RALEIGH http://www.losangelesramsteamonline.com/jared-goff-jersey , N.C. (AP) Rod Brind’Amour came to Carolina in 2000 and never left.He worked his way up the Carolina Hurricanes‘ organizational ladder from key trade acquisition to captain of a Stanley Cup-winning team to the front office to assistant coach and, now, head coach. Along the way, he’s become so blended into the fabric of the community that he coached his son’s T-ball team in his spare time without drawing much attention.When he was introduced last month as Bill Peters’ successor, the Ottawa native referred to Raleigh as ”my town.””Obviously, I’ve been here a long time. My wife’s from here, we’ve got our families here,” Brind’Amour said. ”The organization means something to me, and wearing the crest, it’s special, and so I don’t envision myself being in the hockey world with anyone else. That’s kind of what I meant by it.”I bleed Hurricane red,” he added.With the NHL’s free agency period starting Sunday, Brind’Amour and the Hurricanes have something unique to sell – their new coach’s loyalty to the club and the city, and the intimate connection between the team and one of the league’s smallest markets – one that is starving for a winner. Carolina has the NHL’s longest active playoff drought, missing the postseason for nine consecutive years, and has made it only once since Brind’Amour hoisted the Cup in 2006.Brind’Amour, who was traded here 18 years ago by the Philadelphia Flyers in the Keith Primeau deal, holds a rare position among his peers in the coaching fraternity as one of only 20 active coaches in North America’s four major professional sports who played for the team he now coaches.”It’s special, and I think the attraction for me is that I believe in this group. … If we can just add the right pieces, I think we can be competitive,” Brind’Amour said. ”And I’ve been here when it was a great market, and we were good and had the support, so I know we can regain that.”None of those 20 coaches have continuously been with their franchise as long as Brind’Amour. The closest comparison might be Milwaukee Brewers manager Craig Counsell, who spent his childhood in that city while his father worked in the team’s front office and has been with the club since 2007. After finishing his playing career in 2011, he moved into the front office and took over as manager in 2015 following Ron Roenicke’s midseason firing.”Growing up here and being a fan of the Brewers, and just living here my whole life, the connection to the organization obviously means a lot,” Counsell said. ”It helps you understand the organization just because you’ve been a part of it and known it for a while. It helps you know the history; it helps you know the people. … I feel a responsibility to baseball in this state and in this city. I take that seriously.”In addition to Brind’Amour, only three other current coaches or managers have won championships while playing for those teams: Los Angeles Lakers coach Luke Walton won two titles as a forward in the 2000s, Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garrett was a backup quarterback on two Super Bowl-winning teams in the 1990s, and Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora was part of that club’s World Series-winning team in 2007.Raleigh’s small-town feel also affords Brind’Amour the chance to be a normal father. In a scene that might be hard to imagine in one of hockey’s pressure-cooker cities, Brind’Amour spent the spring coaching first base as an assistant for his son’s T-ball team in the suburb of Wake Forest.The team’s head coach, Matt Greene, described Brind’Amour as ”an active, involved dad” and said watching him with the young players was like ”watching the magic work.”He was talking to the kids about baseball … (and) the parents are talking about hockey, (with the parents telling him) `I’ve got my son signed up for hockey next spring,”’ Greene said. ”But Rod was talking to the kid, and putting it more on the kids. Not that Rod was the star, but the kid was the star in baseball.”Brind’Amour http://www.losangelesramsteamonline.com/brandin-cooks-jersey , the son-in-law of former North Carolina State basketball player and ex-UNC Asheville coach Eddie Biedenbach, connected with the Raleigh community pretty quickly after his 2000 arrival, and he hopes the current players can do the same.”We’re a younger team now, but as they get older … they’re going to see that this is a great place to raise a family,” he said. ”The people here are just friendly, they’re down-to-earth and it’s a comforting type of lifestyle. At the end of the day, we all try to be a champion and we want to be a Stanley Cup champion, but there’s other parts of life, too, that are important.”Being a hockey player, being successful, you’ve got to feel good about where you live,” he added. ”We’ve checked that part off. Now we’ve just got to get the hockey part dialed in.”—AP freelance writer Charles Gardner in Milwaukee contributed to this report. DALLAS (AP) Rasmus Dahlin went first overall to the Buffalo Sabres, Commissioner Gary Bettman was booed relentlessly by the crowd all night and trade chatter didn’t amount to a whole lot of movement.With the exception of one trade by the Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals, the first round of the NHL draft went off without many surprises. Only two players and a handful of picks were traded Friday night, leaving general managers hoping for more on Day Two.”That was kind of a boring first day or first round,” Philadelphia Flyers GM Ron Hextall said. ”It’s not typical for this day.”The Sabres picking Dahlin at No. 1 and the Carolina Hurricanes taking Russian winger Andrei Svechnikov at No. 2 got the draft itself off to a predictable start. Montreal taking Finnish center Jesperi Kotkaniemi third and Arizona going a bit off the board with center Barrett Hayton fifth allowed high-scoring Czech winger Filip Zadina to fall to Detroit with the sixth pick.”I’m telling my agent if they will pass on me, I will fill their net with the puck,” Zadina said. ”I want to prove them that they have done, like, bad decision.”Not a whole lot of big decisions happened Friday night at American Airlines Center. The Sabres taking Dahlin was automatic since they won the draft lottery in April, and the 18-year-old wore a Buffalo Bills hat Friday prior to the selection. Svechnikov got to try on the Hurricanes’ draft hat before he was the No. 2 pick just as general manager Don Waddell acknowledged recently.Dahlin is the second Swedish player to be taken No. 1 and the first since Mats Sundin in 1989. Sundin went on to a Hall of Fame career.”It’s pretty crazy actually,” Dahlin said. ”He’s a legend in the hockey world. It’s kind of weird but amazing.”GMs found it weird that there weren’t more trades consummated. A few teams swapped picks late in the first round, but the big shakeup came a half-hour before the draft when the Capitals traded veteran defenseman Brooks Orpik and backup goaltender Philipp Grubauer to the Colorado Avalanche for a second-round pick.The trade netted Washington the 47th pick but most importantly cleared significant salary-cap space to attempt to re-sign pending free agent defensemen John Carlson and Michal Kempny. MacLellan said he was close to getting a deal done with Carlson, so he had to prepare.”It’s hard to do, but we had to create some room to sign some players,” MacLellan said.Grubauer was the first domino to fall in what could be a fascinating goaltending market. Ottawa’s Craig Anderson is reportedly available, and Columbus might have to make a decision on Sergei Bobrovsky if like winger Artemi Panarin the two-time Vezina winner isn’t willing to talk about a contract extension with just a year left before free agency.The Capitals and Hurricanes discussed a trade for Grubauer that would’ve given Washington a higher second-round pick, but MacLellan opted to send the 26-year-old German to the Western Conference rather than giftwrap him for a division rival, and Colorado’s Joe Sakic was willing to take on Orpik’s salary to get Grubauer.”We knew the asking price was high and we had the cap room that we can give cap flexibility for us to not have to give up more than we did,” said Sakic, who added he’ll look to trade Orpik or buy out the 37-year-old. ”We felt it was important to get Grubauer. We just like what he can do for us.”The Sabres love what they’re getting in Dahlin, who should spark the rebuilding process for a team that has missed the playoffs in each of the past seven seasons. The smooth-skating playmaker was considered the consensus first pick for more than a year.”It’s been a long waiting,” Dahlin said. ”You can’t really plan anything. Finally today I can plan my future. I love to call my new town Buffalo.”After co-owner Kim Pegula made some opening remarks, general manager Jason Botterill announced Dahlin as the top pick. In the corner of the arena, Sabres fans in attendance chanted, ”Dahlin! Dahlin!”Bills draft pick Josh Allen tweeted after the pick: ”Welcome to Buffalo (at)rasmusdahlin00! Can’t wait to watch you play, wings on me later this summer.”Dahlin will jump to the NHL right away and should help the club’s league-worst offense that contributed to its last-place finish. He had six assists in seven games at the world junior championships in Buffalo and put up 20 points in 41 games in Sweden’s top pro league this season.—AP Sports Writer Schuyler Dixon contributed to this report.—