Burns.
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Brind’Amour may be the most decorated assistant coach for a youth hockey team in the country. And the guy next to him in flip flops and a black Hurricanes jumpsuit, retired Kings and Hurricanes winger Justin Williams, might be a close second.
But on days like this, Williams says, “we’re just dads.”
Brind’Amour, 52, has just returned from the NHL All-Star Game in South Florida. One day, he was offering instruction to superstars Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin. A couple of days later, he is teaching hockey fundamentals to a team that includes Brooks, Jagger and Williams’ 11-year-old daughter, Jade.
“They don’t have any clue I’m the coach of the Hurricanes,” Brind’Amour says. “It’s funny. I’m just Brooks’ dad.”
And like dads everywhere, oftentimes when he tells the kids something, “I’ll get a little roll of the eyes,” he says. “I don’t get that from my (NHL) guys. I get it from the 11-year-olds, like, ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’”
Of course, he does. Brind’Amour is one of the best coaches in the NHL (he was coach of the year in 2021) and his playing career is considered by some Hall of Fame-worthy. He’s currently leading a Hurricanes team primed for a run at the Stanley Cup.
But if you ask him what brings him the most joy, the most fulfillment, it’s coaching these kids.
His nights behind the NHL bench are his job, his livelihood, his identity. His nights with his son’s team are his sanctuary.
On this particular Wednesday, Brind’Amour’s Junior Canes are taking on a team that’s the next age group up, and they’re down 5-2 entering the third period. At the second intermission, Brind’Amour, in a black jacket, cap and shorts, stands on the bench and props his left foot on the boards to address the group.
“These guys are a little bigger and a little faster,” he tells them. “But the puck can move fast for you too if you stick with it. Let’s see how quick we can move the puck.
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“Let’s go!”
They gather in a circle, put their hands in, and along with Brind’Amour, chant:
“Canes on three! 1-2-3 Canes!”
Brind’Amour had planned to arrive at the Junior Canes practice right before the 5:15 p.m. start.
“Busy day,” he says.
Now, here he is, a half-hour beforehand, diving into the back of his black Sierra pickup truck to grab his gear.
There are a few constants in Brind’Amour’s routine, from 6 a.m. wakeups to daily workouts to …
“He’s never late,” his wife, Amy, says.
Brind’Amour grabs a scuffed-up Easton stick, slings a black equipment bag over his shoulder and walks into Polar Ice. It’s the same gear Brind’Amour used to tutor his oldest son, Skyler, who’s now a senior at Quinnipiac.
“Same bag for 20 years,” he says, smiling. “Just keep it in the back of my truck.”
Brind’Amour’s walk into the rink brings back memories. This was the Hurricanes practice facility back in January 2000 when he was traded from Philadelphia. One day, he was an All-Star in Philly, the next he was sharing the showers and facilities with beer leaguers in North Carolina.
“I was like, ‘What’s going on here?’” Brind’Amour says, laughing. “That’s all they had. It’s crazy.”
Did he ever envision still being here when he arrived just over two decades ago?
“No chance,” Brind’Amour says. “It was, ‘How fast can I get out?’ Then you start meeting all these people involved with the team. It’s like, ‘Wait a minute. This is way different than I’m used to.’ The team started bringing in really good people. This was fun to be around.”
The first few months Brind’Amour was here, he’d ask people around town, “Where do the Hurricanes play?” They’d reply, “‘Who are they?”
“If I said in Philly, ‘Where do the Flyers play?'” he says, “they would have been like, ‘What?!'”
It’s also the city where he met Amy. She was the daughter of former college basketball coach Eddie Biedenbach (Davidson, University of North Carolina at Asheville). They met on a blind date late in Brind’Amour’s playing career.
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They had lunch at a spot right by the Hurricanes practice rink. Both drove separately. Brind’Amour had gone through a public divorce, and Amy had just emerged from a four-year relationship. They were hedging their bets.
Brind’Amour had long, black, slicked back hair. He was pretty quiet.
“What do you do for a living?” she asked.
“I play hockey,” he said.
“Like, what’s your job?” she responded.
“Yeah, that’s my job,” he deadpanned.
Amy had to Google him. As she re-tells the story, Rod jumps in.
“You played it up like you had no idea,” Brind’Amour cracks.
After they had been on two dates, though, Amy says: “I was driving down US1 on a weekend, and there’s this huge billboard with him holding the Stanley Cup. I called him: ‘Oh my God, you’re on a billboard.’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, it’s been up for a year.'”
Hoisting hockey’s holy grail in 2006 was the best moment of his life and is still the most iconic moment in Hurricanes franchise history. It’s a feeling Brind’Amour desperately wants his current players to know. Here. In Raleigh.
“I can’t imagine being anywhere else,” Brind’Amour says. “This is home.”
Brind’Amour will spend three straight nights at Polar Ice during this early-February Hurricanes bye week. On Tuesday, there’s a regular practice. Wednesday is more of a scrimmage. Thursday is a skills practice, which includes a little gym workout (which Brind’Amour participates in), a video session (which Brind’Amour runs) and on-ice drills.
“You’d be surprised how much is the same,” Brind’Amour says. “This is the age where we start putting it in. The forecheck is the exact same. There’s less detail, very basic, same as D-zone. It’s the same principles. Hockey is hockey. There’s one way to do it, in my opinion.
“At this age, they’re a little too young to really grasp it. Unless you do it over and over and over, they never grasp it. But a year or two from now, you start seeing it, when they’re 13, 14.”
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With that, Brind’Amour disappears into the locker room. Time to get ready.
Kids are popping on their shoulder pads, tying their skates. There’s no real pep talk. The biggest task is helping with equipment. The team’s head coach, Cody Staves, and assistant Ron Koss — a Purple Heart veteran with a tour in Iraq — are already in their black team sweatsuits.
Staves says he got a voicemail out of the blue from Brind’Amour a couple of years ago.
“Hey, it’s Rod,” he says. “I’d like to help. Just give me a call.”
Brind’Amour had helped coach Skyler and wanted to do the same with Brooks. Staves didn’t expect him to be this active, though. Brind’Amour is always available via phone if there are any questions or advice needed. He watches their games and practices online if he can’t make it in person. On Thursdays, Brind’Amour is in the gym with the kids — mostly overseeing stretching and bodyweight drills, nothing crazy — and runs the video session. He’ll typically use his Hurricanes games as a reference point.
“One time, they showed my dad on the Sharks, and he was just getting dominated by the Canes — it was so awful,” jokes Jagger Burns.
Jagger says Brind’Amour-run practices are a lot more advanced than what he experienced in Northern California.
“Coach Rod is so smart,” Jagger says. “The day we got traded (to Carolina), my dad had a meeting. After the meeting, he showed me a picture. I didn’t know it was (Brind’Amour). I’m like, ‘That guy is ripped.’ He’s like, ‘That’s your coach.'”
There’s not a lot of screaming by Brind’Amour. No whistles. Most of the time is spent in one-on-one conversations, where Brind’Amour skates up to a kid, puts his hand on their shoulder and repeats an instruction. It’s harder to coach the kids than NHLers, Brind’Amour says, but it’s fun to see the enjoyment. If they score in practice, it’s like it’s in Game 7.
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“You get bigger gains from the little guys,” Brind’Amour says. “It’s a rewarding job. It’s like you’re a teacher. They’re not doing it for financial reasons. They love the job. That’s coaching, really.
“This is not work. The big job (in the NHL) becomes work some days. Taking a red-eye home from Anaheim after a loss, it’s like, ‘This is not fun. I don’t want to be doing this.’ The good far outweighs the bad with this job that’s for sure.”
Brind’Amour’s dad, Bob, coached him until he was 15. Bob Brind’Amour was a pipefitter at the local mill in the town of Prince Rupert, British Columbia (population 12,000). Rod vividly remembers his father waking up at 6 a.m., putting on overalls and going to a job he hated. “It made me not want to do that,” Rod says. After work, Bob got home, put on his skates and helped his son at his game. He emphasized hard work.
Bob put his son on defense. There were barely enough players to fill a team, much less a good blue line.
“I was like, ‘No way,'” Brind’Amour recalls. “How am I going to be like Gretzky if I’m on D?’ He’s like, ‘Shut your mouth. You’re going to play D. You’ll play half the game.’
“It was one of the best things to happen to me. I learned the game from a different perspective for when I went back to center. I wish I would have played defenseman all the way. My mind worked better that way, seeing everything. Obviously, it worked out OK.”
Brind’Amour won two Selke Trophies as the league’s best defensive forward in what could end up being a Hall of Fame career. But while he’s on the ice for Tuesday’s practice, he isn’t getting the most attention.
That goes to the Hurricanes’ mascot, Stormy, there to do a promotional shoot for the Feb. 18 Stadium Series game in Raleigh. Players from the 10-year-old team, which is waiting to go on the ice, bang the glass and yell “STORMY!” as the furry figure does on-ice drills with the kids.
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“They’re more excited for a mascot,” one dad quips.
Up in the stands, a few moms watch. Krista Kyle says her family moved from Massachusetts and was surprised to find out Brind’Amour was one of the coaches for her son Tyler’s team. The moment Tyler saw Brind’Amour, he told her, “Wait, I’ve seen him on TV.”
“Tyler respects him so much, he wouldn’t joke with him,” Krista says. “There’s too much riding on it. He wants his approval. He wants to skate hard and play well.”
Walk up to Brind’Amour’s two-story, four-bedroom North Raleigh home, and there’s a hockey goal in the driveway. A protective net behind it. A few pucks laying around.
Loud barks from the family’s 4-year-old brown Lab, Bodie, serve as the doorbell.
A ball in his mouth, the furry 75-pounder just wants to play.
“A little too friendly,” Brind’Amour jokes.
Brooks, wearing a Canes “Bunch of Jerks” hat backwards, has just gotten home from school, with his father picking him up. On most days, Brind’Amour hits baseballs or golf balls in the backyard with his son (he’s also an assistant coach on his summer baseball team). But they’re in a bit of a rush before leaving for practice on this night.
So Brind’Amour heads to the stove and makes Brooks a grilled cheese for some pre-scrimmage fuel.
Brooks scarfs the sandwich and packs into the family’s white Ford Expedition for the daily carpool to the rink. Brooks’ team will face an older team (Under-12s) in a scrimmage.
The Expedition pulls up to the rink, and Brooks puts his bag of gear over his shoulder.
His father does the same.
“You ready, Brooksie?” Jagger says in greeting.
“Yep,” Brooks replies, and then heads to the locker room.
As Brind’Amour enters the building, he stands by the glass and stares at the empty rink. In the NHL, he’s known for his emotional, motivating speeches. But he isn’t one to give a lot of pep talks to 11-year-olds.
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Williams sat next to Brind’Amour in the Hurricanes dressing room as a teammate for six years, then played for him for several more. The retired center says when Brind’Amour speaks to people, you can feel the emotion. He’ll talk to the kids, but the message, the lessons, carry a different tone.
“You teach 11 year olds about discipline, how to play the game, how you win and how you lose, it’s almost like life as well,” Williams says. “To have a good attitude, bad attitude, that’s what coaches look for. There’s so many things you can learn in every sport. Really hockey, it teaches you a lot of things. He’ll tell them to ‘stay with it’ and teaches them how to be good hockey players — and people.”
Brind’Amour says he always wanted to coach. When he was an assistant with the Hurricanes, he told management he’d love to coach their AHL affiliate in Charlotte, but the gig was taken. Brind’Amour even reached out to his alma mater, Michigan State, to put his name in for its head coaching job when it was vacant. The Spartans turned him down, saying he hadn’t completed his degree, so he’d be out of the running.
“At that point, it’s like, ‘Will it ever happen?'” says close friend Wilson Hoyle. “But it ended up the best thing that happened to him. To the Hurricanes. To these kids.”
Brind’Amour says if he had gotten the Michigan State job, he’d probably still be there. And loving it. But he’d also still be coaching Brooks. On Wednesday, there’s one minute when Brind’Amour is helping Brooks tape his stick. Later, he’s yelling from the bench about where to go on the ice, where the defenders are. When the team scores after consistent pressure on the net, Brind’Amour turns to Brooks and his teammates.
“See how they ambush them?” he says. “Go to the net.”
The kids nod.
“I’ve had all these kids for a few years,” Brind’Amour says. “You keep telling them something and then, all of a sudden, it clicks. Then they never do it wrong again. Those are the cool moments.”
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Brind’Amour’s second intermission speech doesn’t make for a crazy comeback, and the Junior Canes lose by three goals. But the kids are having fun. They’ll be back the next night for a skills-related practice. They will be in the gym and then watch video.
Brind’Amour will be there too, leading the way.
As he waits for Brooks, he hears a familiar voice. It’s Jagger.
“See you Coach Rod!”
(Illustration: Sean Reilly / The Athletic. Photos: Jeff Vinnick / NHLI via Getty Images; Joe Smith / The Athletic)
