Will collaborative approaches to management be the new norm in the NHL?

The Carolina Hurricanes have made their way to the top of the mountain, defeating the Vegas Golden Knights to claim the franchise’s second Stanley Cup.

The team’s collaboration from top to bottom has made it unique. Since Tom Dundon became the owner in 2017, he has brought in a very hands-on approach. He was that way when Don Waddell was general manager, and when Rod Brind’Amour was introduced as head coach. It has finally paid off, with Eric Tulsky working his way up the ranks to GM, and the Hurricanes finally winning a championship.

On Monday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, David Pagnotta joined Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton to discuss whether the Hurricanes’ front office setup will start being copied across the NHL.

David Pagnotta: The shift is already happening. Montreal does it well with Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes. They do that really well. Toronto is trying to emulate that in some fashion, albeit a little bit different, with Mats Sundin as a senior advisor, but they’re trying to replicate that. Other teams are going to follow suit, too. This puts a stamp on how that works, how the collaboration actually works. It doesn’t have to necessarily be owner. This is a different type of scenario. Yeah, so Tom Dundon is very involved, but…for other teams, bigger corporations that own some of these clubs, or bigger type of owners. You have the president, GM, and coach kind of kind of collab.

From the hockey ops side of it, the collaboration between Brind’Amour and Tulsky has been vital, because Brind’Amour tells you what you need and what type of players you need, and Tulsky goes and finds the ones that fit the best, and if they don’t fit, they make that swap, and that change. They’ve been so good for so long, the Huurricanes. They had the right recipe, they just didn’t necessarily have the right ingredients in place…just right pieces that form the right recipe, and it clearly has worked, so you know, teams have already started that approach, but this kind of solidifies the ‘Hey, you know what, this actually does work.’

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…