The Carolina Hurricanes chose not to touch the Prince Of Wales Trophy on Friday night after beating the Montreal Canadiens 6-1 in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final. Captain Jordan Staal received the trophy from NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly, then stepped away from it before the team posed for photos.
That decision mattered immediately because Carolina is back in the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2006, and the old question that follows this trophy everywhere is back with it. The Hurricanes will face the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 1 on Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, and the gesture — or refusal to make one — will once again be read as a sign, even though the league has never said it carries any real weight.
Staal’s choice also fit a franchise memory that is impossible to ignore. Rod Brind'Amour did not touch the trophy in 2006, and the Hurricanes went on to win the Stanley Cup by beating the Edmonton Oilers in seven games. Carolina’s only other Prince of Wales Trophy win came in 2002, when Ron Francis lifted it and the Hurricanes later lost to the Detroit Red Wings in five games in the Cup Final.
That is why the superstition never settles into one clean answer. The Florida Panthers have avoided touching the trophy in each of the past two seasons and still won the Cup. The Tampa Bay Lightning touched it in 2020, 2021 and 2022, won the championship in the first two years, then lost to the Colorado Avalanche in six games in 2022. Sidney Crosby touched it in 2016 and 2017 before Pittsburgh won back-to-back titles, and Alex Ovechkin touched it in 2018 before Washington won the Cup. Boston won it all in 2011 after choosing not to touch the trophy, but Zdeno Chara skipped it again in 2019 and the Bruins lost to St. Louis in seven games.
So Carolina’s decision says less about destiny than about how tightly the NHL has linked a piece of silver to its postseason mythology. The Prince of Wales Trophy has gone to the Eastern Conference champion since the 1993-94 season, and every spring the ritual invites the same argument, only louder. The Hurricanes took the safer photo-op path on Friday. The next answer comes Tuesday night, when the final begins and the superstition meets the game.
