Hurricanes GM Eric Tulsky Q&A: The blockbuster trade, Necas’ fit and what’s ahead

Carolina acquired Mikko Rantanen and Taylor Hall on Friday

Eric Tulsky (Cory Lavalette / North State Journal)

ELMONT, N.Y. — Hurricanes GM Eric Tulsky pulled the trigger on one of the biggest trades of the 21st century Friday night, acquiring Mikko Rantanen and Taylor Hall for Martin Necas, Jack Drury and draft picks in a move that reshapes Carolina’s roster and again makes them one of the Stanley Cup favorite.

I caught up with Tulsky Saturday before his new additions made their debut in a road game against the Islanders, and he discussed the emotions of making such a big deal, how his new players fit in, Necas’ chance for a better fit and more. Some of the questions have been edited for brevity.

In some ways, every GM’s tenure gets defined by maybe one move they make. It’s possible that, in your first six months here, you already made that move. Did that weigh on you at all?

No, I can’t think about myself. It’s about the team. All I’m focused on is what I think has the best chance of giving the team the opportunity to get better and compete for a championship.

The addition of Rantanen gives you, potentially, three lines with big players — Rantanen, Jordan Staal and Andrei Svechnikov — that can compete with skill teams, but does it also help you against teams that maybe want to push you around a bit?

His ability to play below the dots with the puck and protect it and hold onto it and make plays at the net front is going to fit really well with the way we play. And I think the way Jordan can do that is a core part of our team identity, and the more players we have who can do that, the more we can play to that identity.

When you’re dealing with multiple possible trades, you said eventually it reached a boiling point. Is that really when the decision gets made?

Without a deadline, it’s easy to just one another day and another day to think about it, maybe one more day, maybe another day. At some point, you hit a deadline for whatever reason — somebody needs a decision, somebody has a game, they need a player for whatever it is — and that helps teams stop waiting and thinking and decide what they really want to do.

What was the deadline in this instance? Was it you wanting to get something done?

No, it was the complexity of three different teams that each had pieces that they were shopping to multiple teams, and some of those deals started to need an answer for a variety of reasons.

Rod Brind’Amour said he’s a big Necas fan. Any time the team was in big on something, Necas’ name was the one showing up in it. What do you think it was about him just not being able to become that core piece?

I’m also a big Martin Necas fan. He is one of the most dynamic players in the league off the rush with the puck on his stick, and our team is much more of a forecheck-oriented team, and so he was not put in position to look his absolute best on this team. And so we constantly got inquiries from teams that play more rush-oriented style thinking there might be a win-win deal, where we move somebody who’ll look better there and get back somebody who’ll look better here, and Colorado might be that team.

What drew you to Taylor Hall?

We’ve been looking to add skill to our lineup, and he brings skill, and he has the size to play the way we want our team to play. He’s been coming back from his knee surgery, but he has speed, and I think he’s going to fit the way we play and provide that upgrade of skill that we’ve been looking for.

You lose William Carrier, Tyson Jost isn’t back yet — do you feel like if there’s one thing you need to look for, it might just be more NHL bodies if injuries strike?

Of course, you always want more depth. I think we have more players in Chicago who are capable of coming up if we need them to, so it’s not like we’re running out. But the easiest place to upgrade is the bottom of your roster, so that is something you’ll always look at and think about. But if we did have an injury tomorrow and had to call someone up from Chicago, I think there are people who are perfectly capable of doing that.

Is the hardest part of this trade the personal aspect of it?

For sure. It’s two really good people who were really important parts of our locker room, and nobody wanted to see them go. And if it had not been those players coming back, we wouldn’t have even considered it. But sometimes you have to do things that you aren’t comfortable with when you get an opportunity to bring in that kind of player.