Excited to welcome for the first time as the permanent GM of the Carolina Hurricanes uh to the Easter Automotive Group hotline and the drive is a show, Eric Tolsa Eric, thank you very much for taking the time to, to jump on the show. Uh I’m sure this, this week has been a busy one for you and, and we’ll, we’ll start there. What has the first few days is the permanent GM of the canes been like for you? What have you spent your time uh focused on been a lot of time on the phone right now, talking to other teams, talking to agents trying to figure out what we can do. There’s uh a ton of things. It’s, it’s funny, right? The, the two shows on our network both immediately went into uh Eric Tolk is the guy. We got the press release in our emails. Le let’s talk about what that to do list might look like. Do you have AAA thing or two that might be on the top of that to do list? Yeah, we’re trying to do everything all at once. We have too many things on the list to go. One at a time. So talking to a bunch of free agents, talking to teams about possible trades, working every angle. We have to try and keep getting better. Eric Dolsky Keynes GM joining us on the Easter Automotive Group hotline. Uh When you talk about trades, how important is it to get big trades done with those players that, that might have a chance to sign an offer sheet once July rolls around, I’m not that worried about offer sheets. I mean, first of all, they’re pretty rare. Second of all, we have plenty of room to match any offer sheet. And so it’s pretty unproductive for a team to do that. If a player doesn’t wanna be here and signs an offer sheet, he’s making a mistake because he knows we’re gonna match and he’ll end up here. So it, it’s not really a route that I expect to see anyone take in, in, in those situations. Is there any worry about? Like if, if, I mean, you said it right, if someone’s signing an offer sheet, they, uh, maybe indirectly are saying they don’t wanna be here. Is there any concern about bringing that player back into the locker room knowing once you match, you can’t trade him for a year? No, I mean, look, players have ups and downs all the time. Everybody has times in their career when they’re a little frustrated, times in their career when they feel great about things. I think everybody’s been through it, they know how it goes. So once the season starts, everybody will be together, there’ll be a cohesive unit. I’m not worried about it. We have a really good group of guys and a group of coaches that know the players really well and know how to push the right buttons to keep everybody pulling on the same rope. The, uh, the introductory press conference, which I thought, uh, you know, just as a compliment here, I, I thought went very, very well, but there’s a few things that I want to, uh, talk to you about. Um, you thanked your predecessor and your intro presser. Uh, obviously being Don Waddell, what did you maybe learn from Don about being an NHL general manager when you were working under him as an assistant GM and in some other roles. Yeah, I learned a lot from him. I mean, it, it was probably the closest I’ve seen firsthand to daily conversations with other teams, with interactions with the staff. Uh, just getting that observation firsthand of somebody who’s done it for a long time and been successful and seeing how they operate was really good experience for me. Another, uh, another line from the presser that I, I saw, get the rounds on social media and I’m sure you did as well is, uh, we didn’t hire chat GP T to be the, uh, the next GM there, there is this reputation and, and your resume when you look at it. There are a whole bunch of words. I don’t pretend to be the smartest guy in the world but I don’t even understand some of some of the words and the patents that you hold and all those sort of things. Uh, there’s this reputation that you’re a numbers guy, super analytics, human calculator. Does, does that bother you at all? That, that’s kind of how maybe your first impression has come across to, to certain factions of the fan base. Yeah, I mean, it’s not a surprise, it’s what they know me for. Right. That’s what I did before I started working for the team. And so it’s how they’ve seen me, but I’ve been with the team for 10 years now. I’ve spent four years leading a pro scouting group. I’ve been leading the salary cap and contract group. I’ve done a lot more. They just haven’t seen it. So it’s natural to associate me with the work that they’ve seen me do. Um, and you know, it’s OK. I didn’t get promoted to this role because they thought we needed to turn everything over to data. I got promoted to this role because they believed I could do it. And, and in addition to that, and by the way, we’re talking with Eric Tolsa brand new Carolina Hurricanes Permanent GM being promoted from, uh assistant GM to replace Don Waddell, um, kind of in, in, in addition to that you mentioned in your presser that you need to make at least one hire. Do you have a specific role or, or qualifications that you’re looking for, for that new hire? And, and what they would be filling? We’re still working out a staffing plan. There are a couple of different places where we could stand to strengthen the front office. And so figuring out how much of that will be internal shifting and how much of it will be external hiring is still on my to do list, which, uh, and, and I completely respected that to do list, uh, daunting because it, it seems like with every, you know, we’re just from the outside and, and every single time that we, uh, you know, we bring up something else, it just seems like it would be another thing added to the to do list. Is it, is it daunting to take over a job like this with so many things pressing needs right on your, your front doorstep? Yeah. I mean, it’s certainly been a busy month. There’s no doubt about that. Um, but look, it’s, it’s fun, you know, I’m enjoying it. So you gotta roll with it. Is there, uh, is the, the hay in the barn when it comes to the draft? Do you have a good idea of what’s going on there because, like I said, on, like, on your front doorstep? That’s just another thing. Yeah. So Darren York, our assistant GM runs the amateur scouting group and he does a fantastic job and that group performs at a very high level. Uh I don’t think anything will change on that side. I will be sitting in on those meetings just like I always do, but largely entrusting him to make the decisions about what our list should look like. One of the things you got done as a, uh, an interim GM uh, is actually an excellent way to endear yourself to, to our show immediately because we’re big fans of Jalen Chatfield and uh and we wanted to see him stick around and, and you settled on that three years, uh 3 million per contract. What was it like negotiating with him was the, the like, did you have full autonomy as the interim? And, and you know, how do you end up with that particular deal? Yeah, there, I don’t think anything changed with the title. Um So that was not an issue, uh negotiation. Look, he’s, he’s a great player and he’s developed a lot and grown a lot in his time here. And that meant he was due for a big race and we have a complicated cap situation and so we had to manage that as well as we could, but he’s an important part of what we do. He fits our system as well as anyone and he knew that and he wanted to be here and he likes it here. So we found a way to make it work for everyone if, if nothing changed with the, uh, with the titles, did anything change with your relationship with, with Tom Dundon? The, the public seems to be, uh, it’s, it’s like our sports version of, of gossip. We love to know how much the GM is talking with the owner and, and Don Waddell made some jokes about it at the exit presser. Uh, you obviously mentioned that, that he’s, you know, you talk to him quite often. Uh, how much, uh, is that what you expected? And, and what is that relationship like as you take over? Yeah, I’m very close with Tom. We talk a lot. He likes to check in regularly to make sure he knows how we’re approaching things and what we’re doing. The process is very important to him and he wants to make sure we’re thinking about everything and going through things the right way and never just taking the easy path but doing the work to make sure we’re finding the best options we can and getting it done. We, uh, we also, right at the end of this season saw some, some glimpses of some of the, uh, some of the prospects. Um, are there there maybe a name or two that you expect to be, uh, you know, we can help introduce to the, the, the fans that maybe we can talk about a little bit more during the off season. So we’re all familiar with the, the new guys as they might have a good chance of making the opening day roster so we can help you out. So we have a strong prospect pool. I think it’s going to be a challenge for them because we also have a strong NHL team and I think we have a lot of players who are right there, you know, ready to break through. Um And it’s going to be a tough competition for spots. So, you know, whether that’s Brad Nado or Felix Hunger Som or Scott Morrow or Jackson Blake, like, like there’s a lot of guys who are going to be in the mix and it’s going to be a battle in camp to see who can earn a spot and, and those are the exact names that we were, uh we were talking about there. Um Eric, we appreciate you for taking the time and, and, and hopefully we can do this a few times throughout the off season. I know as we talked about, there’s, there’s a lot of stuff to get done. You have a lot of irons in the fire and uh and, and we’ll be right there to uh react to all of those decisions that, that get made now that you’re in the uh the head chair. Yeah, that’s great. Thanks for having me on Tim.

Source: wralsportsfan.com