Is Rod Brind’Amour going to leave Hurricanes if he isn’t named head coach?

The Carolina Hurricanes may make Rod Brind’Amour their next head coach, but he sounds ready to leave if it doesn’t happen.

As was his contractual right, Bill Peters officially resigned as head coach of the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday. So now an organization undergoing some big changes in management, under a new owner, will also be looking for a new man behind the bench.

Rod Brind’Amour has been an assistant coach for Hurricanes for the last seven seasons, under coaches Kirk Muller and Peters. Before that he was Carolina’s director of player development for one season, and he spent the last nine-plus seasons of his playing career with the Hurricanes.

So Brind’Amour has long-running ties to the Hurricanes organization, and he has made it clear he’s interested in being the next head coach.

Here’s what Brind’Amour told Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer.

"I don’t think as an assistant I’m going to get any better or learn any more. So now’s the time,” Brind’Amour added. “They’re going to find the best guy to do it, and if it’s me, that’s great, and if not I understand. But I felt like I could at least step up and see if it could happen.“I think the attraction to me is you can really put your plan in place and decide how to pull all the strings. You decide the ice time. You decide who’s playing or not, and in certain situations. That’s the allure of it. They know I’m interested and we’ll see where it goes."

Brind’Amour looks like an early, though tentative, front runner to replace Peters. He is apparently well-liked by owner Tom Dundon, and it’s hard to see a big name candidate wanting to take over a team that hasn’t made the playoffs in eight straight years.

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But Brind’Amour sounds like he’s ready to take the next step in his coaching career, almost to the point of brewing impatience and even if it’s not in Carolina. Peters seems to be all but signed, sealed and delivered as the next coach of the Calgary Flames, but the New York Rangers and Dallas Stars should be entertaining all options and Brind’Amour is the kind of fresh voice those franchises should seek.