Transcription: Eric Tulsky's Trade Deadline Availability

RALEIGH, N.C. - Following Friday's 3 p.m. ET trade deadline, Carolina Hurricanes General Manager Eric Tulsky spoke to reporters at Lenovo Center.

Below is a transcription of the media availability, which can also be watched in full below.

Cory Lavalette (North State Journal/The Athletic): Can you speak on the one move you did make and what you believe Nic brings here?

Tulsky: “Nic’s a veteran.  He’s a physical presence.  He’s someone who has great character, does things the right way, makes the team harder to play against, and generally just sort of adds the character and toughness that we wanted to bring to the group.”

Ryan Henkel (The Hockey News): It was reported as a conditional seventh-round pick. What are the conditions?

Tulsky: “It depends on how far we go in the playoffs and how much he plays.”

Kurt Dusterberg (NHL.com): With a move like that (to bring Deslauriers in), is there some hope or expectation that a guy like that gets regular-season games down the stretch to get acclimated?  I realize that’s maybe a Rod call, but nonetheless, you bring a new guy in, his acclimation would take place in these last handful of games, maybe?

Tulsky: “It’ll be up to Rod to figure out what’s best to help integrate him.  There’s always a balance between wanting people to have a chance to fit in and get up to speed and wanting to get them ice time.  I will let Rod manage that; he’s very good at handling his roster.”

Chip Alexander (Raleigh News & Observer): The last couple of years, you took some pretty big swings.  You brought in Jake Guentzel and Mikko Rantanen.  Did you try to do that this year?

Tulsky: “You know how we operate.  We’ve said we’re not going to stop until we have the 20 best players all on one team.  Of course, every opportunity we get to try and make the team better, we’re going after it as hard as we can.  Especially when there are high-end players, we want to take those swings.  We spent a lot of time the last couple of weeks running down leads and trying to find opportunities to bring in those high-end players.  Sometimes a deal just isn’t there.  We’ve shown in the Colorado deal that we’re willing to take risks to do it.  In the Dallas deal, we’ve shown we’re willing to pivot when circumstances aren’t what we expected them to be.  In the deal with the Rangers in the summer, we showed we’re willing to put a bunch of futures into a deal to get what we want.  At this deadline, we showed that sometimes the deal we want isn’t there, and we’re going to have the discipline to not do it.  The things we were looking at, the price we were getting offered, we felt like it would have been a step back both in the near term and going forward.  It just doesn’t make sense then.  Of course (taking a swing), that’s our goal.  There’s opportunities to make the team better around the draft, on free agent day, and at the trade deadline.  We were fortunate that in the summer, we were able to add K’Andre (Miller), add Nik (Ehlers), and really make the team better in those areas.  The opportunity wasn’t there to take the same size swing at the trade deadline, so we added a piece that will help round out our group a little bit, and we’ll move forward with what we have.”

Aaron Beard (Associated Press): With every trade market being different year to year, did it feel that the prices were higher in general this year?  Was it dramatically different than previous years when you’ve gone through this process?

Tulsky: It was kind of a strange deadline because there were a lot of teams that were sort of on the bubble leading up to it, and not sure which way they were going to go.  There were weeks where it felt like there was nothing available, and then in the last couple of days, a bunch of teams decided to put guys on the market.  So, it went from a really tight market to a flooded market very quickly.  Teams that were not sure that they were going to buy decided to buy.  Teams that were not sure whether they were going to sell decided to sell.  A lot of stuff really didn’t get serious until the last couple of days.  In the end, a lot of the players that got moved were sort of in the range of the roster that we are pretty deep and solid, and that it wasn’t the high-end guys who we were really after that when we try and make the team better.”

Jesse MacWilliam (Spectrum News): The one move that you did make, does it show that you have complete faith in the roster that you have put together?

Tulsky: “Yeah.  Of course, we have a lot of faith in this roster.  We have battled through a ton of injuries and are on pace for 112 points or something.  [The roster] is getting better as we get healthier.  We’re very happy with what we have right now.  I would say that we’re always looking to get better.  We’d rather be on pace for 130 points or 150.  It’s not like I’m ever going to say this team’s good enough, we don’t need to add.  We’re always trying to add.  We just didn’t find deals that made sense for us at this point.”

Cory Lavalette (North State Journal/The Athletic): With so much noise about what you’re going to look for and what you’re going to want, people are saying that you’re going to need a second-line center.  I just wondered if you could speak to how you feel Logan has done in that role, and given how he’s done, did that change anything as far as what you looked for?

Tulsky: “I think Logan’s been great in that role.  I know there are a lot of people out there who look at the point totals and fret about it.  Truthfully, at five-on-five, he has produced at a high rate.  We have three of the top 40 centers in the league at five-on-five production.  The fact that he’s not on our first power play unit has nothing to do with how good he is as a center.  I think that there have been a lot of nights this year, like I know they got hot this week, and people got excited about that. I think people have forgotten how many nights in October and November that line was our best line.  That line has created a lot of offense this year, and he’s been part of that.  He’s not the tallest guy, and people worry about that, but he plays really hard.  He’s extremely competitive.  He’s the kind of person who drags teammates into the fight.  Other people look at it and say, ‘If he can do that, obviously I can, I’m twice his size.’  I think it really brings something to us to have him playing the way he does.  Truthfully, that line’s been great for us.  I’ve no concerns about it going forward at all.  It doesn’t mean we’re not always looking to get better, of course, we are, but I’m completely comfortable in that role.”

Ryan Henkel (The Hockey News): Did the play of Joel Nystrom and Charles Alexis Legault put to bed the thoughts of adding any more depth defensively?

Tulsky: “I would say that last year, that was one of the things we ran into when we got into the playoffs - we had a couple of injuries on D, and we had guys going into the lineup who had barely played.  It was a challenge.  You never want to go through the kind of injuries we had this year. I would much rather not have had that happen, but being nine or 10 (defensemen) deep through October and November meant we got a lot of time to see guys and see them play.  We came out of that in first place.  There is a comfort level this year with the players we have stepping in, both on D and up front.  When we have injuries, we have guys who we know can play.  We actually have guys in the AHL who we are going to be looking for opportunities to get them into the lineup.  A lot of the moves that happened out there today were teams trying to add the depth that we already have.  It’s great to have guys who we’re trying to find ice time for, instead of guys we’re trying to replace.”

Todd Gibson (CBS17): Was there any look at trying to improve the goaltending situation?

Tulsky: “We’re always looking to improve everywhere.  Unless I missed something, I don’t think any goalies got moved today, certainly nobody who would be considered a high-end, 1A starter.  It’s a tough position to fill at the deadline because teams that are getting good goaltending are in the playoffs.  Teams that aren’t - have a guy who may not be what you’re looking for.  The goalies we have, Brandon (Bussi) has been great for us this year.  Freddie (Andersen), I know, has taken a little bit of grief.  I think he’s been a lot better than his numbers reflect.  I think he’s been playing well recently, and we’re comfortable with the two of them.  Pyotr (Kochetkov) is working his way back from injury, and we’ll see his timeline; he may be in the mix by the time we get to the playoffs.”

Cory Lavalette (North State Journal/The Athletic): We hear a lot about showing the team that you believe in them by making moves at the deadline.  From your seat, what do you think about that?  ‘If we do something, it gives our guys a boost,’ or is it a, ‘If we don’t do something, hey guys, you’re our guys, and we believe in you.

Tulsky: “Both are true.  I know players are excited to see reinforcements come in.  I want to do that for them just as much as they want to see it.  Nobody is more competitive than us.  Up and down the organization, we are extremely aggressive in trying to add.  Ultimately, it’s not about my faith in them.  It’s about the opportunities that were in the market to actually make additions that make us better.  I would love to bring someone in who is one of those top 20 players and makes everyone say, ‘We’re one guy closer to getting the top 20 all on one team.’  It just wasn’t there to be done this year.”

Chris Lea (WRAL): Were other teams aggressive in trying to snag guys from the roster because there is depth in a lot of different places?

Tulsky: “We had a couple of calls on some guys.  In the end, we are trying to win a cup here, and it would’ve been hard to players to move players out, regardless of what role they play.  We expect to need everyone on this team at some point down the stretch.  We did have some calls.  We explored some things, but in the end, we’re trying to win a cup, and we didn’t want to thin our team out heading into the playoffs.”

Kurt Dusterberg (NHL.com): A couple of days ago, someone mentioned Pyotr Kochetkov to Rod, and he said nothing has changed, and he would not be ready.  You mentioned moments ago that he could be.  Just to clarify, is that a possibility?

Tulsky: “I’m not a doctor and don’t really know.  My understanding at the time of the surgery was that if things went well, he might be back in the mix.  It’s still very early, and I don’t think that we know the timeline yet.  I think there is certainly a chance that if the team goes deep, he’s back in it by the end for us, maybe even earlier than that.  It really depends on how things go.”

Cory Lavalette (North State Journal/The Athletic): The guy you did get (Nic Deslauriers), is that the kind of player that maybe gives your guys a boost as far as knowing there’s a guy there?  We know Deslauriers is one of the best fighters in the league.

Tulsky: Ultimately, a lot of toughness is personal and internal.  Am I going to take it or not? That's what toughness is all about to me.  It’s not really, ‘Do I have someone to take care of it for me?’  I think we have a group of guys that has that internal toughness, that has that fight.  Stankoven is the smallest guy in the world, and he’s grabbed guys and started fights when he thought it needed to happen, right?  We do have that fire.  But, of course, it’s easier to have that toughness when you have a guy like Deslauriers out there with you.  Providing that for when it feels like games are getting more intense, and that might be useful to people, is something we wanted to look for.”

Todd Gibson (CBS17): From a GM standpoint, how hard is it when everybody wants the Nikishin’s, the Blake’s and the Nadeau’s for you to look to the future and hold onto those prospects?  How tough is it when somebody maybe offers you something to take those guys and gives you a piece that would help right now?

Tulsky: “We’re not afraid at all to trade futures for things that make us better right now.  We have a really good team, and the goal is to win Cups.  If the deal that brought in K’Andre (Miller) moved out a lot of futures value, for a guy who we think helps us right now and puts us in position to win a cup right now.  If there were other deals like that out there to be had, we would have done them.  The players who we really wanted and would’ve felt like really improved our odds this year would’ve cost us pieces that would be a step back in the near term and in the future.  Then it’s, what’s the point?  Having some discipline to be able to walk away from that and those moves and not feel like you have to do something is part of being able to run a team.”