‘A really surreal feeling’: Saskatoon scout Cody Nickolet celebrating Stanley Cup win

Cody Nickolet’s eyes locked on his television screen.

A 2-0 lead for the Carolina Hurricanes, puck on the tape of the Vegas Golden Knights before Nikolaj Ehlers came up with the biggest interception of his hockey career and buried the final goal of the National Hockey League season into the empty net.

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“People always talk about a feeling of relief more than happiness,” Nickolet said.

“Now, having lived through it, you can see why. There’s just so much pressure shift to shift, you’re hoping to get the good bounces and you never know what could happen. When you finally get that three-goal lead late in the game, you can finally feel like you take a breath.”

Nickolet did much more than just breathe after Ehlers’ empty-net goal on Sunday night, as he celebrated a Stanley Cup championship which had been a better part of a decade in the making.

Nickolet is part of the Hurricanes’ 2025-26 scouting staff which helped assemble the team which captured the franchise’s second Stanley Cup title in 20 years.

“It’s a feeling of accomplishment over something that you’ve worked your entire life for,” Nickolet said. “This is something that personally I’ve dreamt of since I was a seven or eight-year-old kid.”

A former director of analytics for the Western Hockey League’s Saskatoon Blades, Nickolet was hired by the Hurricanes in the summer of 2019 as an amateur scout, a position he’s held over the past seven seasons.

“It’s a really surreal feeling,” Nickolet said. “It’s something that as a group, as a staff, we’ve all been working towards for a number of years.”

Sunday’s victory for the Hurricanes completed a mission which had fallen short of the Stanley Cup Final for several years in a row.

Rather than blow up the core of their team, the team’s front office led by general manager Eric Tulsky brought in key depth pieces which allowed the team to finally rise past being an underachieving contender in years past.

“We’ve been feeling like we’re getting closer and closer to getting to that pinnacle of finally becoming the last team standing in the Stanley Cup Final,” Nickolet said.

“The last few years we’ve had a lot of success as a team and as a group, and just couldn’t quite get over that hump.”

Cody Nickolet (centre) watching on as his kids Eelo (left) and Mika (right) lift their own Stanley Cup following the Carolina Hurricanes’ Game 6 victory on June 14, 2026. (Cody Nickolet/Instagram)

Nickolet watched the Hurricanes lift the Stanley Cup from the comfort of his home in Saskatoon surrounded by his wife Brittni, his daughter Mika and son Eelo.

“It was really special to be at home to be able to celebrate with the people closest to me,” Nickolet said.

“We had a family watch party at my house for the game. It speaks to all the people behind the scenes that allow you to do this job, to chase your dream.”

One of Nickolet’s highlights was watching Seth Jarvis lift the Stanley Cup, who was a star prospect with the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks when he first scouted the forward.

Jarvis was picked 13th overall by the Hurricanes in the 2020 NHL Draft and has gone on to win a gold medal at the 4 Nations Face-Off, an Olympic silver medal with Team Canada and reach the 30-goal plateau three times.

“I would be lying if I said when we drafted him as a 17 or 18-year-old player, that I would have expected this outcome for him,” Nickolet said.

“That’s a credit to him for all the work that he’s put in and turned out to be such a key player for us. He would be the one guy that it was really nice to see him get that championship.”

Nickolet will be in Raleigh, N.C. on Saturday to take part in the Hurricanes’ Stanley Cup parade festivities before meeting with his fellow scouts to prepare for the upcoming NHL Draft.

It’s nothing new for Nickolet, who spends much of his winters on the road looking at future players who could be contributing members for a championship roster.

Those long weeks away from home made Sunday’s win even more special, getting to reach the pinnacle of hockey alongside those who make it happen behind the scenes.

“It’s a whole family that allows somebody to do the job that I do,” Nickolet said. “That part of it, getting to be here with them and celebrate with them, was really special.”

Read more:

• Four Saskatchewan-born prospects taken in record-breaking 2026 PWHL Draft
• Riders set for CFL ‘heavyweight fight’ with Stamps in Calgary
• ‘The biggest thing that’s ever happened’: Canada’s historic World Cup win fuels excitement in Sask.
• Joy, disbelief for Saskatchewan fans celebrating Canada’s first World Cup victory