After years of Eastern Conference final meltdowns, the Hurricanes have finally gotten over the hump. General manager Eric Tulsky, in only his second season with the franchise, has transformed a once-flawed roster into a playoff powerhouse thanks to his league-best cap management.
But how did a former scientist go on to build one of the most dominant playoff teams in recent memory?
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Revisiting the Mikko Rantanen trade
Rarely can you give away the best player in a trade and come out on top. When Tulsky traded Rantanen to the Dallas Stars less than two months after acquiring him from the Colorado Avalanche, many questioned his ability to build a contending team.
A little over a year later, it looks like Tulsky may have made the right move.
The Hurricanes acquired two first-round picks and Logan Stankoven in the trade, and went on to sign the winger to an eight-year, $48 million extension.
Stankoven currently sits second in the postseason with eight goals and has solidified himself as a legitimate top-six forward for years to come. His $6 million average annual value will likely remain one of the best contracts in the league, especially with the rising cap.
Rantanen, on the other hand, inked an eight-year, $96 million extension in Dallas.
With that extra six million a year in cap space, Tulsky had the cap flexibility to acquire defenseman K’Andre Miller from the New York Rangers.
Miller has arguably been the Hurricanes’ best defenseman during this run, with his pairing posting the league’s best expected goals percentage.
The Hurricanes likely couldn’t have fit his $7.5 million AAV had Tulsky kept Rantanen — and who knows where they would be without Miller this postseason.
For the Stars, they got their superstar winger for the next eight years, but how has it impacted their roster management? Ilya Lyubushkin and Alexander Petrovic are the team’s second- and third-pairing right-side defensemen after years of failing to find a legitimate option behind Miro Heiskanen.
Had general manager Jim Nill kept Stankoven, perhaps he could have filled this glaring hole in the roster.
Jackson Blake and the value of signing your young stars early
Blake, alongside Stankoven and Taylor Hall, has helped form the best line of the playoffs. He currently sits sixth in points with five goals and 10 assists in 13 games, coming off a 53-point regular season.
Similar to Stankoven, Tulsky locked up Blake to an eight-year, $5.6 million extension. Other players carrying a similar cap hit include Andrew Copp, Kiefer Sherwood, and Yegor Sharangovich.
Blake was signed to an extension after only one full season in the NHL, where he recorded 34 points, a rare commitment to a player with such a limited sample size. The extension was particularly surprising given that Blake was drafted in the fourth round.
But Tulsky hasn’t managed the Hurricanes like just any other general manager; his work in biotechnology molded him into one of the more analytical minds in the league.
Signing your promising players to extensions early offers a unique upside, especially in the current landscape of a rising cap. Look at Jack Hughes‘ eight-year, $64 million deal, signed back in 2021 just before his breakout 99-point season.
Had the New Jersey Devils waited, that number could have easily gone up to over $11 million AAV.
Tulsky’s decision to bet on Blake’s upside will pay massive dividends for Carolina over the next eight seasons, and other contending teams will take note.
Carolina’s first real challenge
Now, four days away from the Stanley Cup Final, the Hurricanes face their biggest test of the postseason in the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Knights have built their team in a completely different manner, acquiring a majority of their top-end talent via trade. If Tulsky and the Hurricanes can pull off the win, it will go down as one of the most dominant runs in playoff history and a testament to the importance of analytics.
