Hurricanes GM Eric Tulsky talks about why Alexander Nikishin’s contract extension took so long

Looming contract and trade situations have been getting resolved en masse throughout the NHL in the past couple of weeks, including one involving the reigning Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes.

On Sunday, defenseman Alexander Nikishin ended his holdout by signing a one-year, $3 million contract that will walk him to a version of restricted free agency where he would be eligible to sign an offer sheet and would have arbitration rights. Nikishin had neither of those options this year, limiting his leverage even as he requested a trade away from the Hurricanes.

The Hurricanes reportedly attempted to use Nikishin as a trade chip to land star goalie Connor Hellebuyck, who was ultimately dealt to the New Jersey Devils last Friday.

On Monday’s episode of The Sheet, hosts Jeff Marek and Greg Wyshynski were joined by Hurricanes general manager Eric Tulsky to discuss the resolution of Nikishin’s contract situation.

Jeff Marek: “One of the questions that everyone’s asking: why did it take until late October?

Eric Tulsky: “Sometimes it takes time to work through a process. We had a lot of different things we were looking at. We had to work through it, had to sort of get to a place that everyone was comfortable with. And that happens at a different pace in different negotiations.”

Jeff Marek: “What was it? But was an agent change a factor that sort of paused things? Does that ever significantly pause things?

Eric Tulsky: “You definitely have a little bit of a reset when there’s the change because the new agent needs to get up to speed on the file and talk to everybody and make sure he understands the position. And so that means you’ve got a little bit more work to do. Iit’s a little bit of a reason for the delay. But in the end we got where we got.

Jeff Marek: “You have relationships with different agents. You know how different agents negotiate, the different types of conversations you can have with agents to get to a certain destination. Would anything have to change on your side?

Eric Tulsky: “I really believe in being pretty straightforward in every negotiation about what we are willing to do and what we aren’t. I’m not a believer in playing coy and bluffing and trying to trick someone into what you’re really willing to do because it feels like it just slows things down. It’s a barrier to getting things done. So when they change agents, it doesn’t change anything about our position or our messaging. It’s not like, ‘well, for this guy, we were willing to go to $12 million, but for you, it’s only $10.’ It’s just not how it works. So we have a new voice representing the player in the conversations. But on our side, the messaging doesn’t change.”

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode below…