MANALAPAN, Fla. — A year ago, no team grabbed more headlines than the Carolina Hurricanes, on either side of their two Mikko Rantanen trades.

And at the heart of it was general manager Eric Tulsky, who first pried the superstar winger out of Colorado and then, after failing to extend his contract in the interim, flipped him at the trade deadline to Dallas.

By the time he arrived at the NHL’s GM meetings this week, Tulsky had run through the gamut.

This year’s trade deadline? Things were quiet. Too quiet.

“We are always looking for opportunities to add high-end talent, players who can really make our team better,” Tulsky told The Athletic at the meetings, before his spicy moments with commissioner Gary Bettman. “This year, we tried very hard to shake a player like that loose, and there was nobody who we felt we could get who would really push us forward in that way.

“There were a lot of players available who we felt like would make us deeper, and that has value, but we’re also a little price-sensitive when it comes to just adding depth,” Tulsky added. “We don’t mind putting all the futures in to get a high-end player who makes us better, but if we’re just adding depth, we’re a little sensitive on price. And the prices were high for players who we felt like would have just been depth guys for us.”

They did add rugged winger Nicolas Deslauriers, but overall, by their standards, it was a quiet deadline.

On the flip side, the Canes have taken a look under the hood at their depth, because of all the injuries they’ve had this season, and have liked what they’ve seen from the call-ups.

“We felt we would be OK with what we had,” he said.

Big-game hunting is a year-round sport for the Canes. Per league sources, they inquired about Kirill Kaprizov when news surfaced that he rejected the first offer from the Minnesota Wild at the start of the season. They tried on Artemi Panarin before the Olympic break. There was some level of interest in Vincent Trocheck.

If there’s a big name out there, chances are Carolina will look into it.

But this year, no big splash. And coach Rod Brind’Amour didn’t hide his feelings post-deadline, telling local media the next day: “I know there’s a lot of disappointment. I’m going to be honest. (The players) were hoping to see us make a splash. It’s tough. We’re one of the best teams in the league right now. Teams are making deals to try to catch us, and to try to catch the teams that are ahead of them, and that is us …”

That raw, honest disappointment can almost be taken as a compliment if you’re management, because clearly there’s an expectation, even from within, that the Canes swing big. And when it doesn’t happen, it’s almost surprising.

“We were all disappointed,” Tulsky said. “Like, everybody on the team: management, coaches, players, everybody wants to get better. That is absolutely part of how we see things. And we’re always going to be disappointed when we don’t do it. The opportunities just weren’t there this year. That’s the way it is. You have to roll with it.”

But in saying all that, the Hurricanes remain a first-place team. Lots of people will pick them to get to the Stanley Cup Final out of a wide-open Eastern Conference.

“No, I mean, the team has been playing great, and we’ve had more injuries this year than the last three regular seasons combined,” Tulsky said. “And to come through all of that with a big lead in the Metro, it’s incredible. And we’re just starting to get a handful of games where the team is healthy.

“So, of course, you always want to add, I don’t want to imply that there is such a thing as good enough. It’s not a phrase we use, but we do have a strong team and we are very comfortable that this group can compete with anyone.”

The Hurricanes didn’t upgrade in goal, most notably.

“We tried, we try everywhere,” Tulsky said.

So they’ll roll with what they have there. Brandon Bussi has emerged this season, 36-year-old Frederik Andersen has won his last three starts but overall has an .872 save percentage on the season and Pyotr Kochetkov had hip surgery in December but is working hard in rehab and trying to get back to full health.

Is it good enough goaltending to win the Cup?

“We’ve got two goalies that we’re comfortable with and a third goalie who is working to coming back in time to help for the playoffs,” Tulsky said. “So again, we’re always going to be looking for opportunities to get better. But there aren’t many goalies where you look at and say it’s a clear step forward. If we had the opportunity to add a top-five goalie in the league, it would have been a no-brainer. We would have put in whatever we had to, to get that done. Shy of doing that, there were a lot of players (goalies) available that we felt would have added some depth. But not made us measurably better than what we have. And that’s always the goal for us right now.”

As for the Jordan Binnington-to-Carolina chatter, obviously Tulsky did not comment on that. But league sources suggest that while the Canes checked in on Binnington, that was about the extent of it, just a check-in. Talks never got serious.

So, is this the year Carolina gets to the Cup Final? The Canes have been knocking at the door for a long time. What do they need to get over that final hurdle?

“I would say that several years now, we were good enough to win if things went our way,” Tulsky said. “Some years we’ve had injuries, some years we’ve faced a hot goalie, we haven’t had a year where things have gone our way.

“Our goal is to be good enough that we can win even when things don’t go our way,” he added. “So we’re always pushing to get better because we haven’t got to that place yet where we’re going to win unless there’s a disaster. … It hasn’t been any one thing. Every year, there’s been something that’s gone against us, and we haven’t been good enough to overcome it.”

As mentioned, the East looks wide-open this year, and certainly different. Longstanding contenders such as Florida and Toronto are having down years. Washington was the No. 1 seed a year ago and may miss the playoffs this year, while Buffalo, Montreal and Detroit have announced themselves.

“Yeah, I mean, it’s an interesting year,” Tulsky said. “I think teams like Buffalo, Detroit, Montreal, Ottawa, we’ve seen for years that they were on the verge. It was never a question of whether; it was just a question of when. What’s been weird is some of the old-guard teams that have been good for a while, like New Jersey, Toronto and Florida, have all just been wrecked by injuries this year. And that’s part of what’s opened up the path for these other teams.

“Those teams probably won’t have the same injuries next year. So I expect it to be really tight going forward. It’s going to be a tough conference. We were fortunate; we had a lot of injuries ourselves but were fortunate that the players who stepped into those roles were able to keep us winning. It’s a real testament to our depth.”

Regardless of whether the Canes finally get to the promised land or not, the offseason is shaping up to be rather interesting league-wide. The salary cap is going up in a meaningful way, but the UFA crop is thin, so it all points to trades.

“When teams were under really tight cap pressure (flat cap out of the pandemic), it was easier to find opportunities to add players because there were teams that couldn’t keep everyone,” Tulsky said. “We were one of them two years ago, right?”

The Canes lost UFAs Brady Skjei, Teuvo Teravainen, Brett Pesce and Jake Guentzel all at once in 2024.

“We couldn’t keep everyone. Teams came and raided us,” Tulsky said. “There won’t be very much of that going forward with the cap going up as fast as it is the next couple of years. Teams can afford to keep their players if they want them.’’

So the UFA market won’t be as appealing a tool, which will force more trade discussions on signed players.

“We’ll be actively pursuing any means we can to make our team better,” Tulsky said.

Of that, we have no doubt.