08/01/26
July 11, 2026
Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon has names of wife, kids engraved on Stanley Cup above actual players: A total of 53 names have been engraved onto the Stanley Cup to represent the 2026 champions. At the very top of the list is team owner Tom Dundon ... and his wife and their five children, whose ages are believed to range from single digits to mid-20s.
Tom is the only family member who holds a position with the club.
posted by tommybiden to hockey at 08:36 PM - 4 comments
Not approved. I would have thought there would be a prohibition against stuff like this.
This is like a developer building a new subdivision and all the streets are named after an excavator's wife or daughter.
I have a long standing refusal to live on a street with a name like Patti Lane or Tiffany Court.
I'm not helping some dude immortalize his family and I have to go through life with the name of his meemaw on my driver's license.
Except that doing this sort of thing to the Cup is far worse. There should be a stewardship committee that prevents this sort of cheap shit from happening. The Cup is not only a magnificent object, it has a regal heritage that dates back long before anyone ever thought there would be a hockey team within 100 miles of Pedro's South of the Border.
I hope that fixing the Cup is easier than getting Trump's name off the Kennedy Center.
posted by beaverboard at 09:03 PM on July 12, 2026
I think this is a no-class move by a man without respect for what the Cup represents. Every player whose name is on the Cup has poured heart, soul, and likely some blood into ring to earn it. Players who have not won a Cup won't touch it because they have not earned the right. But some snot nosed kindergartener gets his name on the Cup because daddy's billions bought the team? Fuck that.
And to omit Bobby Gorman's (the equipment manager since they were the Whalers) name in lieu of his wife and kids'? When we start eating the billionaires, I want a bite of this asshole.
posted by tahoemoj at 03:45 PM on July 13, 2026
I recall when Peter Pocklington had his father's name put on the Cup when the Oilers won.
Basil Pocklington had no connection to the club.
The NHL had his dad's name X'd out.
Chicago's strength coach Brad Aldrich had his name X'd out as well.
That Bobby Gorman's name, among others was not listed is deplorable, at best.
Joel Nystrom's name is not there, he played 38 games with the team this season.
Players are automatic inclusions at 41 games (or 1 game in the Final).
Other staff who should be there rather than his progeny would include Jesper Fast (conditioning coach) and Kristin Pirigyi (team nutritionist).
I would like to see those names X'd out a few years down the line.
It would not surprise me if rules are put in place to have teams submit proposed names to the NHL prior to the playoffs should they happen to win the Cup.
posted by tommybiden at 05:55 PM on July 13, 2026
Under Peter Karmanos, the team was floundering, missing the playoffs, hiring incompetent coaches, taking no chances, and seemingly fine with losing. Us Caniacs were ready for new ownership and we got it. Yeah, Dundon makes crazy decisions that we don't always like, but he wants what us fans want: a winning hockey team that is capable of earning the Cup every season. The Dundon-led Hurricanes are the complete opposite of the Karmanos era. They've taken chances on a rookie head coach, a rookie GM, bold choices in the free agent market and trade market, and some of those chances worked out magically and some haven't. So what? Find guys that do work out and keep moving forward.
When you read stories like this Cup story, always keep in mind: this is the same organization that when called a bunch of jerks by a very popular hockey commentator, they made a t-shirt out of it on the very next day and have made a mint from it. When the Canes win the Cup next year, Dundon can put his dog's name on for all I care.