Daniels, Brind'Amour tagged as future head coaches

What happens with Jeff Daniels and Rod Brind'Amour in the immediate future remains up in the air -- there's going to be an assistant-coach reshuffle behind the Hurricanes' bench one way or another, with Ron Francis moving back to the front office full time -- but Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford has a lot to say about their coaching futures.

In his end-of-season media briefing Tuesday, Rutherford said he thought both Daniels and Brind'Amour would be head coaches in the NHL at some point.

On Daniels, who has the AHL Charlotte Checkers in the conference finals: "I said at the time (we moved him to the AHL) he would have a chance to be a head coach in the NHL. He's done a great job developing players in the AHL. Where does he go from here? He's going to be a head coach in the near future in this league. We can make a change and put him on the bench here (as an assistant coach). But can we replace the way he develops young players? I'm leaning toward leaving him there. ... His time will come. He will be a head coach at some point in time."

On Brind'Amour, who completed his first year in the team's front office: "There's a very bright future for Rod Brind'Amour as a head coach or GM in time. There's a very special way about him. ... Quite frankly, we'd like him to take a bigger role already."

Rutherford apparently remains committed to Paul Maurice at the NHL level, who he said did a "very good" job this season.

But at a time when the Hurricanes may have their deepest-ever pool of talent in the AHL, there certainly seems to be a deep pool of organizational talent as well, with Francis widely seen as a potential future GM and, now, two potential future NHL head coaches in the organization.