Carolina Hurricanes GM Eric Tulsky feels ‘enormous responsibility,’ but not pressure

Eric Tulsky says he’s not someone who stresses easily.

Then again, he has only been the general manager of the Carolina Hurricanes for a couple of weeks.

Tulsky has been in the Hurricanes organization for 10 years, crunching numbers, analyzing player performance, heading up the team’s pro scouting, offering advice on contracts, fielding calls from owner Tom Dundon. That’s the life of an assistant GM.

“I used to get about 10 calls a day and nine of them from the owner.” Tulsky said Monday, smiling.

And as general manager, sitting in the big chair, in the days leading up to NHL free agency?

“About 60 a day, and only about 10 or 11 were from the owner,” he said.

When Monday came and NHL free agency opened up at noon, after all the calls from agents and other GM’s, Tulsky and the Canes had some team fixtures move on — defensemen Brady Skjei and Brett Pesce, forwards Teuvo Teravainen and Stefan Noesen.

Pesce and Noesen signed with the New Jersey Devils. Teravainen went back to Chicago, to the team that drafted him in the first round in 2012. Skjei got a seven-year deal with the Nashville Predators.

Many Canes fans, already shocked by the team trading forward Jake Guentzel on Sunday, flocked to social media Monday to express their worries, their angst, their stress. Some were not kind to the new GM.

The Canes did re-sign forward Jordan Martinook. Later in the day they signed defensemen Shayne Gostisbehere and Sean Walker. They brought in a physical forward in William Carrier, a Stanley Cup winner with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2023 who plays with some thump in his game.

Tulsky said Monday the Canes resisted what he called the “urge to splurge” on big contracts at the start of free agency.

“There are a lot of teams right now trying to figure out how to get out of contracts very similar to the ones being signed today,” he said. “We are looking for other ways to work through this.

“We plan to keep exploring all our options. We have some ideas in mind we are still actively pursuing. “

What those options and ideas are, Tulsky did not say. It could include a trade involving forward Martin Necas, a restricted free agent who has drawn interest from several other NHL teams.

The Hurricanes also have the cap space to consider options: about $16 million. The Canes have restricted free agents to sign — Necas, Seth Jarvis and Jack Drury among them — and should add another D-man for depth, but should be able to make it work.

“We do need to find ways to get better without hampering or handcuffing ourselves long term,” Tulsky said.

The Canes did sign defenseman Jaccob Slavin to a long-term contract extension. There has been talk of Jarvis, who has quickly emerged as one of the team’s best players, receiving a new contract.

Granted, dealing with Monday’s personnel losses, professionally and personally, will take a while.

“It’s never fun to see guys leave who you’ve been teammates with for a long time,” Slavin said. “You build friendships, but also there is it’s hockey and (change) is part of it.

“It’s going to be different personnel but still the same culture, the same identity and same confidence moving forward.”

Pesce played more than 600 regular-season games for Carolina and wanted to win a Stanley Cup with the Hurricanes. Teravainen, the guy they called “Turbo,” played 555. That’s a lot of hockey, the two helping the franchise win and strengthen its brand by becoming a Stanley Cup playoff team each of the past six seasons under head coach Rod Brind’Amour.

“I loved my time as a Cane, but sometimes just the nature of the business it doesn’t work out,” Pesce told the New Jersey media on Monday. “It was a tough decision. I had a great run there, so many great memories ...”

Skjei, who came to Carolina in a trade just before the pandemic shut things down in 2020, was a dependable player who worked well with Pesce as a D partner and became an offensive threat from the blue line with the Canes. Noesen added toughness to the lineup.

“I think every single player who left we made offers to and tried to get deals done,” Tulsky said. “It’s our job to figure out how to react to that and how to keep taking steps forward.”

Guentzel played just 17 regular-season games and 11 in the 2024 playoffs for the Canes after the trade-deadline deal with Pittsburgh — a virtual cameo. But he has been one of the league’s best scorers and the Canes were willing to make an eight-year offer said to be worth about $64 million to keep the sniper.

That didn’t work out, either. Guentzel, due to become an unrestricted free agent, let it be known he wouldn’t sign with the Canes, who traded his rights Sunday to Tampa Bay. Guentzel then signed with the Lightning — and will return to PNC Arena on Oct. 11 for the 2024-25 season opener.

“We tried very hard,” Tulsky said. “In the end, it didn’t work. He wanted to play somewhere else. That’s his right.”

And so the work continues for Tulsky and management. There are free agents still available, potential trades on the table. Training camp does not begin until September. The roster is not set.

“It has been an extraordinarily busy period,” Tulsky said. “I won’t say it has been relaxing by any means. But it’s part of the job.

“I would not say I feel an enormous amount of pressure. I do feel an enormous responsibility.”