Canes Add To Already Bright Future With Stankoven & Draft Capital

RALEIGH, N.C. - In the late hours of a Friday night in January, there was shock amongst the hockey world when the Carolina Hurricanes, Chicago Blackhawks, and Colorado Avalanche completed a three-team swap that sent important players from each club in different directions.

For Carolina, out went Martin Necas, who had previously been the team's leading scorer (2022-23) and one of the hottest players in all of the NHL to start this season. So too did Jack Drury, a drafted and developed piece who turned into an every-night center for Rod Brind'Amour.

But in return, the team brought aboard a former league MVP in Taylor Hall and put themselves first in line to secure the long-term services of pending unrestricted free agent Mikko Rantanen. Expecting him to be an ideal fit for the team and mesh with several other Finnish stars in the dressing room, there were high hopes that the new #96 could not only be the missing piece to help the team get over the hump come late spring, but also someone who could become a new franchise cornerstone.

Instead, Rantanen wasn't willing to agree to be a part of the organization for the years ahead, and just six weeks later, Tulsky made a move that "wasn't the goal" but one that provided better security for years to come.

"We knew (the initial trade) was a risk. The upside, if he did sign, was big. It’s hard to acquire players like this, and when you do, if you get them locked up long-term, it’s a big value to the franchise, and that upside is worth chasing," said Tulsky. "And it helps that, even in the downside where he decided not to sign, we were able to pivot and trade him and bring in a player in Logan, who I think is going to be great for us, and bring in a lot of draft capital."

Just 22 years young, Logan Stankoven - a 2021 second-round draft pick of Dallas - joins an already loaded stable of players in the lineup age 27 or younger: Sebastian Aho (27), Jackson Blake (21), Seth Jarvis (23), Jesperi Kotkaniemi (24), Pyotr Kochetkov (25), and Andrei Svechnikov (24).

With Bradly Nadeau (19) and Alexander Nikishin (23), among others, on the cusp of joining that mix, the team is undoubtedly well-equipped for several years to come.

"We have tried to make sure there is always opportunity for younger players who are in the lineup to keep moving up as they earn their ice time, and those who are not yet in the lineup to move in as they show that they’re ready," said Tulsky. "I think that’s an important part of how we build and part of how we keep things moving forward year after year, so that we can stay where we want to stay and not just hit a quick peak and then fade."

Described by now-former teammates as "a little bulldog", there are some comparisons to be drawn between Stankoven's style of play and that of Seth Jarvis. Both products of the Western Hockey League; the two have no shortage of offensive skill. Neither cherry-picks for their opportunities, though, each willing to work for them.

Jarvis has become a critical part of the Eastern Conference's best penalty kill and often likes to say that he'll "take [the puck] to the hoop", to put it in basketball terms. Stankoven not only excels in creating offense off of the rush and getting the puck into the attacking end, but he also touts strong numbers when it comes to his defensive zone.

Amidst the deadline-driven drama, Tulsky kept his eye on the bigger picture. Cumulatively across the two trades, Carolina dealt Necas and Drury, as well as second-, third- and fourth-round picks to receive Stankoven and Taylor Hall, plus two first-round picks and a pair of third-round selections, setting the team up for current and future success despite the pain of dealing away a superstar.

"Honestly, when you look back at the whole thing, we recovered a lot there, and I’m pretty happy with where we ended up in the end," said Tulsky. "I know it’s disappointing on the day you trade away the player, but in total, between bringing in Taylor, bringing in Logan, getting two first-round picks, two third-round picks, we got a lot of assets here."

A trade out of Carolina was hardly the vision when the team acquired Rantanen on Jan. 24, and a day like this certainly stings in the short term. But as important as it is for Carolina to be "aggressive," as Tulsky put it, it's equally important to be agile.

As he said in his opening statement...

"If you only make moves when you’re 100 percent sure, you know exactly how it’s going to work out, you’re going to miss some opportunities to make the team better, and that’s not what we want to do..."

...and in pivoting to add a talented second-year pro in Stankoven, the Canes are comfortably poised to keep getting better. A player Tulsky described as "born to be a Hurricane," the Kamloops B.C. native combines tenacity and talent that belie his smaller stature.

"He is a really aggressive player just by nature. When the puck’s on his stick, he’s very shifty with it, he’s very aggressive, he’s attacking on offense. And when he’s going and recovering loose pucks, he’s always the first one in on it, he’s always there pressuring and getting into peoples' bodies and making things difficult. He’s not the tallest guy in the world, but he plays bigger than he looks, he plays hard and he competes hard, and that’s what we look for in a Hurricanes player," said Tulsky of his newest addition.

As far as the four draft picks go, Carolina has two options with them - use them and make selections in the future, or repackage them to get more help for the here and now.

While Tulsky says he would have liked to use those assets immediately to bolster his team before today's deadline, the Rantanen trade process tied up Carolina's cap space and limited the club's spending flexibility until it was too late to add. Still, none of the picks acquired today are in this summer's draft, providing ample ammunition for the Canes to use as they continue adding pieces to get better.

"It would have been nice if we had been able to bring in another player or two, but it doesn’t always work out. Ultimately, making sure we got the right deal there and set ourselves up in the big trade was the key thing," he continued. "Again, I’m very comfortable with the pieces that we brought in there, and of course, you'd always like to add where you can and keep pushing the team forward."

So, while things may not have gone how Tulsky and the Canes thought they might since that Friday in January, they feel good about what's transpired on this Friday in March.

"You have to balance it. Of course, when you move (Mikko Rantanen) out, that’s a loss for the current year," Tulsky said. "But if you bring in assets that help the team going forward, and you bring in a player in Logan, who we think is going to be a really good fit for us right away and is young enough that he’s going to keep getting better and better, we felt like we were getting enough in this deal that it was the right thing for the organization long-term."