One Teammate’s Raw Reaction Captures Why Jordan Staal’s Conn Smythe Win Meant So Much

Jordan Staal didn’t pile up points in bunches through most of these playoffs. He didn’t make highlight-reel dangles or blast one-timers from the dot every night. But ask the centers who faced him — they’ll tell you he was a nightmare. And when the Stanley Cup Final arrived, the Carolina Hurricanes captain flipped a switch that changed everything.

Staal lifted the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP after Carolina clinched the 2026 Cup in six games over the Vegas Golden Knights. It was the franchise’s second championship, and for Staal, it capped a journey that started with a ring as a 20-year-old Penguin in 2009 and ran through years of grinding in Carolina.

The Respect Inside the Room

Teammate Jordan Martinook didn’t hold back when asked what Staal means to this group. “You talk to every first-line center that we played throughout these playoffs and I bet you they say they hate playing against Jordan Staal,” Martinook said, via The Athletic‘s Pierre LeBrun. “And then for him to come out and do what he does in the Cup Final, you can’t put into words what he means to this team. He’s been through the lows here and now he’s lifted it above his head. I’m so happy for him.”

That quote sums up what the stat sheet doesn’t show. Staal is a shutdown center who makes opponents miserable for 200 feet. Then, when his team needed offense most, he delivered six goals in the first five games of the Final. That production shifted the series and put the Hurricanes in control.

A Long Road Back

Staal’s path to this moment wasn’t straight. He arrived in Carolina via a 2012 trade from Pittsburgh, then served as co-captain with Justin Faulk in 2017. He briefly lost the ‘C’ in 2018 before reclaiming it outright when Justin Williams retired in 2019. Through those years, the Hurricanes made deep runs but came up short. This spring, they finished the job.

For a captain who does his talking with his stick and his body, the Conn Smythe trophy is the rare spotlight moment. Martinook’s reaction, raw and from the gut, tells you Staal earned every second of it.