Engraving Controversy Is The NHL’s Fault

This week’s embarrassing controversy regarding the engraving of the entire Dundon clan on the Stanley Cup is something that the NHL should have cut off at the pass before the names were struck into silver. 

You cannot expect Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon to have more sense. This is the same guy who has underpaid one of the league’s best coaches in Rod Brind’Amour, who had to hold out on signing his new deal to secure raises for his assistants, and who essentially chased former Canes play-by-play man John Forslund out of town for similarly tight financial reasons.

A billionaire by being cheap is not surprising. What is at fault here is Dundon’s lack of good sense. 55 names can be put on the Cup for each team, and one player (Joel Nystrom) who played 38 games is not there, and neither are members of the club’s staff, but Dundon’s kindergartener is. Expecting an owner to not be an egomaniac may be asking for too much. If it was something that the Hurricanes owner felt strongly about, they could have simply put in “Thomas Dundon & Family”, but how having the top two lines of the Hurricanes entry on the Cup being littered with Dundon’s got through the NHL’s vetting is head-scratching.

The league and Gary Bettman should have never allowed this, but as someone has said, Bettman is the owner’s commissioner and works for them. The Cup is now being sent to all the members of the Hurricanes for summer parties and celebrations. Once it is back in the hands of the league, the entries should be restruck, removing all of the Dundon clan, but does anyone expect that to happen??

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