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Tulsky Expected To Make Internal Hires

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In today’s media availability with the new General Manager of the Carolina Hurricanes, Eric Tulsky, team reporter Walt Ruff came away with a couple of news items. Inside the organization, Tulsky acknowledged he would have to hire someone toward the top of the management hierarchy given that he was an internal hire and that the coaching staff of the Chicago Wolves is still being deliberated upon.

Darren Yorke is poised to take on the full responsibilities as Assistant General Manager of the Hurricanes organization after sharing the role with Tulsky over the last two seasons. Carolina may look to fill the position of Director of Player Personnel which has been vacant since Yorke left the role after the 2019-20 NHL season.

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Reported Financial Terms Of Slavin Extension

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A few days ago, it was reported that the Carolina Hurricanes and defenseman Jaccob Slavin were in an informal agreement on a contract extension, but the financial terms of the deal were not disclosed as he is ineligible to put pen to paper until July 1st. Earlier today, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on ’32 Thoughts’ that the contract should clock in as an eight-year, $52MM contract paying Slavin an average of $6.5MM a year (X Link).

At face value, the terms of the deal seem like a perfect arrangement for Slavin and the Hurricanes organization, as Evolving Hockey predicted an eight-year extension for Slavin at a $6.492MM salary. Slavin’s current seven-year, $37.1MM contract will expire after the 2024-25 NHL season and this new deal will take Slavin to his age-39 season in 2023-33.

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Hurricanes Name Eric Tulsky General Manager

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The Hurricanes have removed the interim tag from Eric Tulsky and made him their next general manager, per a team announcement Tuesday.

“Eric is ready for this opportunity,” said Hurricanes owner and governor Tom Dundon. “He has a proven history of managing people and overseeing operations both outside of hockey and over the last decade with the Hurricanes. His dedication, work ethic and attention to detail make him the ideal candidate to become our next general manager. Everything we do here is collaborative, and Eric will work closely with Darren Yorke, Rod Brind’Amour and our leadership team to continue building a championship-caliber hockey club.”

Tulsky was named the club’s interim GM on May 24. He stepped into the role after Don Waddell, who was on an expiring contract, resigned from his post. Waddell has already found his next place of employment, signing on with the Blue Jackets to be their GM and president of hockey operations days after leaving Carolina.

Tulsky wasn’t the only candidate linked to the Hurricanes’ GM vacancy over the past few weeks, but a report from Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli last week indicated he was likely to take over the top hockey ops job. Earlier this month, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman called Jarmo Kekäläinen, whom Waddell replaced in Columbus, a “contender” for the role.

Along with his Kekäläinen report, Friedman added that the Hurricanes were making it clear to interested candidates that their next GM wouldn’t have as much autonomy as others do around the league. Dundon is a proponent of a more collaborative front office environment that elevates the importance of assistant GMs – namely Darren Yorke, whom he mentioned in his statement introducing Tulsky. He’s also involved in hockey operations decisions himself.

That should provide a good safety net for Tulsky, who becomes a top-level member of an NHL front office for the first time. First brought on as a data analyst in 2014, Tulsky later served as the Canes’ director of analytics and their VP of hockey management before being promoted to an AGM role under Waddell in 2020.

Per the team, his responsibilities under Waddell included “all player personnel decisions, [overseeing] pro scouting and the team’s hockey information department.” He also “assisted with player contract negotiations, salary cap compliance, and other hockey-related matters.”

It’s quite a rise for Tulsky, who likely didn’t imagine ever working in the league after graduating from the University of California-Berkeley with a PhD in chemistry in 2002. He first landed his consulting gig with the Hurricanes after publishing public statistical analysis work for a variety of NHL-related blogs in the early 2010s, namely Flyers blog Broad Street Hockey.

Tulsky now officially takes the helm as the Hurricanes enter a potentially transformative offseason with Jake Guentzel, Brett Pesce and Brady Skjei among their big-name pending UFAs. He’s already signed one notable deal as interim GM – a three-year, $9MM extension for defenseman Jalen Chatfield.

Friedman was first to report Tulsky’s promotion.

Offseason Checklist: Carolina Hurricanes

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The offseason has arrived for all but the two teams who are still taking part in the playoffs.  For the rest, it’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months.  Next up is a look at Carolina.

For the first time in a while, the Hurricanes were aggressive making moves in-season. After largely staying quiet at the past few trade deadlines, they acquired arguably the top name on the market in forward Jake Guentzel from the Penguins – without having to give up a first-round pick. While he performed well, it didn’t get them over the playoff hump, and they were dispatched in the second round by the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Rangers. Now, they’re headed for an offseason of major turnover both on the ice and off it, thanks to a late GM change.

Jarvis Extension

The Hurricanes’ entire offseason plan seems to revolve around prioritizing a limited amount of pending free agents instead of trying to retain as many as possible. Aside from defense fixture Jaccob Slavin, who’s under contract next season anyway but is still getting an extension next month, their other priority is a new deal for pending RFA Seth Jarvis. The 2020 13th overall pick has exhausted his entry-level contract and is in line for a significant pay bump over his previous $894K cap hit.

It’s not clear whether the Canes’ front office, led by interim GM Eric Tulsky, prefers to go the bridge deal or the long-term route with Jarvis. The difference in cap hit would likely be significant. Evolving Hockey projects a $5.15MM cap hit for a two-year deal, for example, but an $8.5MM cap hit if they wanted to lock him up to a maximum eight-year deal right away.

It’ll depend on how much cap space they want to reserve for everybody else next season. They’ve got nearly $24MM to spend after signing defenseman Jalen Chatfield to a three-year, $3MM deal this week. It also looks like they’ve made their peace with letting trade Guentzel walk, as they’ve started shopping around his signing rights for a mid-round pick. But after signing Jarvis, they still need to re-sign or replace Jordan Martinook, Stefan Noesen and Teuvo Teräväinen – and that’s just among forwards. Tony DeAngelo, Brett Pesce and Brady Skjei are all headed toward the UFA market on defense, although the Hurricanes do have some young players – particularly blue liner Scott Morrow – who are ready to challenge for spots.

Still, they’ve got to get some cost certainty on Jarvis before going free-agent hunting. As much as a $3MM range in cap hit, depending on the term, would surely be the difference between them landing or not landing someone high on their wish list.

Trade Nečas

Of course, in order to re-sign Jarvis, they need to figure out a game plan for the other big-name RFA forward they’re reportedly sacrificing to make room for him. Now arbitration-eligible after completing his two-year, $6MM contract, Martin Nečas finds himself on the block after seeing an 18-point decrease this season from 2022-23’s career-high mark of 71.

And it’s a move that should happen relatively soon, hopefully making this a short-lived unchecked box for all parties involved. An amicable departure via trade is the outcome both sides still prefer, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said earlier this month. The beginning of the Stanley Cup Final came and went without a move, as Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff suggested may have been in the works, but all indications still point toward a deal getting done before or on draft day.

The Hurricanes are expecting a rich return package, though. While he’s still 25, that may be tough to swallow for teams picking up a player who’s only truly challenged for first-line minutes at sparing moments during his seven-year, 362-game NHL career. The 2017 12th-overall pick has eclipsed the 50-point mark just twice, each coming in his last two seasons.

His back-to-back 20-goal campaigns and his ability to shift to center if needed do position his value at a bit of a high point, though. He’s still projected to garner $7.5MM annually on a seven-year extension, per Evolving Hockey. That puts him relatively in line (if not more expensive) than some other comparable top-six-caliber but inconsistent forwards on the UFA market, such as Elias Lindholm.

Refill Wing Depth

As mentioned earlier, the Canes will be dealing with some major roster turnover on offense outside of their core forward pieces via their pending UFAs. Add Nečas into the mix, and it’s clear they’ll need to make some moves to replenish their scoring depth – especially on the wings.

Pulling off a Nečas deal could potentially solve some of that problem. By all accounts, they’re looking for NHL-ready talent in return, not draft picks and prospects. The purpose of such a deal is twofold: one, helping keep their contention window alive with a similarly valued Nečas replacement, and two, making it easier to get a trade across the finish line by opening up some roster flexibility for the acquiring team.

That leaves everybody else. Of course, Martinook, Noesen and Teräväinen could still – theoretically – all be back before or after July 1, and this is no longer much of a conversation. There’s still a question to be had about who might replace Guentzel at the top of the lineup, though. Yes, the Canes finished second in the Metropolitan Division without his services aside from the last few weeks of the season. But he was a force in a Carolina sweater, racking up 25 points in 17 games to end the campaign.

It could certainly be a by-committee approach in terms of depth scoring, and Jarvis and Andrei Svechnikov would still round out a spectacular Aho-centered first line. But it does draw their secondary scoring into question, as outside of Nečas and their first line, their leading scorer from last season would be captain Jordan Staal and his 30 points. They’ll need some cost-effective, high-ceiling UFA options to help plug those holes.

Worry About The Future

It’s the last item on this list, but it’s also one they’re likely to start figuring out quickly. It appears they’ve already shifted a good portion of their attention here, reportedly agreeing in principle to an extension for Slavin. He’s not eligible to put pen to paper until July 1 with one season still left on his contract, though.

But even with the news, the Hurricanes still face a similar situation on defense in the summer of 2025 as they do now. Only Chatfield and Slavin are signed to one-way contracts for 2025-26, although Morrow will still be on his entry-level deal as a likely regular contributor. However, a replacement for the still-effective-but-aging Brent Burns will be needed, and Dmitry Orlov will also be an unrestricted free agent after next year.

Things are mostly stabilized offensively, with the brunt of the turnover expected this summer. A long-term extension for Jarvis “resets the window” for their forward corps, and no major pieces will be due for new deals within another few years.

They’ll also need to find a partner for the up-and-coming Pyotr Kochetkov in the crease. Barring a goalie trade, the Hurricanes will bring him back in tandem with established veteran Frederik Andersen next season. If both stay healthy and play to the potential they showcased this season, it’s a top-10 duo in the league. But Andersen will be 35 in October, and his injury history has given Carolina fits at inopportune times. It seems likely this will be his last season in Raleigh.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Snapshots: Byfield, Necas, Ehlers, Helenius

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The Los Angeles Kings are set to face the consequences of their drafting this summer, with each of Quinton Byfield, Arthur Kaliyev, Jordan Spence, and Alex Turcotte set to enter restricted free agency. Of the quartet, only Byfield has emerged as a legitimate NHL option, stamping that sentiment with 20 goals and 55 points in 80 games this season. Byfield held onto a role on the team’s second-line and second power-play unit, and will now be paid accordingly per John Hoven of Mayor’s Manor, who projects a $6MM cap hit and eight years of term on Byfield’s next deal.

Hoven explained that Byfield’s lack of multi-season success likely holds him from too hefty of a price tag and makes the interim cost of a bridge deal hard to gauge. The Kings are also face at least one major free agent in every year between 2026 and 2030 – and likely wouldn’t be too keen on circling back to Byfield’s negotiations on top of it. Through Hoven’s projections, Byfield would earn an admirable salary – thanks to a strong season and his 2020 second-overall selection – and gains the confidence of a long-term deal without signing into his 30s. The deal also works for the team, who have $20.2MM in projected cap space to sign 10 pending free agents this summer. Byfield earning $6MM would leave plenty of room for the Kings to re-sign strong lineup pieces like Matt Roy, Viktor Arvidsson, and Cam Talbot.

Los Angeles had to wait for Byfield’s breakout but seems to have finally situated him in a role he’s comfortable with. They’ll hope he can build on his commendable scoring on a new deal next season, though with negotiations could become complicated with no recent comparable contract for Byfield’s delayed breakout.

Other notes from around the league:

  • The Carolina Hurricanes will be looking for like-value players in their search for a Martin Necas trade, shares Chris Johnston on the Chris Johnston Show. Johnston went on to mention Winnipeg Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers as a situation where a swap could make sense. Ehlers is in a similar situation to Necas – tentatively on the trade block after a successful season and capable of holding down a confident top-six role. Necas is a pending restricted free agent this summer, due for his first major pay raise following the end of a two-year, $6MM bridge contract. Ehlers’ already makes $6MM each season, though he’s set to enter unrestricted free agency next summer. Both players are due for lofty salaries on their next deals after each showing the potential to reach 60 or more points in one season. Johnston was hesitant to speak too confidently about a swap happening, though it could certainly make sense for a Hurricanes team in the midst of their Stanley Cup window and a Jets team still a few years away.
  • Star 2024 NHL Draft prospect Konsta Helenius expressed a desire to move to the NHL as quickly as possible in an interview with Adam Kimelman of NHL.com. Helenius told Kimelman, “I played against NHL guys. Of course it gives me confidence because I think I did a great job against them – I think I’m very closet to the NHL.” Kimelman went on to explain that Helenius is not just pushing himself to be an NHL player, but to be one of the best Finns to ever appear in the league. That kind of enthusiasm should boost the excitement around him ahead of the draft, though he’s already a top 10 pick on many public scouting boards. Regardless of where he goes, though, it seems Helenius is much more focused on seizing the opportunity of his first NHL training camp.

Hurricanes Tried To Extend Jalen Chatfield In-Season

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  • The Hurricanes’ recent confirmation of an extension for defenseman Jalen Chatfield was a long time coming. Cory Lavalette of the North State Journal reports Friday that the team tried to engage in contract discussions midseason, but Chatfield’s camp opted to delay talks in hopes of boosting his market value down the stretch. It worked out well for the blue liner, who still takes a slight discount on what he could have likely landed elsewhere in free agency but earns a nearly 400% raise over his previous average annual value with a large portion of the deal paid upfront via signing bonuses.

Hurricanes Sign Jalen Chatfield To Three-Year Extension

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June 14: The team has made this signing official, with interim general manager Eric Tulsky sharing with The Athletic’s Cory Lavalette, “Jalen has been an integral part of our blue line over the last two seasons and firmly established himself as an NHL defenseman. His elite speed and tireless work ethic make him an incredibly dynamic player at both ends of the ice.”

June 13: The Hurricanes are expected to extend defenseman Jalen Chatfield, CHEK’s Rick Dhaliwal reports Thursday. He was slated to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. It’s a three-year, $9MM contract with a $3MM cap hit, per Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff. PuckPedia has the full breakdown of the deal:

2024-25: $1MM base salary, $2.75MM signing bonus, no-move clause
2025-26: $1MM base salary, $2MM signing bonus, no-move clause
2026-27: $775K base salary, $1.475MM signing bonus, 15-team no-trade list

Chatfield joined Carolina on a two-way deal as a Group VI unrestricted free agent in 2021 after getting a brief NHL shot with the Canucks the season prior. In the three years since, he’s developed into one of the better depth options in the league on a bargain-bin contract that actually carried a $762.5K cap hit below the league minimum salary this season.

The 28-year-old split his first season between the Canes and AHL Chicago but became a fixture in the lineup beginning with the 2022-23 season. He’s played 70-plus games the past two years, developing his offensive game while crushing his bottom-pairing minutes with high-end shot attempt and possession quality percentages.

With sizeable turnover expected on the Hurricanes blue line next season, Chatfield could be in line for an increase on the 14-15 minutes per game he’s averaged so far over his tenure in Raleigh. He was one of four notable pending UFAs Carolina had on defense – Tony DeAngelo, Brett Pesce and Brady Skjei remain without deals next season.

A speedy two-way defender, Chatfield has 14 goals, 26 assists and 40 points with a +28 rating in 184 career regular-season games while averaging 14:32 per contest. This past year with Carolina, he had a career-high eight goals and 22 points with a +15 rating in 72 games while controlling 61% of shot attempts at even strength.

If the $3MM cap hit report is accurate, the Hurricanes now have $23.87MM in projected space this offseason, per CapFriendly.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Hurricanes’ Eric Tulsky Favorite For Vacant GM Role

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The Carolina Hurricanes have reportedly notified candidates in their general manager search that they are now looking to hire internally, shares Frank Seravalli of The Daily Faceoff (Twitter link). Seravalli adds that current interim GM Eric Tulsky will thus be the favorite for the role. Tulsky took over the interim title after Don Waddell’s move to the Columbus Blue Jackets’ GM role in late May.

Tulsky has worked with the Hurricanes since the 2014-15 season when he was hired on as a data analyst after publicly supporting the advancements of advanced statistics. He’s since grown into a role as the team’s ’Director of Analytics’, ’Vice President of Hockey Management’, and ’Assistant General Manager’. Tulsky popularly left a career in chemistry, where he had once filed 27 different patents relating to electrolyte separators and nanoparticles.

Tulsky will face a very busy summer should he take on the new role. The Hurricanes have 13 pending free agents – including Jake Guentzel, Brady Skjei, and Brett Pesce – with just $26.874MM in cap space. Each player has expressed interest in returning, but likely won’t take the discounts the Hurricanes will need. The team is also entrenched with trade rumors around high-scoring forward Martin Necas – who could fetch a major return on the open market, potentially even landing Carolina former Vezina Trophy-winner Linus Ullmark. The hectic off-season will be a nice trial by fire for Tulsky, as he’s expected to earn the keys to one of the strongest, and most expensive, lineups in the NHL.

The Latest On Jake Guentzel

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Jonas Siegel of The Athletic speculates what a potential Mitch Marner trade might look like for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Siegel points to several recent trades for Pierre-Luc Dubois and Dougie Hamilton as templates the Maple Leafs could use to get a return package for the 27-year-old Marner. Both of those trades brought young NHL-ready talent back to their respective teams, which is something that Toronto would likely covet given their competitive window.

Siegel points to the Carolina Hurricanes and Tampa Bay Lightning as teams that the Maple Leafs could potentially do business with. Carolina could dangle Seth Jarvis, Andrei Svechnikov, and Martin Necas as potential centerpieces of a return for Marner, while Tampa Bay could use Mikhail Sergachev or Brandon Hagel.

Siegel does concede that any potential Marner trade could be nixed by his no-movement clause and might be a difficult trade for Toronto to win. However, with Marner’s pending free agency status, it may be something they need to explore.

In other Eastern Conference notes:

  • Max Bultman of The Athletic wonders if the Detroit Red Wings might be players in the goaltending market this summer, specifically the trade market where several high-end starters are available. Bultman writes that the Red Wings’ general manager isn’t revealing much but adds that Ville Husso’s health could nudge the Red Wings into the trade market and would be the quickest way to improve the team’s overall defense which was something that was an Achilles heel last season. Detroit missed the playoffs by the smallest of margins and adding a top-tier netminder might be the thing that gets them back into the playoffs for the first time since 2016. The team has backup Alex Lyon signed next year to a very reasonable $900K, but likely can’t count on him to duplicate his 44-game workload from this past season.
  • Elliotte Friedman reported today on his 32 Thoughts podcast that the rights to Hurricanes forward Jake Guentzel are available for a mid-round pick. Friedman tells his audience that Carolina has made it known to other teams that the 29-year-old’s signing rights are available and adds that there will be a ton of interest. It was reported earlier this week that Guentzel was likely to test free agency and it makes sense for the Hurricanes to pivot and try to recoup an asset after dealing Michael Bunting, three prospects, and a second-round pick to Pittsburgh at the trade deadline to acquire Guentzel.

Maple Leafs, Predators Linked To Brett Pesce

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Expect the Maple Leafs and Predators to be two of the top suitors for Hurricanes defenseman Brett Pesce if he hits the open market next month, The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta reports.

The Hurricanes are still attempting to extend Pesce after general manager Don Waddell resigned last month, but they haven’t been close to a deal since discussions started last summer. In fact, most believed he would be traded last summer to avoid losing him for nothing at the end of this season, but they took him off the trade block during training camp and decided to continue negotiations.

Recent reports around Pesce’s pending free agency suggest more of the same. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman believed the Canes were holding firm at an offer of around $5MM annually on a five-year deal that Pesce wasn’t willing to accept.

Nashville was one of the teams interested in acquiring him when he was made available for trade last summer, Pagnotta notes, so it’s of no surprise to see them linked to Pesce again. They’re looking for a top-four defender to replace Ryan McDonagh, whom they traded back to the Lightning last month after acquiring him from Tampa in the 2022 offseason.

Pesce would be a similar stylistic fit, but unlike McDonagh, he’s a right-shot. That gives him a greater potential of sliding upward in the lineup to play alongside captain Roman Josi, also a left-shot, on the team’s top pairing.

He’s used to heavy usage, averaging over 20 minutes per game for eight straight seasons. The 29-year-old is coming off a down year offensively with only three goals and 13 points in 70 games, but his career averages suggest the two-way blue-liner is more of a 25-to-30-point producer over a full season.

The New York native has earned sparse Norris consideration in the past, receiving votes in 2018 and 2020. His possession numbers are still strong, controlling 54.4% of shot attempts at even strength throughout his career. He’s also had an expected goals share north of 50% for the past four years, per Hockey Reference.

It’s no surprise to see Toronto engaged in Pesce rumors, either. They’ll be in on nearly all of the top defensemen on this summer’s UFA market, but especially right-shots. Ideally, second-year GM Brad Treliving is looking for a stable partner for top offensive blue liner Morgan Rielly, who’s had a rotating cast of shutdown partners over the past few seasons.

The Leafs lack puck-movers outside of Rielly among their defense corps, and while it’s not a hallmark of Pesce’s game, he would be a small upgrade over Jake McCabe and the outgoing T.J. Brodie in that regard. He’s eclipsed 20 assists four times in his career, including a career-high 25 helpers in 2022-23.

Evolving Hockey’s contract projections peg Pesce to land a six-year, $5.5MM AAV deal on the open market, slightly lengthier and richer than his rumored extension offer in Carolina. That would be feasible for both the Leafs and Preds, who enter the offseason with a decent amount of salary cap flexibility.

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