The Carolina Hurricanes signed Taylor Hall to a three-year contract extension earlier today, less than 24 hours after they eliminated the New Jersey Devils to advance to the second round.

Taylor Hall and Carolina general manager Eric Tulsky spoke with the media over Zoom Wednesday afternoon on the deal. Here's what they had to say:

Taylor Hall

On prioritizing term on his new deal: It was a big part. Now that I have a family and stuff, it's important to be somewhere where I'm comfortable and this team, right from the moment I got here, they made me feel comfortable. The coaching staff pushed me and the guys in the room have just been incredible at making me feel welcome and making me feel like this is a place that I want to be. I feel very fortunate to be a Hurricane and I can't wait for what the future holds for us.

On working out a deal mid-playoffs: The playoffs were going on, but it was probably pretty known that both sides were going to find a way to get something done. Whether it's playoffs or not, the conversations are happening. With my family, we have a baby coming in the Fall, and just as playoffs were about to start, I think we were pretty much set on what the deal would look like, so that just allowed me to play in the playoffs with a clear mind and that was important to me. I want to play as well as I can for this team and so having a deal done or pretty much done before the playoffs started was good for that.

On how he feels he fits in Carolina's style of play: To be honest with you, I'm still learning things here and there, still picking up the finer points of more or less our d-zone system, but the other two-thirds of the ice is about pressure and trying to get the puck back into our hands and that allows me to use what I think is my greatest strength, which is my skating. When I'm playing well for the Hurricanes, I'm skating and I'm puck pressuring and we're turning pucks over and playing in the other team's end. I've had a lot of fun getting to play with this team and just the high pressure system and the way that we play, just allows me to just play with not a lot of thinking and it just allows me to go out there and hunt down pucks and do all the things that I think I'm pretty good at. That's why I think Carolina wanted to trade for me. They saw that I'm pretty good in playing that way and it's been a really good fit on and off the ice.

On the current playoff run: This is not something I take for granted. I know the Hurricanes seem to win a round every year and I'm glad to be a part of that now because this is a lot of fun. There's a chance to do something special and we're past the first test. It's only going to get harder from here. I actually ran into Jackson Blake's dad [Jason Blake] after the game last night and I think he said that he had never been out of the first round, so there's a lot that can happen in a player's career and chances like this don't come around very often and I'm very grateful to be here and excited for what's to come.

On Andrei Svechnikov: He's a very gifted athlete. He's one of those guys who you don't see very often in an NHL locker room where he's big, he's strong, he's fast, he's got fast-twitch muscles and he can shoot it, he's got vision, he can be as good as he wants to be. I don't mean for this to be a negative, but I still think there's room for him to grow and to get better. To think that he's still in his early to mid 20s, I think there's a lot for him. Getting to know him, he's a great guy, he wants to be the best and he puts a lot of pressure on himself. Maybe a little bit too much, like we all do at times, but I'm excited to see him grow. As linemates, we had a little bit of success, I'd still like to see us play a little bit better if we got back together again, but some of those partnerships and linemates and those things, they take time and sometimes you need to see the player have success on another line to know how to play with them and vice versa. I'm excited for him and he deserves all the success he had in Round 1 and we need that going forward from him.

On if he took much notice of Carolina before arriving in January: I was with the Bruins when Carolina beat us in seven games here a couple years ago and I think that was really interesting because Boston had had their way with Carolina in two previous series, but the team had matured physically and emotionally to the point where they were able to push around teams that had had their number before. So that's kind of when I started to take notice of what was going on here. As the years go by... in Boston, we had the best record in the history of the NHL and we lost in the first round and then you see Carolina be able to have success in the playoffs year after year, it's really impressive to watch and it was cool to come and be a part of that.

On if he felt he needed to play in the system a bit before he knew it was the right fit: It definitely helps when you come in and you're able to understand things a bit better and then you know that, 'Hey, they value what you bring.' That's always nice, but I do think they've acquired free agents and whatnot that have come in here and played well. So I think it can happen both ways.

'It Felt Unreal': Rod Brind'Amour, Jaccob Slavin, Andrei Svechnikov, Jackson Blake, Sebastian Aho On Double Overtime Winner, First Series Win The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the New Jersey Devils 5-4 in double overtime Tuesday night to advance to the second round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Eric Tulsky

On working out a deal mid-playoffs: We've been talking since the day of the trade. I think we've had a sense of where it was going to be. Most of the conversations have been between me and Taylor's agent, Darren [Ferris], and we've been sort of hammering out some of the details of how some specifics in the deal would work. Darren was talking to Taylor, making sure he was comfortable with it. Really, I don't think either of us really doubted that it would get done, it was just a matter of finding the deal that got everybody what they wanted.

On Taylor Hall's fit with the team: His speed is really useful in the way we want to apply pressure and get on people and cut down their time and he has the skill and the vision and the feet to be able to get the puck to the inside of the ice and create chances off of that. So that part of the fit is a no brainer. And anytime we can bring in someone who has experience, who's been around, who knows what it is like to go through the ups and downs, that's always helpful to have as a resource for other players in the locker room.

Be sure to check out the Carolina Hurricanes 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs Hub for all postseason stories!    

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