Tulsky proving he's up to task in 1st season as Hurricanes GM

TORONTO -- Eric Tulsky attended an NHL general managers meeting in person for the first time Tuesday. Representing the Carolina Hurricanes, sitting between Craig Conroy of the Calgary Flames and Kyle Davidson of the Chicago Blackhawks, Tulsky listened to reports on the state of the game in a hotel conference room.

“It’s an honor, right?” he said. “You’re in there with the stewards of the game who are deciding how the League’s going to be run, and you’re there with a voice for your team, and that’s an important situation and an important position to be entrusted with.”

Carolina entrusted Tulsky with the GM position June 18. He had been promoted to interim GM from assistant GM on May 24 when Don Waddell resigned to become president of hockey operations and GM of the Columbus Blue Jackets on May 28.

After making significant personnel changes in the offseason, the Hurricanes have the second-best record in the NHL (11-3-0, .786 points percentage), behind the Winnipeg Jets (15-1-0, .938). They are tied for second in goals per game (4.21), tied for fourth in goals against per game (2.57), tied for 10th on the power play (22.2 percent) and 10th on the penalty kill (83.3 percent).

“We had a lot of change, and that always carries some risk,” Tulsky said. “You never know how it’s going to go. But our scouts did a great job of identifying the players who would step in and fit, and so far, it’s worked.”

The Hurricanes lost forwards Jake Guentzel, Stefan Noesen and Teuvo Teravainen, defensemen Brett Pesce and Brady Skjei, and goalie Antti Raanta. But they added forwards William Carrier and Jack Roslovic, and defensemen Shayne Gostisbehere and Sean Walker.

“We approached an offseason where we knew we would have a lot of roster turnover, thinking about how we could use this as an opportunity to keep bringing in players who we knew could play the way we want to play,” Tulsky said. “So we’re not looking to change our identity. We’re looking to find players who can fit our identity and who will look better for us than they would for a lot of other teams, because our style of play is well-suited to them and will help them shine.”

Carrier is perfect for Carolina’s style, forechecking hard, going to the front of the net and disrupting. Roslovic leads the Hurricanes with nine goals. Gostisbehere leads Carolina defensemen with nine points (four goals, five assists). Like Gostisbehere (5-foot-11, 183 pounds), Walker (5-11, 191) fits better for a team looking for mobile defensemen than for one looking for bruisers to battle in front.

“I don’t know that any of our transactions were the premium headline free agents that garner national attention, Tulsky said, "but every player we brought in was someone who we thought would fit and play well for us and make us better.”

Meanwhile, forward Martin Necas, who signed a two-year, $13 million contract ($6.5 million average annual value) as a restricted free agent July 29, is tied for third in the NHL with 24 points (eight goals, 16 assists).

“He’s been phenomenal,” Tulsky said. “He’s one of the most dynamic players in the game with the puck on his stick off the rush, and we’ve been generating a lot of opportunities for him to take advantage of that.

“He’s also found more ways than he had in the past to do that in [the offensive] zone too and to use his skating and to use his speed and to use his quickness to generate chances. He sees the ice real well, and he can make plays, and he has a high-end skill, and it’s just worked for him this year.”

Goalie Pyotr Kochetkov is 8-1-0 with a 2.45 goals-against average and .902 save percentage, and Frederik Andersen is 3-1-0 with a 1.48 GAA and .941 save percentage.

“We’re very high on Pyotr,” Tulsky said. “He’s an important part of what we do. We’re fortunate to have both him and ‘Freddie’ as high-end goalies, and Spencer [Martin] as a high-end No. 3 who can step in when we need him. I think any one of them we trust to run with it when they need to.”

The Hurricanes continue to succeed with the same culture and structure under coach Rod Brind’Amour. They rank first in the NHL in offensive zone time in all situations (47.0 percent) and at even strength (47.0 percent), according to NHL EDGE, the League’s Puck and Player Tracking technology, and in 5-on-5 shot attempts percentage (60.5 percent).

“We want to have the puck in the offensive zone and put the pressure on the other team,” Tulsky said, “and we want to play in a high-pressure way that makes it difficult to play against, and produce mistakes and exploit them.”

Now that Tulsky sits in the GM chair, he is paid to worry more than anyone else. But he feels the Hurricanes can handle adversity when it inevitably arises.

“There’s always highs and lows, and right now, the team is playing great,” he said. “We are generating as much zone time as ever, and it’s turning into premium chances. There will be stretches where sometimes we don’t get quite as many chances, where we don’t finish the chances we have, and we’ll get frustrated, and the question is how you react to that and do you stay with it and keep at it and know that it’ll come.

“In the past, we have, and it’s been great. The dynamics and chemistry in the locker room feel great. I’m confident that we won’t have any issues there.”