Blues at Hurricanes Not-a-Gameday Thread: Give me some Brind’Amour!

Rod Brind’Amour is probably best known as the long-term captain, and now coach of the Carolina Hurricanes. He helped guide them to the 2006 Stanley Cup, he had his number retired by the franchise in 2011. He was hired as an assistant coach for the team and was named head coach in 2018.

For Blues fans, you may remember him as a hot young rookie and part of a frustrating trade with the Philadelphia Flyers. He was drafted 9th overall by the Blues in the 1988 NHL Draft, and began his playing time with the team in the 1989 Stanley Cup playoffs, scoring a goal on his first shot against the Minnesota North Stars. That turned out to be a positive omen for Brind’Amour, who scored 24 points in the Blues’ first 27 games the following season and went on to be named to the NHL’s All-Rookie team that year.

After the following season, Brind’Amour was shipped with Dan Quinn to the Flyers in exchange for defenseman Murray Barron and Ron Sutter. Sutter was with the Blues for just two and a half seasons, scoring 37 goals in 163 games. Barron hung around a little longer, spending just over five seasons with the team.

Brind’Amour would spend eight and a half successful seasons with the Flyers.

In the Brief time he was with the Blues, Brind’Amour became a fan favorite. If you’re one of those elderly people, like me, who remember the pugnacious forward with the screwed up nose. Mine, personally, was that I had his ProSet rookie card and it actually used to be worth a little something, but since it’s a ProSet card and they overproduced everything it probably is not.

As much as it sucked to lose him so soon in his career, we’ll always have this fight against Mike Modano.