Ray Ferraro didn't mince words Thursday about Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon and the Stanley Cup engraving situation.
"Just wrong. Wrong and surprising to me that there is no format of approval from the league. Cheapens all those deserving to be on the Cup."
The issue: Dundon reportedly placed his entire family's names on the Stanley Cup before the players and staff, and reportedly omitted equipment manager Bobby Gorman, who has been with the organization since the Hartford Whalers days in 1976.
That's fifty years of service to the same organization. Left off the Cup. By the owner.
Carolina finished 53-22-7, second overall with 113 points this season under coach Rod Brind'Amour.
They went through Ottawa, Philadelphia, Montreal, and Vegas to win the championship. Every player in that locker room, every staffer, every equipment manager who taped sticks and sharpened skates contributed to that run.
Bobby Gorman was there before most of those players were born. He's been part of this organization since it was a different team in a different city. And his name isn't on the Cup.
The NHL has no approval process for Cup engravings, and that's a real problem
Ferraro's point about the lack of league oversight is the part that deserves more attention.
There's no format of approval. An owner can apparently put whatever names he wants on one of the most sacred trophies in professional sports, in any order, and the NHL has nothing in place to prevent it.
That's an institutional failure as much as it is a personal one.
The players sacrificed their bodies for eight months. The staff worked around the clock. Gorman has given half a century to this franchise.
An owner who prioritizes his family's names over the people who actually won the Cup doesn't understand what the Cup means. And a league that allows it without any oversight understands it even less.
Should the NHL create a formal approval process for Stanley Cup engravings?
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