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He would appear in 39 games over the course of the season, but once the playoffs began, he was anchored to the end of the bench as Frederik Andersen carried the team through the first three rounds of the playoffs. When Andersen suffered a knee injury during Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final, it opened the door for Bussi to step between the pipes for the third game and he never looked back. He capped off his stellar run with a 22-save shutout in Game 6 against the Vegas Golden Knights to clinch the Stanley Cup. "If you had told me [my season] would end with a Stanley Cup, I probably would've said you were joking," said Bussi, who became the first goalie in the modern era to earn a Cup-clinching win after not appearing in the previous three rounds. " When I got claimed by the Hurricanes, I knew that was the aspiration and that was the belief, and I had full confidence that we would have an opportunity to do it. Then when the moment finally comes, it doesn't feel real. As a group, we all believed that we could do it, but when you're finally there in those final seconds, it's like, 'Wow, we actually did it.'" You'd have to forgive the humble netminder if he hasn't spent his summer dwelling on his accomplishments. With championship cele- brations, including a parade through down- town Raleigh, the 28-year-old former Western Michigan University standout married his college sweetheart on July 17 in Cambridge, Mass., and then set off on their honeymoon. Several days later he was back on the ice, working with his personal goalie coach to prepare for the team's training camp. " H e c t i c i s d e f i n i t e l y a good word to describe it, but it's a good kind of hec- tic. Having the last few m o n t h s g o t h e w a y i t has is something that I w o u l d n ' t w a n t t o change," said Bussi, who returned to Long Island on Aug. 19 to spend his day with the Cup with family, friends and the youth hock- ey community at The Rinx in Hauppauge, where he first strapped on the goalie pads and embarked on a circuitous career path that featured stops with several youth programs around Long Island. His journey was not always the smoothest route, but Bussi learned a lot about playing the position and even more about himself as he persevered when others may have doubted him. 36 // OCTOBER 2026 USAHOCKEYMAGAZINE.COM Jeremy Swayman Boston Bruins Spencer Knight Chicago Blackhawks John Gibson Detroit Red Wings TOP 3 A M E R I C A N G O A L I E S I N 2 0 2 5 - 2 6 ( S V % ) * M i n i m u m 5 0 G a m e s P l a y e d 1. 2. 3. .9 08 .9 0 8 .9 02 .9 0 2 .9 0 1 .9 0 1 PHOTOS BY Getty Images BRANDON BUSSI SET AN NHL RECORD LAST SEASON BY WINNING 21 OF HIS FIRST 25 CAREER STARTS. WATCH: Bussi SHUTS OUT Vegas to close out Stanley Cup