Kyle Davidson, Chris MacFarland and Eric Tulsky have a combined zero games played in the National Hockey League. Anyone can know puck.
Before Davidson became general manager in Chicago, he joined the organization as an intern in 2010, and rose the ranks– becoming an assistant general manager in 2021, and later replacing Stan Bowman as interim general manager on October 27, 2021, after Bowman resigned in light of an independent investigation that revealed how the organization mishandled allegations from a former player who was sexually assaulted by then-video coach, Brad Aldridge, in 2010.
Davidson had the interim tag removed on March 1, 2022, becoming the 10th general manager in Chicago’s franchise history in the process.
His early days before joining Chicago include growing up in Sudbury, Ontario, receiving a bachelor’s degree from Laurentian University in Sudbury, a stint as an intern with the Ottawa Senators in fan development and volunteering with the Ontario Hockey League’s Sudbury Wolves, as Scott Powers detailed in The Athletic in February 2021.
The now 36-year-old gets to say he was the one that drafted young phenom, Connor Bedard, handles contract negotiations, contacts other NHL GMs to stay in touch and work on all kinds of transactions and hasn’t even turned 40 yet.
MacFarland grew up in the Bronx, New York, played college hockey at Pace University and received his bachelor’s degree in business in the process in 1992, before going through the university’s law school and graduating in 1998.
Between his bachelor’s and law degree, however, MacFarland joined the NHL as an intern at the league’s New York office from 1993-94, and worked in the NHL Productions office.
He joined the Columbus Blue Jackets prior to the start of the 1999-2000 NHL season– before Columbus even hit the ice during the 2000-01 season– and served as the Blue Jackets’ manager of hockey operations from 2001-07, prior to his promotion as an assistant to the general manager– Scott Howson– in July 2007.
MacFarland, 54, became an assistant general manager for Columbus a year later in July 2008, ultimately overseeing their American Hockey League affiliate Springfield Falcons as Springfield’s GM in addition to every component of scouting and the usual hockey operations front office duties.
Howson was ousted in February 2013, with Jarmo Kekäläinen becoming the first European-born general manager in NHL history in the process as Howson’s replacement. Kekäläinen lasted in Columbus until his firing in February 2024, with John Davidson serving as the interim GM before Don Waddell’s hiring later that year in May.
In the meantime, MacFarland had already left Columbus after 16 years in the organization– moving on to become an assistant general manager with the Colorado Avalanche under Joe Sakic in May 2015.
MacFarland had a knack for assessing talent that was on the verge of becoming a major factor in a team’s ability to move forward and maximize the potential of that player or their entire roster’s prime. His close-working relationship with Sakic helped Colorado turn things around from their 48-point 2016-17 season, to winning the Presidents’ Trophy in 2020-21, to obtaining their third Stanley Cup championship in franchise history in 2022.
During their Presidents’ Trophy and Cup runs, MacFarland had numerous interview requests around the league that would have offered a promotion to the general manager title in the process.
Sakic– being the team-centric mastermind that he was as a player and GM– decided it was time to hand the reins over to MacFarland in a peaceful transition of power in July 2022, after winning the Cup less than a month prior. Sakic remains as president of hockey operations for the Avalanche to this day.
Under Sakic’s keen guidance, MacFarland has been allowed to flourish as a proactive general manager in search of landing Colorado its fourth Stanley Cup ring in the 30 years that the Avalanche have existed since relocating from Québec after the 1994-95 NHL season.
If he does, he’ll be the first Avalanche GM to do so without any NHL playing experience, unlike Sakic and Pierre Lacroix before him.
Tulsky, the 49-year-old general manager of the Carolina Hurricanes has a fascinating background– the likes of which rival Billy Beane in his role of usurping the norms of Major League Baseball.
The Philadelphia native has a B.A. in chemistry and physics from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. He also conducted a two-year, post-doctoral study at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., worked in the high-tech industry for a dozen years doing things with nanotechnology, DNA sequencing, solar energy and more– you know, regular stuff– and holds 27 U.S. patents.
Oh, and he was a Broad Street Hockey writer in 2011.
That’s right, Tulsky was a sports blogger.
In addition to the Philadelphia Flyers-centric blog, Tulsky wrote for NHLNumbers.com and launched his own website– Outnumbered— through SBNation.
He joined the Hurricanes as a consultant in 2014, before being named as a hockey analyst for the team and leaving his blogging days behind in 2015.
By 2017, Tulsky was named as Carolina’s manager of hockey analytics.
In 2018, he was promoted to vice president of hockey management and strategy. That was quickly followed up with another promotion in 2020, when Tulsky became an assistant general manager of the Hurricanes.
That same year, Tulsky became directly involved with all player personnel decisions– overseeing pro scouting and Carolina’s hockey information department, as well as assisting with player contract negotiations, salary cap compliance and other hockey operations-related duties.
Back on April 28, 2014, Jim Rutherford– the only general manager to bring a Cup to the Hurricanes franchise dating back to their days as the Hartford Whalers in 1979– turned the keys over to Ron Francis and retained a role in Carolina’s front office as president.
Francis attained the status of executive vice president and manager of the Canes in the process and later added president of hockey operations to his official roles with the franchise on March 7, 2018, shortly after Tom Dundon acquired majority ownership of the team.
By April 30th of that year, however, the relationship with Dundon soured and Francis was fired.
Before taking his current job in Columbus, Waddell spent 10 years with the Hurricanes organization. On July 1, 2014, Waddell was named as president and oversaw business operations for the organization before adding the role of general manager under his belt on May 8, 2018.
Tulsky learned some scouting tips and tricks from Francis in their shared tenure with the organization, but Tulsky likely picked up on how to be a trading partner in the modern NHL from the wisdom of Waddell– especially as Waddell transitioned the Hurricanes from perennial basement dweller in the Metropolitan Division to winning at least one round in the Stanley Cup Playoffs in each of his six seasons in hockey operations with the club.
On May 24, 2024, Waddell resigned from his roles with the Hurricanes and Tulsky was immediately tabbed as interim GM. Less than a month later, Tulsky assumed the position full-time on June 18th.
Almost immediately, Tulsky made waves on June 30th, by trading Waddell’s 2024 trade deadline rental that Carolina hoped to extend long-term, Jake Guentzel, to the Tampa Bay Lightning for a third round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft after it became apparent Guentzel was going to unrestricted free agency.
On August 16, 2024, Tulsky announced the hiring of fellow former analytics blogger, Tyler Dellow, as assistant general manager and the promotion of Darren Yorke to associate general manager and general manager of the Chicago Wolves– Carolina’s AHL affiliate.
Dellow, of note, had spent the last five seasons in the New Jersey Devils’ front office– most recently serving as New Jersey’s senior vice president of hockey strategy and analytics after spending two seasons as an analytics consultant with the Edmonton Oilers from 2014-16. He also was a staff writer for The Athletic between stints in NHL hockey operations departments and has a law degree from the University of Toronto and founded mc79hockey.com— a once leading analytics-based hockey blog.
If Carolina wins the Cup during Tulsky’s reign, Tulsky will become the first to live the life of every armchair GM’s ultimate dream.
On Friday, these three GMs used their superpowers to rock the hockey world much in the same way Scott Stevens used to deliver bone-shattering hits on the ice.
Analytics? Inevitably so.
Nerds rule. Let more nerds run sports.
Sure, this piece isn’t about getting into the nitty gritty of what each general manager has accomplished in their short time– let alone any sort of actual analysis in the Mikko Rantanen, Martin Nečas, Jack Drury and Taylor Hall trade– but it’s more of an observation of how all sports cycle through hiring minds “outside the game” which is really just a way of saying “not a former NHL player.”
In a related story, I, too, have never played an NHL game and I am one job-contingent final capstone course shy of completing my master of sports leadership with a concentration in professional sports administration, as well as a decade in live sports production under my belt and over 20 years of watching hockey.
Just saying.
Down the Frozen River 
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