The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Eric Tulsky on Winning the Stanley Cup, Building the Hurricanes, Logan Stankoven, and more

Episode Date: June 17, 2026

Fresh off a Stanley Cup championship, Carolina Hurricanes General Manager Eric Tulsky joins Jeff Marek for an in-depth conversation about building a championship roster, navigating the modern NHL, and the key decisions that led the Hurricanes to the top of the hockey world. Tulsky reflects on winning the Stanley Cup, the organization's team-building philosophy, the acquisition and impact of Logan Stankoven, balancing analytics with traditional scouting, and what's next for a Hurricanes team looking to build a lasting contender. Plus, insights into leadership, roster construction, and the future of one of the NHL's model franchises.SHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼 Canadian Blood Services: https://www.blood.ca/👍🏼 Ninja: https://www.sharkninja.ca/ninja-crispi-pro-6-in-1-countertop-glass-air-fryer-rose-quartz/AS101CRS.html?utm_source=Meta&utm_medium=Paid+Social&utm_campaign=H1NinjaCrispi&utm_content=NinjaEN&dwvar_AS101CRS_color=cdb9b8Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!#NHL #TheSheet #JeffMarek #DavidPagnotta #TorontoMapleLeafs #LeafsForever #JosephWoll #SamuelErsson #EmilAndrae #PhiladelphiaFlyers #VegasGoldenKnights #JohnTortorella #CHL #DanMacKenzie #MemorialCup #HockeyReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Flames_Nation🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

First of all, Eric Tulski, congratulations. I was speaking with T.J. O'Shee, the other day on the other podcast that I do. And we were talking about the time in the series when he's playing for the Washington Capitals against Vegas, where he realized we have this. We got it. They're broken. This series is ours. And he said it was in the first game. In the third period, guys were chirping, guys were beaking each other.

Like, Vegas just didn't see him together. And he went back to the bench and said, like, guys, we got this. was there a moment for you, I know you're not on the ice, but was there a moment for you where you said, we got this? Yeah, so, I mean, the moment where you know for sure and you're celebrating, like, that's the empty net goal, you know, game six makes it three nothing. Truthfully, the moment where I felt good about it. So after game two of round one, I told somebody on our staff, I wanted him to collect a puck for me from each round. I just had a good feeling about this team.

So back to Ottawa. So game two Ottawa, you said, you think we have this. I was like, you know, this is going to be a special run. I won a puck from each round as a souvenir. Is there any specific reason why? Or is this just a feeling? Just to feel, I mean, our team played so well this year. You know, we went through a brutal run of injuries in the first half of the year and came out of it in first place.

And we didn't lose back-to-back games from January on. And Ottawa, you know, the narrative in public has been rewritten a little after our series. They were a really good team. Like, they were one of the best teams in the conference and playing incredibly well down the stretch. and we took those first two games and it's just like we've got it going on right now you never know what's going to happen

with injuries or whatever but that team we're just playing so well 16 and 3 I mean the numbers do speak for themselves I always have to laugh Eric when I hear people

giving advice for people that are going through their Stanley Cup run and the advice is always oh make sure you enjoy it make sure you enjoy it's a good time you get to look back on it and you're going to want to be remembering all the good times is bluntly is it possible to enjoy yourself during all this because all i see and i imagine myself going through that and i'm just seeing like balls of stress like is it really possible to enjoy all of that yeah so i i have felt more stressed in past years than

I did this here. I, you know, through this whole run, I just, I had so much confidence in the way the team was playing. It was, it was just a matter of seeing it play out. And, like, you never know how it's going to go. But, I mean, part of it, going 16 and 3, we never hit that point where it was, you know, teetering. That's not quite true. So in the final, I will say the first few minutes of game four.

so we're down to one, we need this game, right? And the first few minutes, I felt a little bit tense. That was about it for the whole run. Most of the time, it was just this team's playing so well. Let's enjoy it and see how it plays out. What an incredible way to feel. Have you or have any of your staff members, players, to your knowledge, allowed themselves now to touch the Prince of Wales Trophy?

Is that allowed now? Is that okay now? So funny you say that. So the, I don't know people know this. Like after the conference final, it gets delivered to my office in a locked trunk. I'm like, well, this is pretty cool, right? I'd like to have it set up. But, you know, the team chose not to touch it.

So on Media Day, I went and grabbed one of the leagues people and was like, I want this set up in my office. So it's right over there. I got it in my office. And, you know, so I had somebody from the league come set it up because, like, the players didn't touch it. I can't touch it. And so, you know, I had people come in, take pictures. And it's like, that's amazing. One of our staffers' kids is, you know, a little rambunctious.

I'm like, you got to have a hold of him. He can't touch it either. But, yes, now there's plenty of fingerprints on it. It's like one of the things we made a little joke about is, hey, everyone who wants to touch it now. Come on in. So did everybody touch it or is it still like, is it still like the boogeyman? Yeah, I mean, you know, like I, it's anybody who comes into my office now and it's like, oh, check that out. It's like, hey, you can touch it now if you want.

I've got this is like what I want to do here for a couple of tweets is like the opposite of mean tweets because the minute your hurricanes. And I'm not sure whether, you know, check the feeds and search your name. on social media, but there were some outstanding tweets that were out there. One that I think, and we'll open up with this one, just want to get your comment on a couple of things. I'm pretty sure, and we'll fire this tweet up here for you, I'm pretty sure that the College of Chemistry has never congratulated anybody for winning the Stanley Cup.

Do you have a thought or a comment on the College of Chemistry congratulating you? Once a bear, always a bear, now a champion. Yeah, that's great. I actually heard from several professors from Berkeley who are congratulating me and telling me they were all watching it. It's neat to have that sort of support from a community. It's something I've really felt from our fans here, and it's fun to have it from the communities I was in in my past lives, too. Did you search your name? I mean, you're trending, and you have been trending for a couple of days.

Did you indulge yourself and going through the comments about you? no there's too much to do right now like there's there's a lot going on there's a draft and free agency and you know we've got a really good team but we still got to find ways to make it better and I do not have time to sit around right now reading about what people are saying about me okay well we have um so one one more one more that I want to show you here and this comes from uh former assistant general manager with the florida panthers Steve we're here um what's neat is that when he eventually became a GM Eric Tulski the outsider's outsider surrounded himself in her front office with women and men just like him, bloggers, lawyers, computer people

even, and it worked. Is that accurate? Yeah, I mean, we look for people who are thoughtful and creative and willing to take risks and able to communicate well. And we don't really get hung up on their background. Sometimes playing career can be an asset when you're trying to move into scouting or development or whatever it is. But it's not the only asset people have and we're willing to look at people outside that path, that pool of talent to try and make sure we're not missing anyone and make sure that we are giving opportunities to talented people regardless of their background.

The one name that comes to mind when you say that, and by the way, I think a lot of people feel the same way and a lot of people watching this will say like, you know, thank you for recognizing people that haven't just followed that traditional I played and this is going to be my path and eventually I'm going to work in a front office. But the idea that there are other people to be seen and valued, everybody holds a piece of the puzzle. We've all heard that one before. The one name that I keep coming back to is Ellen Etchingham. And I will, by the way, Eric, never forgive you for that blog now being off the internet because it was my favorite blog to read, A Theory of Ice, which was brilliant, just a brilliant hockey blog. How does Ellen, I'm super happy for her, how does Ellen Etchingham find her way to the scouting

department of a Stanley Cup champion team? Yeah, so we knew we needed to hire a couple of scouts. And I'm always looking for people who might have the ability and might not have gotten a look otherwise. I actually reached out to her and asked if she was interested in going through our process. You know, I had read her work. I knew she was a very strong communicator and felt like she had also shown an eye. for the game. When we have,

so the process we go through when we hire a scout, we have them write reports that somebody blinds for us. And so we had, I don't know, eight or 10 or 12 people write a couple of reports. And five of us internally read through them, grade them, rank them, share our thoughts,

and narrow it down to a short list. And, you know, her reports were as good as anyone's. And, you know, then you start thinking, okay, someone who's never written a scouting report before. Right. And if the reports they're doing now are already on par with people who've been doing it for a long time,

like, who knows where the ceiling is. And she's been great for us. Are they, I always imagine that Ellen Etchingham's scouting reports are profoundly different than everybody else's. She's like bluntly, one of the most creative people and thoughtful people and educated people I've ever met in my life. Are they profoundly different than other scouting reports that you've read?

Yeah, so our reports in general, I think, are unusual in some ways. We ask our scouts to write really detailed reports that get into a lot of sort of distinct elements about what they saw in an individual game. And then also get into how they fit their game viewings together into an overall. profile of the player. She is especially good at communicating the nuance of what she saw. You know, it's not just he did this well, but, you know, you get a feel for exactly how well

and where it worked and where it didn't. And, you know, she's a strong communicator. She also sometimes likes to let a little bit of her writer's voice creep in, and that always makes for a more entertaining read. Yes. And so, you know, I enjoy that. But in the end, it's about how you see the game. She sees it as clearly as anyone.

Let me ask you about a couple of your players here. I was pointing out the night that you won the Stanley Cup, but Taylor Hall just did something that no player in the history of the game in the NHL stretched back to 1917 has ever done. He became the first player to be drafted first overall, win a heart trophy, and then win a Stanley Cup with three separate teams. it's been a strange career arc for Taylor Hall. Do you have a, A, a thought on him,

what you've seen through him through his NHL career? Like there are a lot of times where people said, like, okay, like Taylor Hall is on the back nine here. He can see the clubhouse, et cetera. Obviously you and your staff didn't. Do you have a thought on Taylor Hall and what was it about him specifically that you said this guy can play on this team?

Yeah, I mean, obviously, as a lot of talent and a lot of skill, our scouts did a lot of work to evaluate his game and how we thought it would translate to the way we play. And, you know, we found ourselves seeing him as somebody who we thought could come in and play well. We also, we always do a lot of homework on what the players like as a person and as a teammate. And we had a lot of strong reports that the good thing about someone who's bounced

around a lot is there are a lot of different sets of teammates and co-workers to talk to. So we heard from people with a lot of his former stops that he was somebody who, you know, would fit in here and needed that chance and needed to be in a place where he felt like he could win a cup. And, you know, we brought him in. And he from day one was, he was aware that a lot of what we were asking him to do was new for him and wasn't always coming easily. And he was asking questions. He was putting in the work even when he wasn't getting it right initially because it was new to him. It wasn't because he didn't care. It was because it wasn't natural in him yet. And he was spending the time, you know, darn it, I missed.

I got it now next time. I won't make that mistake again. He was committed to his craft and trying to make sure he brought a complete game to the hurricanes. In the end, he had a huge impact for us this year. Logan Stankhoven, forever we'll be revisiting this trade.

We used to call it the Rantan and Trade. I'm sure everybody now calls it the Stankovin trade because he's a Stanley Cup champion. I know that that was a tough one for Dallas to make. Like, there is a relationship with Logan Stankhoven with the owner of the Dallas stars going back to his minor hockey days. And, like, look, there's a reason he was a Cam Loops Blazers. There's a reason he was a Dallas star.

I know that was the player you really, really wanted in all of this. When you were talking with Dallas on Ranton, was it Stankhoven or you were going somewhere else? Like, was that the guy you had to have? Yeah, I mean, you know, I don't remember exactly. who said there's always a bunch of back and forth, so I can't answer that and be 100% sure. But I know he was the, you know,

when we first talked to them, he was the person we asked for and the one we wanted to try to build a deal around. I, you know, he, we had scouting reports on him that were, you know, very complimentary of him as a player and as a fit. Our data team was really high on him. I haven't told this before. I've said we had somebody on our team who said, you know, that guy's made to be a hurricane.

I never said who because I, you know, if something goes south, I never want to have a staff or, you know, feel like they ate it. But now that he has sort of met and exceeded all expectations, I'll go ahead and give Chris Huffine credit as the person. So he's our video coach. And he was the one who said, you know, if there's, you know, he, His line was, that guy is a Carolina hurricane. I don't know how else to say it. And, you know, we had strong scouting reports. We had strong reviews from the data team.

I didn't expect him to be the person that the coaching staff wanted because coaches always want size and physicality and toughness. And the fact that they, you know, that Chris picked him out as someone who he said, that's the guy I want. You know, we knew, you know, we've got unanimous across. us all our groups that this is the player. So that was where we focused. You know, that's interesting because,

and I'm sure you do this as well, I'll ask you, do you do this? Like, in your mind right now, because we did a lot of this throughout your run, look at other teams and pick out the players who could play on the hurricanes. Like in the last series, you know, we'd have the conversation on the show like,

oh man, you know, William Carlson's so great on the Vegas Golden Knights. I could see him as a carol. Like he has those attributes. When you look around the NHL right now, like in your mind, do you have an idea of right now who can play on the Carolina Hurricanes from all 31 other teams? Yeah, I mean, most people can. I think there are a handful of people who are ideal fits. There's a lot of people who would be good fits and would come in and do just fine. there's a small number of people who are ideal fits who are going to come here and look better than they ever have before.

Those are the players we have our scouting stuff trying to dig up and highlight for us and sort of identify these are the guys who you bring them in and everyone's going to say, wow, I didn't realize how good he was. That's another conversation that's happened as a sidecar to your run too, is that it doesn't just seem like players. get better. They do get better, whether it's Walker, K. Andre Miller, golf. I mean, Taylor Hall hasn't played like this since New Jersey and the Hart Trophy. Why? Bluntly, why? Why do players just get better with Carolina? Yeah, I mean, that's, you know, that's what we're looking for. You know, we're on an extraordinary hot streak, and I, you know, we're, and we've turned over 12 players in my two years here and if we're not 12 for 12 we're pretty darn close and I don't want to take too much credit for that. I know there will be some that won't work out and

that's part of how it works and I will enjoy the fact that they've been working so far. But what we try to do to put the odds in our favor is we really have our scouts focusing on how we play and what skills it takes to be able to do that and who has those skills. And someone might be playing in a team that plays very differently from us and they look good, but we say they don't have the skills that you need to look good here. Or they look just okay there. And you say, yeah, but you know what? Like, he's going to look better here.

And that's, you know, that really is our focus. And we're never going to be out a thousand. We've been on a hot streak and a lot of credit to the people doing that work. But that's part of why the team was so good this year is because we've been fortunate that everything we've done is, you know, has worked out. You and your staff take a lot of time measuring, right? And you talk a lot of, you know, data points and collaboration. Nothing's done frivolously. I think it's safe to say with the Carolina hurricanes.

But there's a word that I want to bring up to you and get your. thoughts on it and that is belief. So I was without any hockey other than Chicago, Toronto to watch last night in the American Hockey League called the Cup final. I was watching an interview with Rodney Mullen, skateboarder.

And he was one of the, maybe the greatest skateboarder of all time. Not that I know a ton about skateboarding, but this guy's fascinating to me. And he talked about how we have a culture that says, if it can't be proven, it must not be possible. The best people are

striving for tricks, and then one guy finally does it, and the rest follow like lemmings. Like the word belief, like we live in a world where I think we're understanding now that at a certain point, there's an intersection between like art and science or art and math, like beauty becomes mathematical, mathematical becomes theoretical. Like we're seeing all these intersection points. Where does the word belief, or does it even resonate with you? Like, where does the word belief fit into what you do as a manager of the Carolina Hurricanes? Yeah, I mean, in this sport, there's a lot of stuff you can't know for sure.

You know, you just can't. You can have a belief that this young player is going to develop the way you want them to, but you don't know until five years from now when you see how it's played out. You can have a belief that this player's skills are going to make him look better on your team, but you don't know until he's been with you probably for a few months and seeing whether he really fit the way he wanted. You can have a belief that this personality is going to fit into the locker room and help out well, but you don't know until you see him interacting with his new teammates.

It's just a lot of things that you do, you can't know for sure until it's done in the history books are written. And you have to make your best guess and you have to have belief in a process and an approach and a way of doing things and trust that they won't all work. They really won't. But if you keep taking your chances and keep trusting in your beliefs, you'll get more right than wrong and end up ahead. How often do you – this is like kind of – it feels like at least on the – a sort of victory lap for bloggers and for bloggers from a very very specific era, many of which, you know, are employed by the Carolina Hurricanes.

So it does feel like a victory lap of sorts. How often do you allow yourself to look back and see what you wrote in like 2014 and go like, oh, man, I don't feel like that anymore. Do you ever let yourself go back there? So I don't spend time going back. reading what I wrote. I have a pretty good memory for what I wrote. There are definitely some things that were a little bit off. There are also some things that held up better than I would have guessed. And, you know, 12, 14 years a long time. And most of that stuff should be outdated

by now, but some of it did hold up. Do you, because one of the things that I always, that I'm always warned about is the various models that are public, NHL teams are well past that. Like, well, I'm always told like take it take everything that's public with a grain assault because at the team level, their light years past that. Is that accurate? So yes and no. I mean, I don't want to make it sound like we just think we're way smarter than everyone else. I don't think that's true. There's a lot of smart people in the public domain. What we do have is better data than the public has access to. And, you know, the NHL play-by-play averages an event every 10 seconds.

And 10 seconds in eternity in a hockey game, right? The puck can go from one end of the ice to the other. And, you know, somebody had an analogy. Maybe it was you, actually, I don't remember. Somebody in an interview told me they had heard an analogy that it's like turning the lights on and off. And so once every 10 seconds you flick the lights on and see what's going on, you don't really have a very clear view of the game from that. And teams have access to data where you're flipping the light on and off every second

or where you are using player and puck tracking to flick it on and off 50 times a second. And the more information you have about a game, the easier it is to analyze. I've always wondered about that too. Here we go. Is it possible to have too much information to the point where it gets really close? cloudy and you find almost that you're, you're so frozen to make a decision because there's just too much noise, too much info,

and that maybe the main goal of all of it is, we just need the sharpen pencils here. And like, Michelangelo, I didn't, I didn't create David. I just removed the parts of him that weren't him, that idea,

right? Art by subtraction. Do you find that that's a major challenge now with what you do? Yeah. So, I mean, ultimately my job as general manager is to take all the information we have and integrate it and make a decision. And that includes stuff from the data team. It includes scouting reports. It includes coaches' opinions.

It includes the views of my management staff. Like, all of that is information of different kinds. And it's my job to integrate it. To do that, you have to be good at. living in a world where you're going to have conflicting information. You're going to have data that says this guy's pretty good, and a scout who says he doesn't see it, and a coach who says, I heard some bad things about him.

You're going to have to be comfortable living with uncertainty, living with conflicting information, and sort of sorting through it and making a best guess. Okay, one more question, so I know you're busy. The fun stuff, do you know what you're going to do with the cup the day you get it? What does Errolski's day with the cup look like? Come on. You haven't ever thought about that,

what I would do with the cup? So it's still, we have a short summer this year. So figuring out even when I'm going to do it is still a challenge, much less where. Right. Is there one player, I know they're all your children and they're all special,

but is there one player that you were really happy for? Like, Eler scores the empty netter, and you're like, I am so happy for that guy. Knowing the real answer is everybody, but is there one for you? Or maybe someone on your staff, I don't know. Maybe it doesn't have to be a player.

Yeah, I mean, so the strong feeling you have year after year, you're looking at players like Jordan and Freddie and Taylor who have been doing this for a long, long time. And at some point, everybody starts to wonder, is it ever going to happen again for me? and being able to give them that moment and have them give it to themselves, right? Each of them played great in our playoff run and put us in that position. Having them able to do that and get that chance and know that, you know,

they got that before things came to a close and, you know, maybe again, maybe two more times still, but at least they got that one. Right. That was, you know, it's just it's really good to be able to see people get that one. that's a really nice thought um eric congratulations uh to you your staff the whole organization uh that was exciting uh a legendary run really exciting hockey that was a banger of a final it just such a fun thing to watch um glad you could enjoy it along the way as you as you mentioned and thanks uh as always for being so candid we appreciate it here thank you had a good time thanks for having me