Tulsky broke down the Miller trade and provided updates on other questions the Canes face as free agency officially beings.
Basically we just saw about the Ke Andre Miller deal. Can you talk a little about how that all came together and, and why you think, um, and he’s a good fit here? Yeah, so, I mean, we’ve been talking to them for a while about him, um, you know, they were obviously looking at other players in free agency and, you know, needed to clear the cap space and um also the roster spot. Um, so we’ve been talking about what a deal would look like. Um, we’ve been working on it for a while. Uh, it’s important to us to find a way to do it without giving up any major piece off our roster if we could, you know, obviously Morrow was close, but he wasn’t quite there for us last year at least. Um, you know, it’s, it’s a big price to pay, but we think he’s a great fit for us, you know, you hear me talk a lot about how hard our scouting department works to identify players who will fit. Um, he was one of them, you know, he’s a really powerful skater who can close out really effectively, take away time and space, and the aggressive way we play is really gonna suit him very well. Um, he’s also very strong in front of the net and good at defending and protecting the front of the net, which, you know, is always helpful and important and something that we can always get better at. Um, I think his skating and recovery speed is gonna be really effective for us, and, you know, when we want guys to get up the ice, they need to be able to get back too, and, you know, it just, his, uh, his natural ability and his skating is gonna make him really effective for us. Eric with uh Orlov and uh with Brent Barnes, do you expect either one of them to return, or will they be leaving the team after you signing with someone else? It, it’s hard to say for sure until they sign, but you know right now I do not anticipate either of them being back with us. Obviously that can change with one phone call, but that’s where we are right now. Eric, you have a lot of left-handed defensemen now. Do you anticipate who can play on their offside? Yeah, I mean, I, so we’ve seen Slavin do it before, we’ve seen Gusta Bay do it before. Um, I, I’m not sure how much either of the other two have, but you know, we’ve, we’ve had success playing people on their offside. It’s obviously a little bit easier on the strong side, especially the way we play with guys hammering down the wall in the offensive zone. That’s easier to do on your strong side. Um, but we have a lot of, uh, all of our left shot D are, uh, effective with their stick and effective with their feet and should be able to do it if they need to. Eric, you have 9 forwards and 3 defense men who are signed for at least 3 years, 12 roster guys on long-term deals. Can you talk a little bit about, uh, the franchise’s belief in going long term and having a a group set up that you’re gonna ride with for some time? Yeah, I mean, so every player is different, every situation is different. We’ve been fortunate to find a set of players who we feel like are good fits, and when we have that, we don’t want to have to find out every year what the contract’s gonna look like. We want to just get it done and have an understanding and know that they’re gonna be here long term and know that we can build around them, um. I, I, you know, I think especially in the rising cap environment, you know, sometimes making the bets early, it means the team’s taking a risk, right? All the risk of injury or decline or underperformance falls to us, but it also leaves us upside if they perform well, and you know, our, our goal is to be right often enough that it pays off. We don’t get to ask you too often about players who aren’t under contract with you, but are, are you pursuing Nikolai Ehers? Is that something you’re going after and how active do you anticipate being beyond maybe that, uh, with other players? Yeah, I mean we’ve had talks with his agent. He’s taking his time to field offers. He’s obviously a very popular person right now, and you know we’re waiting to see where that goes. Eric, just there’s always the rush to get things done and attack the to do list, so to speak. So I’m curious kind of balancing that the, the part of patience with this kind of how you’ve sort of gone about looking at today versus the longer term of beyond just day one of free agency. Yeah, I mean, so we as an organization are always trying to look ahead, you know, I, I think this summer was, um. We came into it with a lot of cap space and watched free agency approach and so everybody resigned with their own teams and you know, the opportunity to find players to use that cap space on dwindled. We also had a lot of picks and prospects and so we pivoted to another strategy to acquire players and you know that’s that’s how the Care deal got done. We’re always trying to look ahead and give ourselves options and make sure that we have the ability to keep adding to the team. And you know, our goal is to just keep getting better and better and raising the bar and hopefully we’re doing that this summer. Speaking of that, you got one of your guys resigned today also with Logan Stankhoven, just speak to a little about the impression he’s made over such a short amount of time with you guys and obviously the playoffs too. He was very good. Yeah, I mean, Logan’s been great, you know, he’s he’s been fantastic on the ice, you know, his, his work ethic and his ability to play hard. It just, you know, he plays the game the right way and he plays it the way we want a player to play, and it’s, you know, it’s just been a dream since day one. He’s also off the ice, just an incredible guy, and you know, someone we wanted to have part of our family for as long as we could, and the opportunity to, to get that commitment and know that we’ll have him here for at least 8 more years beyond this one and hopefully another contract after that, you know, it’s, it’s really important to us. We, you know, we see him as a core piece and someone who will be a part of what we build in the years to come. And, and the goalies that you sign, uh, we traded for one signed for one. I, I know Primo would need a deal, but can you speak a little to kind of reshaping your goalie death? Yeah, so Spencer’s been really good for us the past couple of years, but he was ready to move on. He had another opportunity that he wanted to pursue, um, so we needed a new person to bring in to be that sort of number 3, and, um, you know, Dustin was great for us in a number 4 role last year, um, but we were looking to get a little bit younger and we brought in two players who we think are both very capable of providing that depth and also have upside to grow into more than that. You know, help give us opportunities to keep taking steps forward in the future. What can you tell us about Mike Riley and his fit here with the organization? Yep. So again, you use the word fit. I keep using that when I talk about new players. This is another player who I think should look his best for us, you know, he skates really well. He’s effective coming down the wall in the offensive zone and pinching and has the speed to get back and recover. He can gap up all over the ice and so when we want, you know. When we want players taking away time and space through the neutral zone and into the D zone, he can do that. Um, he has skill with the puck and the ability to transport it and make plays and I think he’s gonna be very effective for us. OK. Thanks for your patience today. Yeah, thank you very much for waiting, guys.