Rod Brind'Amour and the Hurricanes make a decision on Brent Burn's future

The Carolina Hurricanes held their season ending media availability today, following their Eastern Conference Final loss to the Florida Panthers last week.

Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour was asked about the future of 41 year old defenseman Brent Burns and if he would welcome Burns back to the team next season. Brind'Amour answered in the affirmative that he'd love to have Burns back next season, even despite Burns' drop off in play in recent seasons.

From Brind'Amour courtesy of ESPN NHL insider Greg Wyshynski:

Burns is coming off a massive eight year contract that paid him $8 million and is slated to become an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his lengthy NHL career. He managed six goals and 29 points last season, a steep drop off from the 43 points he put up in 2023-24 and the 61 points he put up in 2022-23, but he's still a serviceable blue-liner.

He's never been the most defensively aware defenseman, but his size and his reach with his stick make him a tough defender to deal with. Don't be surprised if he gets one more kick at the can with the 'Canes next season.

Brind'Amour when meeting the media, of course, was also asked about his interaction with Panthers coach Paul Maurice following Game 5.

The two coaches appeared to have a disagreement while shaking hands, check it out:

Brind'Amour's response was perfect, in my opinion.

"Yeah [it was hard], but I understood his point of view," Brind'Amour said when asked about skipping the handshake line. "He explained it to me. I wasn't expecting it, but I understood what he said and why. It is the players. Of course it is. Those guys are the ones that are battling out there and we're just sitting back there. Not along for the ride though. We invested a ton into it. So I get his point. It is about the players."

"I guess my take on it now, sitting back on it and reflecting, we talk about gracious losing and I've had some pretty impactful memories and moments in that line as a coach going through it. Even in this playoff run with the Devils, I had four or five guys that were Hurricanes and I still think of them like that. So it meant something to me to go through there and shake their hand. For me, I'm not thinking about a TV moment. I get enough of that every time there's a penalty. So that's not in it for me."

Brind'Amour reiterated that he'll continue to walk through the handshake lineup, no matter Maurice's feelings on it.

"I think moving forward, I'll probably go back to it just because it's a sign of respect. That's the way I look at it. We're not out there on the ice battling, but we're right in there with these guys. So that's my take. I think you're entitled to whatever one you want. He won, so I kind of went, 'Okay, I'll follow your lead.' But I do think it's important, to me anyway, to show respect to the players."

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