Nothing Thomas Dundon has done since taking over the Carolina Hurricanes could be called business as usual, and today he continued his hands-on approach, conducting the season-ending press conference by himself. Dundon also conducted the exit interviews with players according to Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer, something that Ron Francis had done when he was GM.
Part of the need for Dundon to take over these duties is that the Hurricanes’ search for a new GM is still ongoing, while there has been no decision yet on whether Bill Peters will be back as head coach. Dundon seemed to give Peters a vote of confidence earlier this season, but has always maintained that everyone would be evaluated at the end of the year.
Peters has been the head coach of the Hurricanes for four seasons now, and Dundon confirmed that the coach has an option for the final year of his current contract. Four consecutive years out of the playoffs would put any coach on the hot seat, and Dundon admitted that he still needs to think about it and talk to Peters about the future and how they want to run the organization.
Don Waddell is serving as “interim GM” according to Dundon, and will handle the day to day operations at the moment, but one can assume there will be changes in Carolina before the start of 2018-19. That makes the Hurricanes a team to watch over the next few months, especially as the draft and free agency closes in.