Rod Brind’Amour: “I was just Really Disappointed to be Traded from Philadelphia”

When he thinks back on it, the irony to Rod Brind’Amour is that the biggest part of his legacy with the Flyers may also be what ended his career in Philadelphia.

The 6-foot-1, 205-pound center was trying to find new ways to put his left skate on in September 1999 that wouldn’t be as painful. He had a streak on the line — an ironman stint of 484 games for the Flyers, which is still the longest in franchise history — that he didn’t want to break.

Instead, a fracture in his foot required screws and weeks off the ice.

“If you really break it down because I broke my foot in a preseason game, and me trying to keep the streak alive, I kind of pushed it way too soon to get back and my foot ended up being way worse than it would have been,” Brind’Amour recalled Saturday on a conference call. “If I would have just missed the first week of the season and got healthy I probably would have come right back in there, but the injury happened because I did try to get back into that streak, and who knows? I was out for three months, and then ended up getting traded so it’s interesting how things work out.”

Brind’Amour was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes in January 2000, where he won a Stanley Cup under ex-Flyers coach Peter Laviolette in 2006. Now an assistant with the Hurricanes, Brind’Amour will be inducted into the Flyers Hall of Fame Monday night when Carolina comes to visit.

“I left Philadelphia and it felt kind of weird,” said Brind’Amour, who had 601 points in 633 career games with the Flyers. “One day I was there and the next day I was gone and that was it. I never got the chance to thank the people that meant so much to me there. This is a long time coming for that, but it is great for me to be able to thank the people that made Philadelphia great for me.”