Hand Surgery to Sideline Centerman Indefinitely

RALEIGH, N.C. – Jim Rutherford, President and General Manager of the defending Eastern Conference champion Carolina Hurricanes, announced today that center Rod Brind’Amour has been placed on injured reserve. Brind’Amour will undergo surgery on his right hand which was injured on a first-period faceoff during Monday’s game against St. Louis. He will remain on injured reserve indefinitely.

Brind’Amour (6’ 1”, 200 lbs.) is in his fourth season with the Hurricanes and 15th in the National Hockey League. The Ottawa, Ont., native leads Carolina with 37 points (14g, 23a) this season and ranks second among Hurricanes skaters with 23:45 average time on ice. Brind’Amour led the league in faceoffs taken (1,242) and ranked 15th in faceoff-win percentage (56.5%) through games played Jan. 20.

Brind’Amour, 32, ranked second in the NHL in faceoff-win percentage (59.2%) last season and ranked fourth among Carolina players with 23 goals, 32 assists and 55 points during the regular season. In the Hurricanes’ 23-game 2002 Stanley Cup Finals run, he notched four goals and added eight assists (12 points) to rank fourth in team scoring. Brind’Amour has scored 62 goals, earned 100 assists (162 points) and accumulated 144 penalty minutes in 241 regular-season games with the Hurricanes. He has missed just five regular-season games since the Jan. 23, 2000 trade that brought him to Carolina from Philadelphia.

The Hurricanes travel to Washington, D.C. today for Wednesday’s game against the Capitals (7 p.m., Fox Sports Net). Carolina returns to RBC Center on Friday at 7 p.m. to face Florida in the first game of a back-to-back, home-and-home set. Tickets for Friday’s game and all Hurricanes games are available via the team’s official website, CarolinaHurricanes.com, the Dodge Box Office at RBC Center or by calling 919-834-4000.