Eric Tulsky comfortable, confident and going for the Stanley Cup in 2nd year as Hurricanes GM

By Pat Welter, WRAL sports anchor/reporter

Hurricnaes general manager Eric Tulsky doesn’t lack for confidence. If you had his resume you probably wouldn’t either.

“I just tend not to worry about things,” Tulsky said. “I do whatever seems best to me and so far, it’s worked out for me.”

That might sound like a guy who follows his gut, but Tulsky rose up the front office ranks thanks to his brain.

His story is well-documented. Tulsky has degrees from Harvard and Cal, and he worked in the nanotechnology field for a decade before his hockey analytics blog earned him consulting roles with NHL teams including the Hurricanes. He was promoted to GM in June of 2024 after Don Waddell left to be the president of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

“There’s a lot to learn,” Tulsky said on his first season as GM. “Getting up to speed on everything, building relationships around the league. And second year, feel like I’m settled in a little more.”

In Tulsky’s first season he didn’t take long to get to work. In July, he signed defenseman Jaccob Slavin to a long-term contract extension, then in September forward Seth Jarvis. In January, he landed former Colorado Avalanche star winger Mikko Rantanen in a three-team deal, only to trade Rantanen to Dallas before the deadline after it was clear Rantanen didn’t want to sign with Carolina long term.

“We knew that there were a lot of different ways that could play out, and we just trusted it,” Tulsky said. “If we’ve thought it through enough and have thought about the possibilities, in the end, we’ll find a way through it.”

Without Rantanen the Hurricanes still found their way to the Eastern Conference Final and landed forward Logan Stankoven and some other assets in the deal with Dallas. With Stankoven and Jackson Blake both signed long-term this offseason, Tulsky likes how the team is positioned entering this year.

“Last year we laid the groundwork for what we were able to do this year,” Tulsky said. “So we created a situation where we had a lot of cap space, we had a good young core. We worked to get some of our younger players signed long term, make sure we could keep that core together, make sure we had the cost certainty that we wanted. And then we worked to make additions, and tried to add some high-end talent to the team and position us to not just hold on to what we had, but keep taking those steps forward.”

In free agency Carolina landed former Winnipeg Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers and traded for New York Rangers defenseman K’Andre Miller.

“I think the thing they both have in common is they’re really good skaters, and that’s important with the way Rod [Brind’Amour] wants players to play,” Tulsky said. “With Nikolaj, he brings a sort of skill along with that speed that adds to the high-end talent in our forward group. He’s someone who can take the puck and create off the rush, create in zone, generally, just turn puck possession into scoring chances and goals.”

“K’Andre is different. He’s a defenseman, and you know what he does with his skating is use it to close plays down,” Tulsky continued. “The way we want to play with the high pressure system, we need defensemen who can really not just get up to a guy, but get into him and make it hard for him and apply that pressure.”

Defense is arguably Carolina’s biggest question mark entering the 2025 season as Miller looks to help replace the void left by Brent Burns and Dmitry Orlov. Rookie Alexander Nikishin figures to play a prominent role this season after the team was able to bring him over from Russia during the playoffs last season, a process that was complicated and time-sensitive.

“Any place we could shave a day off of it, we would,” Tulsky said. “So we were doing things like having him fly to Istanbul, because there are flights from there to anywhere, and we didn’t know what consulate he would get into fastest. And that way he was ready to go wherever he would need to go. “

After seeing him in four postseason games, Tulsky is patiently optimisitic about Nikishin’s potential in 2025.

“I don’t expect him to be at his peak in game one, but whether it’s game three or game five or game 50, we’ll have to see,” Tulsky said. “The potential is so high. He’s got so much physical talent. We know it’s gonna be exciting to see him take those steps.”

Developing young players has helped Carolina sustain success for seven straight playoff runs. Tulsky is also high on prospects like Bradly Nadeau, Felix Unger Sorum, Joel Nystrom and Dominik Badinka.

“I think [associate GM] Darren Yorke and both the amateur scouting staff and the development team have done a really good job of making sure we have a continuous pipeline of players coming in,” Tulsky said. “Now it’s just a matter of time to see them pan out.”

Like everyone in the NHL, the Hurricanes are trying to dethrone the back-to-back Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. Florida was able to re-sign their key free agents like Brad Marchand, Sam Bennett and Aaron Ekblad and looks poised to three-peat.

“I don’t think you can really focus on any one opponent.,” Tulsky said about building to beat the Panthers. “You have to just build the best team you can. I think we have the cap space and the opportunity to keep taking steps forward and add the talent we need to get to where they’re trying to match up with us instead of the other way around.”

Tulskky confirmed Carolina has about $10 million in cap space. There isn’t anything financially preventing them from making another blockbuster trade to improve the team, it’s more a matter of finding a worthwhile available player.

“We’ve built a really deep team that, top to bottom, every player we put on the ice is an effective, strong player,” Tulsky said. “It’s hard to find players who really make us better, the K’Andre’s and the Nikolaj’s. There aren’t a lot of them out there.  So the question about whether it’s a finished product, that depends on whether we find another opportunity to add a player like that. If we do, we’re always willing to add if we don’t, we’re very comfortable in the group we have.”

It feels unfair to call this a Stanley Cup or bust season for Tulsky and the Canes, but that’s the type of expectation that Tulsky and the organization crave.

“I love that, frankly, like, it’s great that we’ve set the bar so high that the final four can feel like a disappointment,” Tulsky said. “We want to have it that high, and we want to get to where final two would be a disappointment, right? That’s where we want to be, we want to be winning the cup, and the goal is to keep taking steps forward until we’re there.”