2025 Exit Interviews: Brind'Amour & Tulsky

RALEIGH, N.C. - Putting a bow on the 2024-25 Carolina Hurricanes season, Head Coach Rod Brind'Amour and General Manager Eric Tulsky completed their year-end media availability on Tuesday.

Reviewing a year that began with several new faces and ended with the club's highest win total in a playoff run (9) since winning the Stanley Cup in 2006, the duo touched on a variety of topics and set the stage for what could be a busy few months as the club looks to take the next step toward an elusive championship.

Opportunity Knocks...

As disappointing as it is to see your season end without a Stanley Cup, there's a palpable sense of excitement within the walls of Lenovo Center about the potential held in the summer ahead. Boasting the fifth-most cap space in the NHL (per PuckPedia) and a wealth of trade capital in the form of draft picks and, potentially, prospects, the Hurricanes are well-positioned to strike should an opportunity to improve the roster arise.

“Our goal is to win a Cup, and to win more Cups after that. We’re trying to build a team that can compete year after year, but competing isn’t enough...the picks and prospects can help us by producing players in the future, they can help us by being used in trades to bring in players who help us now. We’re open to everything," the general manager said. "It’s just a question of what the best path forward is and what opportunities we see in front of us.”

Tulsky's refrain when asked about improving his team's roster has long been that, "until we have the 20 best players in the league, there's always room for improvement," and on Tuesday, his message was no different. And while a rising salary cap could make Tulsky's job easier in certain negotiations, having more money to spend is no guarantee that players Carolina would like to spend it on will be available.

Responsible spending has put the Hurricanes in an enviable situation, with flexibility to make moves they truly want to make, not ones they necessarily have to. As the NHL and its clubs navigate a new financial playing field, Tulsky and his team are committed to remaining aggressive while maintaining their composure.

“People always like to say ‘we’re not going to make a move just for the sake of making a move,’ and of course, we’re not. That goes without saying," he offered. "But if there’s a chance to get better, we’re going to take it. We have the full buy-in to spend to the cap if there are ways to do it to get better. We have so much space and such a strong team, there’s no guarantee we can find ways to spend all that money, but we’re going to spend all summer trying.”

As for what they'll target amidst the league's annual summer shopping spree, Tulsky and Brind'Amour kept things under the umbrella of "trying to make the team better." But the Canes' GM touched on the importance of finding players who not only fit on the ice, but off of it as well.

“We have a phenomenal culture here...We want to find players who can play and who will fit, but who will fit off the ice too, and step in and listen to what he has to say, work with (Brind'Amour), work with the teammates, fit in well. We want it to be a fun place to play," said Tulsky.

"It’s something I am very impressed by. These guys compete so hard on the ice, and they come off the ice and have a good time together. That’s a special atmosphere that I’m not sure every team has, and if we can keep building that, I think it helps make us what we are.”

Building On The Fly...

Just 11 months ago, the Hurricanes said goodbye to a significant handful of popular players who earned big paydays elsewhere in the NHL. It was a stark change, and one that, according to Brind'Amour in his postgame comments from last Wednesday's season-ending defeat, left him unsure his club would make the 2025 postseason cut.

The Canes were coming off their sixth straight playoff appearance, but given both the caliber and quantity of players that left the lineup during free agency, it was only natural for some question marks to arise. But diligent work from Tulsky and Co. led to suitable replacements who not only picked up the slack but helped push the team forward.

While seeing some standouts find new homes was jarring, it didn't take long for Brind'Amour's initial concerns to dissipate as he got to know players like Sean Walker, William Carrier, Eric Robinson and others, on and off the ice.

“Everything gets taken out of context a little bit, I was worried [last summer] because of what went out. And if you just go through and say ‘oh we lose all those guys,’ that would worry anybody," he said. "Then, to Eric’s point, you see what we brought in, and then you had time, and it was like ‘okay.’ Immediately, within a couple weeks, we’re like, ‘we’re in good shape.’"

“Rod and I came at it from a different place," said Tulsky. "He knows the players on this team as well as anybody in the world does. We saw some really good players leave, and that made him nervous. As someone overseeing the management staff, our job was mostly to understand the rest of the league, and I knew we were bringing in players who were going to fit and who were going to be really good. That’s the difference in perspective. Of course, there’s always a risk, you never know for sure how it’s going to go, but I knew coming in that we were in position to keep taking steps forward, and I was comfortable with the team we had built.”

This summer, there's far less uncertainty as it pertains to Carolina's own UFAs. Only five players are up for new contracts for 2025-26, and there's more of a focus on what could come, rather than what may go, unlike last year.

But no matter what comes from the next few months, Brind'Amour draws confidence from the team's "great core" and an infusion of young talent that has set the club up for success.

"There’s tons of opportunity, I guess, is the way I look at it, but even if none of that pans out, we still have all those guys," said the Canes' bench boss. "They’ve been warriors, in my opinion, and they know what it takes. The more experience they’re getting, and now we’ve got young kids that played in this last series, that’s just going to help us move forward, and they’re big parts of this now. There’s a lot of optimism regardless of what Eric can do this summer. That’s how I look at it.”

Tulsky and Brind'Amour were asked about several other topics, ranging from how they'd each evaluate the job they did this season to what was said between Brind'Amour and Florida's Paul Maurice at the conclusion of the Eastern Conference Final. Select quotes can be found below.

Eric Tulsky

On how he’d assess the job he did in year one…

“Ultimately, the scorecard is the results. There are always ways you can do better. There is nobody in the world who looks back on a year of their performance in a job, and is honest with themselves, and says, ‘there’s nothing I could have done differently, I had a perfect year.’ There’s always room for improvement. But where we exited, I think we have a strong team now, and I think we’re well-positioned to get better going forward. I’m very comfortable with where we landed. Of course, there are ups and downs, there always will be, but if we can keep taking steps forward in the big picture, we’re going to get there.”

On if he’ll make offers to Brent Burns, Dmitry Orlov or any of the team's pending free agents…

“We’ve talked to the agents of every free agent we have. Those conversations are ongoing. We have four weeks left until July 1 to try to get deals done, and we’ll see how that goes.”

On Bradly Nadeau and other prospects…

“I’m always hesitant to put pressure on any one player because it’ll happen when it happens. We know he’s going to be a great NHLer for a long time. I don’t want anybody feeling like there’s a timeline for that, because development isn’t linear and we don’t know. But yes, he had a fantastic season, he scored a ton of goals, he’ll be in the mix in camp, and we’ll see how it goes. I think if you had asked me this time last year to list prospects, Blake would have been on the list, but I wouldn’t have told you to bet on him making the team. He had a great summer, he worked hard, he came into camp fitter than he had been before and more NHL-ready than he had been, and he took off from there. It’s hard to predict who’s going to take that step over the summer, but there are a lot of players who are in the mix for that.”

Rod Brind'Amour

On his first season with Eric as GM…

“I think it was good. We’ve obviously known each other for a long time, but not in this kind of capacity. I think it’s been a learning curve for both of us, we’re certainly coming from different worlds and trying to mesh it, trying to understand each other. That’ll be an ongoing process, but I think it was good. It’s good to get two different ideas and kind of mesh them, like I said, and I think we’ve done a good job with it.”

On the handshake line with Paul Maurice, and if that was hard for him to skip the line with the players…

“Yeah. But I understood his point of view. He explained it to me, and I wasn’t expecting it, but I understood what he said and why he - it is the players, of course it is. Those guys are the ones that are battling out there, and we’re just sitting back there, not along for the ride; we invest a ton into it. I get his point, it is about the players. I guess my take on that now, [after] sitting back on it in reflection, is, you talk about gracious losing, I’ve had some pretty impactful memories and moments in that line going through. Even in this playoffs with the Devils, I had four or five guys that were Hurricanes, and I still think of them in that way, so it meant something to me to go through there and shake their hands. I’m not thinking about a TV moment, I get enough of that. Every time there’s a penalty, the thing gets a shot of my face. So that’s not it for me.

I think, moving forward, I’ll probably go back to it, just because it’s a sign of respect. That’s the way I look at it. We’re not out there on the ice battling, but we’re right in there with these guys. So that’s my take, I think you’re entitled to whichever one you want. He won, so I kind of went ‘okay I’m going to follow your lead’ in that, but I do think it’s important, to me anyway, to show respect to the players.”

On if the hunger to win is the same as when he played…

“It’s different coaching. I don’t know if I’ll always be wired this way, but I still think like a player. I know I’m not out there, but it’s different this time around. I genuinely want it for the guys. I’ve done it, I want them to experience that. For the organization, for the fans here. That last game we played here might have been the loudest I’ve ever heard it. I was screaming, probably at the ref, but I was screaming at the guy standing right here, and I couldn’t communicate. We want it for all these people, at least, that’s how I feel. If we do ever get one, then does the hunger go away? Maybe. But until then, it’s definitely what keeps me fired up.”

What's Next?

And now, we wait.

The NHL Draft is set for June 27-28 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, Calif., where Carolina currently owns six picks, starting at No. 29 overall.

From there, the eyes of the hockey world turn to free agency, which officially opens on July 1.

As always, stay tuned to Hurricanes.com for full coverage of the team throughout the summer.