Hurricanes GM Eric Tulsky explains the team's quiet trade deadline, revealing why they prioritized patience over risky deals.
The Carolina Hurricanes were fairly quiet this trade deadline, making just one move for a depth piece in Nic Deslauriers.
Hurricanes GM Eric Tulsky spoke with the media following the deadline. Here's what he had to say:
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Eric Tulsky
On Nic Deslauriers: Nic's a veteran, he's a physical presence, he's someone who has great character, does things the right way, makes the team harder to play against and just generally sort of adds the character and toughness we want to bring to the group.
On the conditional pick: It depends on how far we go in the playoffs and how much he plays.
On if he's expected to play games: It'll be up to Rod to figure out what's best to help integrate him. There's always a balance between wanting people to have a chance to fit in and get up to speed and get some ice time and I'll let Rod manage that. He's very good at managing his roster.
On if the team tried to take a big swing: We've said that we're not going to stop until we have the 20 best players all on the team and of course, every opportunity we get to try and make the team better, we're going after it as hard as we can. Especially when there are high-end players, we want to take those swings. We spent a lot of time over the last couple of weeks running down leads and trying to find opportunities to bring in those high-end players. Sometimes a deal just isn't there. In the deal with Colorado, we showed that we're willing to take risks to do it and in the deal with Dallas, we showed that we're willing to pivot if circumstances aren't what we expected them to be. And in the deal with the Rangers over the summer, we showed that we're willing to put a bunch of futures into a deal to get the player we want. And at this deadline, what we showed was that sometimes the deal we want isn't there and we have the discipline to not do it. The things that we were looking at, the price we were getting offered, we felt like would've been a step back both in the near term and going forward. It just didn't make sense then. So of course that's our goal if there's opportunities to make the team better around the draft, on free agent day and at the trade deadline. Over the summer, we added K'Andre, added Nic and really made the team better in those areas. The opportunity wasn't there to take that same sized swing at the trade deadline. So we added a piece that will help round out our group a little bit and we'll move forward with what we have.
On if the prices seemed higher this year than in previous years: It was kind of a strange deadline because there were a lot of teams that were sort of on the bubble leading up to it and they were not sure which way they were gonna go. So there were weeks where it felt like there was nothing available and then in the last couple of days, a bunch of teams decided to put a bunch of guys on the market. So it went from a really tight market to a flooded market very quickly and teams that were not sure whether or not they were gonna buy, decided to buy and teams that were not sure whether they were gonna sell, decided to sell. So a lot of stuff didn't really get serious until the last couple of days. Again, a lot of the players that got moved were guys who were sort of in the range of the roster where we feel like we're pretty deep and solid. It wasn't the high-end guys that were really out there when we tried to make the team better.
On having faith in the current roster: Of course we have a lot of faith in this current roster. We've battled through a ton of injuries and are on pace for 112 points or something and we're getting better as we get healthier. So I'm very happy with what we have right now. I'll say we're always looking to get better. We'd rather be on pace for 130 points or 150. It's not like I'm ever gonna say this team is good enough, we don't have to add. We're always trying to add. We just didn't find deals that made sense for us at this point.
On Logan Stankoven's fit at 2C: Logan's been great in that role. I know there are a lot of people out there that look at the point totals and fret about it. Truthfully, at 5v5, he has produced at a high rate. We have three of the top-40 centers in the league in 5v5 production. The fact that he's not on our first power play unit has nothing to do with how good he is as a center. I know he got hot this week and people got excited about that, but I think people have forgotten how many nights in October and November where that line was our best line. That line has created a lot of offense this year and he's been part of that. He's not the tallest guy and people worry about that, but he plays really hard, he's extremely competitive and he's the kind of person who drags teammates into the fight. Other people look at and think, 'If he can do that, no reason I can't when I'm twice his size.' I think it really brings something to us to have him playing the way he does. Truthfully, as I said, that line's been great for us. I have no concerns about it going forward at all. That doesn't mean we're not always looking to get better. Of course we are. But we're completely comfortable with him in that role.
On if the emergence of some of the team's rookie defensemen impacted the decision to not target any defensive depth: So I would say that last year, that was one of the things that we ran into when we got into the playoffs. We had a couple of injuries on D and we had guys going into the lineup that barely played and it was a challenge. You never want to go through the kind of injuries that we had this year. I would much rather have not had that happen, but being nine or ten deep through October and November meant that we got a lot of time to see guys and see them play. And we came out of that in first place. There is a comfort level this year with the players that we have stepping in both on D and up front. When we have injuries, we have guys we know can play. We actually have guys in the AHL who we're going to be looking for opportunities for to get into the lineup. A lot of the moves that happened today were teams trying to add the depth that we felt we already have. It's great to have guys that we're trying to find ice time for rather than guys we're trying to replace.
On if the team looked at all at improving in net: We're always looking to improve everywhere. Again, unless I missed something, I don't think any goalies got moved today. Certainly nobody who would be considered a high-end, 1A starter. It's a tough position to fill at the deadline because teams that are getting good goaltending are in the playoffs and teams that aren't don't have guys that you may be looking for. The goalies we have, Brandon's been great for us this year and Freddie, I know has taken a little bit of grief, but I think he's been a lot better than his numbers reflect and I think he's been playing well recently. We're comfortable with the two of them and Pyotr is working his way back from injury and we'll see his timeline. He may be in the mix by the time we get to the playoffs.
On the psychological effect in the room from standing pat: Both are true. I know players are excited to see reinforcements come in and I want to do that for them as much as they want it. Nobody is more competitive than us. As an organization, we're extremely aggressive in trying to add. Ultimately, it's not about my faith in them. It's about the opportunities that there were in the market to actually make additions that actually make us better. I would have loved to bring someone in that is one of those top-20 players that makes everyone say we're one guy closer to get those top-20 all on one team, it just wasn't there to be done this year.
On if other teams placed calls on some of the team's rostered players: We had a couple of calls on some guys. In the end, we're trying to win a Cup and it would have been hard to move guys out. Regardless of what role they play, we expect to need everyone on this team at some point down the stretch. We did have some calls and we did explore some things, but in the end, we're trying to win a Cup and we didn't want to thin our team heading into the playoffs.
On Pyotr Kochetkov's status: I'm not a doctor and don't really know. My understanding is that at the time of surgery, if things went well, he may be back in the mix. It's still very early. I don't think we really know the timeline yet. I think there is certainly a chance that if we go deep, he might be able to play in the end for us, maybe earlier than that, but it really depends on how things go.
On Deslauriers' toughness: Ultimately, a lot of toughness is personal and internal. Right? Am I gonna take it or not is what toughness is all about, to me. It's not really, 'Do I have someone else to go take care of it for me.' I think we have a group of guys who has that internal toughness and that fight. Yeah, Stankoven is the smallest guy in the world, but he's grabbed guys and started fights when he thought it needed to happen. Like, we do have that fire, but of course, it's easier to have that toughness when you have a guy like Deslauriers out there with you. Providing that for when it feels like games are getting more and more tense, that might be useful to people and was something we wanted to look for.
On if the team was against trading pieces like Alexander Nikishin, Bradly Nadeau or Jackson Blake: We're not afraid at all to trade futures for things that make us better right now. We have a really good team and our goal is to win Cups. Like I said, the deal that brought in K'Andre, we moved a lot of future value for a guy we think helps us right now and puts us in a position to win a Cup right now. If there were other deals out there like that to be had, we would have done them. The players we really wanted and we felt like would have really improved our odds this year, would have cost us pieces that we felt like would have been a step back in the near term and future. So then what would be the point. Having some discipline to be able to walk away from those moves and not feel like you have to do something is part of being able to run a team.
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