Brandon Bussi picked up his second consecutive win Thursday night, and now the Hurricanes are one victory from the Stanley Cup. If he gets the call Sunday night, the 27-year-old goalie could be the one standing between Carolina and its second championship in franchise history.
That is the kind of turn Bussi spent years trying to earn. He was never drafted, but the Bruins signed him as a college free agent in the spring of 2022 after his days as a Western Michigan standout. In his rookie pro season with AHL Providence, he went 22-5-4 while Linus Ullmark won the Vezina Trophy and Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman combined for a 64-12-5 record, a reminder of how crowded the Bruins' crease already was.
Bussi never played a single minute for the Bruins. He left as a free agent last July, and the next stop carried its own uncertainty: Florida signed him to a two-way deal at league minimum worth $775,000, with a $400,000 guarantee if he spent the full season in the minors. Sergei Bobrovsky was still holding the No. 1 job there at $10 million per season, so the path to an NHL crease remained narrow.
Then the door opened again. Bussi said in the summer of 2023 that he was hoping at some point to play his first NHL game, and added, “That’s the dream you choose.” For a goalie, the line between waiting and playing can vanish in a week. The same was true for Bussi on Thursday night, when his win helped the Hurricanes take a 3-2 series lead over the Golden Knights and put him within reach of a place he had chased for years.
What remains unresolved is the part that matters most now: whether Bussi is actually in net when the Hurricanes can clinch the Stanley Cup on Sunday night. He once looked like insurance for the Bruins and never got a minute there. Now he is one win from the Cup, and the next decision could make the difference between a temporary stop and the game that changes everything.
