‘Never give up’: How Brandon Bussi went from Chipotle employee to Stanley Cup champ

Carolina Hurricanes left wing Mark Jankowski (77) and goaltender Brandon Bussi (32) celebrate after a win over the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 6 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Final series, Sunday, June 14, 2026, in Las Vegas. | Candice Ward If you ate at the Chipotle location in North Andover, Massachusetts, during the summer of 2020, there’s a good chance you met a Stanley Cup champion.Not just any Stanley Cup champion, either.

Brandon Bussi of the Carolina Hurricanes became the first American goaltender to win the Cup-clinching game since Jonathan Quick in 2014 — and he did it while recording a shutout.That’s not where Bussi thought he’d end up when he got that summer job during the pandemic. In fact, it’s not even where he thought he’d be when the 2025-26 NHL season began.

The 27-year-old signed a one-year, two-way deal with the Panthers as a free agent last summer, worth the league-minimum salary of $775,000 at the NHL level. He’d spent the previous three seasons in the Boston Bruins’ system after signing there as an undrafted free agent, but he got stuck in a log jam of productive goalies and never got the chance to play in the NHL.The idea was that with enough hard work — and a bit of luck — he might be able to make his NHL debut this season.

As training camp neared its conclusion, the Panthers notified him that he’d be sent down to the minors, so long as he cleared waivers — a mandatory part in the process of sending most players down.So, Bussi and his fiancée, Mary, packed up the car and headed to Charlotte, North Carolina, home of the the Panthers’ American Hockey League affiliate.While en route, they got a call telling them to change course and head to Raleigh.

The Carolina Hurricanes had claimed him off waivers.“(We) immediately parked the car at a gas station and tried to figure everything out,” Bussi recalled on a “Spittin’ Chiclets” appearance in December. “That was a pretty crazy, I’ll say, hour just kind of getting my bearings on how my life has chang