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2019 Carolina Hurricanes Off Season Thread

Hopefully Tulsky is well compensated for what he does and he and his family really love this area, because other teams are going to come calling, especially if the Canes string together a run of success.
 
FWIW, I saw a clarification on Twitter while waiting out an airport delay last night. Tulsky has 4 years left on his 5 year contract with the Canes. That means his current contract did start when he was promoted in summer 2018.

And you know where I stand on replace-ability. EVERYBODY is replaceable, up to and including the owner. Fans and media attach almost mythic importance to certain people inside hockey organizations but most of it is just that ... myth building. No doubt Eric Tulsky is very good at his job. Other people are also good at the things he does for the Canes. If he gets poached then you poach somebody else's guy (or gal) and move on. If there's one owner in the NHL who I'm absolutely certain doesn't buy into the concept of a magic manager, it's Dundon.
 
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jeffbear said:
FWIW, I saw a clarification on Twitter while waiting out an airport delay last night. Tulsky has 4 years left on his 5 year contract with the Canes. That means his current contract did start when he was promoted in summer 2018.

And you know where I stand on replace-ability. EVERYBODY is replaceable, up to and including the owner. Fans and media attach almost mythic importance to certain people inside hockey organizations but most of it is just that ... myth building. No doubt Eric Tulsky is very good at his job. Other people are also good at the things he does for the Canes. If he gets poached then you poach somebody else's guy (or gal) and move on. If there's one owner in the NHL who I'm absolutely certain doesn't buy into the concept of a magic manager, it's Dundon.
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Thank you. Agreed 100%
 
jeffbear said:
FWIW, I saw a clarification on Twitter while waiting out an airport delay last night. Tulsky has 4 years left on his 5 year contract with the Canes. That means his current contract did start when he was promoted in summer 2018.

And you know where I stand on replace-ability. EVERYBODY is replaceable, up to and including the owner. Fans and media attach almost mythic importance to certain people inside hockey organizations but most of it is just that ... myth building. No doubt Eric Tulsky is very good at his job. Other people are also good at the things he does for the Canes. If he gets poached then you poach somebody else's guy (or gal) and move on. If there's one owner in the NHL who I'm absolutely certain doesn't buy into the concept of a magic manager, it's Dundon.
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Dundon was on with Adam Gold yesterday and had a direct quote that pretty much said outside of Brind'Amour, he really does not consider anyone else anywhere in the org that is irreplaceable.
 
CanadaCanes said:
Dundon was on with Adam Gold yesterday and had a direct quote that pretty much said outside of Brind'Amour, he really does not consider anyone else anywhere in the org that is irreplaceable.
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I agree with that ... at least in principle ... but only because I think Brind'Amour has some fairly unique personal qualities. As a tactician, every coach is replaceable. As a coach with the kind of emotional buy-in and sheer work ethic/integrity that Brindy offers? Yeah, those are rare. When it comes to front office guys, I think fans have to always be on guard against thinking "your guys" are somehow significantly different than anybody else's guys. If the club is well managed and financed as a whole, then the decision makers look a LOT smarter than those same people would look on a team with a bad basic structure.
 
cmaleski2 said:
Muzzatti was the Whalers 'Ron Hextall', at least on the physical side. He had 51 PIMs in 53 games with the Whalers including an incident when he was the backup on the bench and still managed 12 PIMs. I fondly remember those last 2 seasons in Hartford.

https://youtu.be/JoL7faoH-tA

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.co...t/hc-xpm-1996-03-17-9603170345-story,amp.html

Hopefully he can improve our goalies at stopping pucks now. He was our goalie goon.
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Yeah, I think most fans of a certain age remember Muzzatti. Dude was memorable, you have to give him that. And as you know, my take of goalie coaches is entirely pragmatic. Do our keepers stop pucks and generally look competent? Then the GC is doing a good job. Do they look poorly prepared and generally out of sorts on a regular basis? Then the GC is doing a bad job. There are maybe two or three truly outstanding goalie coaches working at any given time. For the rest of them, it's a matter of how well they fit with their stable of goaltenders.
 
I have long been an advocate of the team utilizing a sports psychologist, the money for which can make 20-some (maybe more if available to prospects) players better. Doesn't have to be a big deal, just available and having some laid-back one-on-one chats with players every once in a while.

To that end, The Athletic subscribers might remember reading this Scott Burnside article about the Canes goalies duo (Mrazek and McElhinney) from May 9, 2019 as we began the EC Final series with the Bruins.

Within it, Mrazek talks about working with a well-known Czech sports psychologist during the off-season and even had a visit from him during the Islander series..

It began in the offseason in Prague where Mrazek met with longtime sports psychologist Marian Jelinek, a sports icon in the Czech Republic who worked closely with hockey legend Jaromir Jagr and top-ranked Czech tennis star Karolina Pliskova.

“A lot of things change in the summer,” Mrazek acknowledged.

“We worked together all summer long. He came to visit me in New York when we played there. I look different now to hockey. I enjoy the time on the ice, I enjoy the game, and that was something that I think I was missing over the years.”

Mrazek doesn’t want to appear rude but he never thought he would be the kind of guy who needed a sports psychologist.

“Now I have a different look at it,” he said. “I think every hockey player or every athlete should have one.”
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This is all about just getting the mind right, more so than worrying about technique. Goalie coach can work on the technique.

Sounds like there is an emphasis on relaxing and having fun.

Cam would approve.
 
https://twitter.com/SaraCivian/status/1161613638328815616

Twitter blip from an interview that Aleksi Saarela gave in Finland recently. Follow the link for the full money quote (in English), but suffice to say that Saarela called Carolina's front office "a mess" and complains that people are afraid to make decisions. He further complains about players further down the depth chart being called up while he spent the whole year in Charlotte.

My reaction ... makes me even more happy we dumped this guy. He got sent packing early from fall camp because he showed up out of shape and didn't work hard enough in drills to satisfy Brind'Amour. Then he has a decent season in the A and helps the Checkers win some hardware, which is great ... but he wants to bitch about Carolina calling up grinder types to play depth roles on the big club? Umm ... no.

Have fun in Chicago kid. Be in better shape this time ... or not. Whatever. Oh, and welcome to my list.
 
We will keep an eye on Saarela in Chicago, Valentin Zykov, Nic Roy and Patty Brown in the Vegas system, Kegger and PDG in the Rangers org, Trevor Carrick with San Jose, and Andrew Poturalski with the Ducks. We definitely changed the organizational mix and cleared out a lot of guys who found success in Charlotte but were never going to get an NHL chance here along with 4th liners like Kegger and PDG. We will see of any on that list amount to anything more than role players in the NHL. I'm not sweating any of them being gone.
 
jeffbear said:
https://twitter.com/SaraCivian/status/1161613638328815616

Twitter blip from an interview that Aleksi Saarela gave in Finland recently. Follow the link for the full money quote (in English), but suffice to say that Saarela called Carolina's front office "a mess" and complains that people are afraid to make decisions. He further complains about players further down the depth chart being called up while he spent the whole year in Charlotte.

My reaction ... makes me even more happy we dumped this guy. He got sent packing early from fall camp because he showed up out of shape and didn't work hard enough in drills to satisfy Brind'Amour. Then he has a decent season in the A and helps the Checkers win some hardware, which is great ... but he wants to bitch about Carolina calling up grinder types to play depth roles on the big club? Umm ... no.

Have fun in Chicago kid. Be in better shape this time ... or not. Whatever. Oh, and welcome to my list.
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What a piece of work that guy is, all these Euro's lately that do not get a free pass to an NHL roster spot have started whining in the European media of late. The Russian kid from Vegas last year did the same sort of entitled rant upon returning to Europe. I remember fondly how poorly Saarella seemed to play and be prepared in training camp and Brindy took notice with the fitness level...you could almost say he punched his own ticket out of the org with that. His one game audition in the playoffs was a disaster too. Zykov has not lit the world on fire either after he left the org...
 
CanadaCanes said:
What a piece of work that guy is, all these Euro's lately that do not get a free pass to an NHL roster spot have started whining in the European media of late. The Russian kid from Vegas last year did the same sort of entitled rant upon returning to Europe. I remember fondly how poorly Saarella seemed to play and be prepared in training camp and Brindy took notice with the fitness level...you could almost say he punched his own ticket out of the org with that. His one game audition in the playoffs was a disaster too. Zykov has not lit the world on fire either after he left the org...
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They're old news as far as I'm concerned. Appreciate each for what they brought but now is:

Necas
Bean
Fleury

These guys need serious NHL minutes and its time to give it to em. Necas is the only one I can see may still doing one more season in the A, especially if we don't have room to play him on an offensive minded line.
 
In more Canes alumni news, Arizona State University has hired Eddie Lack as their goaltending coach. They’ve been a full D1 hockey team since 2016-17 season and made the NCAA tournament in 2019 as an independent.
 
And more...Josh Wesley has signed an AHL contract with the San Antonio Rampage, the St. Louis Blues affiliate. You’ll recall that his father is a Development Coach with the Blues. Their director of player personnel is Rob DiMaio, who played 74 games for the Canes in 2000-01.
 
andyt said:
In more Canes alumni news, Arizona State University has hired Eddie Lack as their goaltending coach. They’ve been a full D1 hockey team since 2016-17 season and made the NCAA tournament in 2019 as an independent.
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Good tacos should be easy to find in Tempe
 
Saarela failed to impress me in Game 5 against the Caps... then again, the entire Canes team failed to impress me in that game.
 
andyt said:
And more...Josh Wesley has signed an AHL contract with the San Antonio Rampage, the St. Louis Blues affiliate. You’ll recall that his father is a Development Coach with the Blues. Their director of player personnel is Rob DiMaio, who played 74 games for the Canes in 2000-01.
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IIRC, DeMaio was the only Cane player that stood up to Scott Stevens when he concussed Francis that year in the playoffs.
 
perfectstormhits said:
IIRC, DeMaio was the only Cane player that stood up to Scott Stevens when he concussed Francis that year in the playoffs.
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The only one who was on the ice at the time, yes. Plenty of other Canes took runs at Stevens before the end of the series ... including Sandis Ozolinsh in that Game 6 bloodbath
 
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