The two have huge holes to fill left by the departures of Skjei and Pesce. Skjei, who had 47 points (13 goals, 34 assists) while averaging 21:17 of ice time per game, signed a seven-year contract ($7 million AAV) with Nashville; Pesce, who had 13 points (three goals, 10 assists) and averaged 20:17, signed a six-year deal ($5.5 million AAV) with New Jersey.
“There’s a learning curve on any team,” Brind’Amour said. “There is familiarity with ‘Ghost.’ With Walker coming in, he’s excited to play the way we play. Most players like the way we play and they want to do it. We are up-tempo and it’s a fun way to play. At the end of the day, these guys are good hockey players. If they have a willingness to get it, they will get it.”
Tervainen had 53 points (25 goals, 28 assists) in 76 games last season, his eighth with Carolina. He signed a three-year, $16.2 million contract ($5.4 million AAV) with the Chicago Blackhawks, who selected him in the first round (No. 18) of the 2012 NHL Draft.
The turnover wasn’t limited to the players; Eric Tulsky, an assistant general manager since 2020, was promoted to general manager after Don Waddell left to become GM of the Columbus Blue Jackets on May 28.
“He’s been really smart about it. He wants to get up to speed on how things work,” said Brind’Amour, who signed a five-year contract May 28. “It’s been a real good relationship. He had been here a long time. There wasn’t a lot of communication [between us] because there didn’t need to be. Now I feel like there is, and we’ve spent more time in this last month together than we have in the last 10 years. I think it’s going to be a really good relationship.”
“There is plenty of time between now and training camp to adjust the roster,” Tulsky said on July 1. “We plan to keep exploring all of our options. We have some ideas in mind that we are still actively pursuing. There are a lot of teams right now that are trying to figure out how they can get out of contracts very similar to the ones being signed (on July 1).”
“An unfortunate part of business in pro sports is you do have turnover, but I think it will be a good opportunity for a lot of the other guys to step up a little more than they have in the past,” Brind’Amour said. “It’s going to be interesting. It’s going to be exciting, too, to get to know some new faces and bring them into the group.”
