— Fresh off his first NHL Draft as majority owner of the Carolina Hurricanes, Tom Dundon chats with 99.9 The Fan's Adam Gold about the experience and what's next for the franchise entering the summer.

To listen to Dundon's full interview, click here.

ADAM GOLD: Was it fun? Was the whole process fun?

Tom Dundon: You know, it ended up being fun, but it was pretty frustrating for a while there. But yeah, it was really fun. I think the frustration – trying to get something done and not getting it done is actually a little sick but it’s kind of fun, too.

It was interesting. Obviously, getting to go through the experience, you learn what you’d want to try to do different or better next time. That was interesting also. I loved it.

I want to get some of the fun things, but I’m curious what the frustration part was? I know there were a lot of assets you were looking to move. Were you trying to acquire more first-round picks? Was that the goal?

I don’t know if it was about trying to move anything as much as figuring out where we have excess or we have deficiencies and see if there were good fits with people. Maybe we felt like there were a couple of times there were good fits that we didn't end up getting anything done. I kept being told that’s just the way it is and be patient.

Ultimately, we don’t have an agenda or business plan that says you have to have this many first-round picks or this exact player. It’s trying to just make sure you get assets that fit together, and whether its players’ contract, or the position they play, or their character, all of those variables go into play. We’re in a different situation than the other 30 teams, so my thought was you should be able to do something that works for everybody.

You had your kids involved. You were able to sleep in your own bed – it was essentially at home (in Dallas). How much fun did that make the whole experience because it was kind of a family affair?

My girls loved it. It’s about life experiences, I think, so it was great being able to do that here and have them come up. My daughter was so nervous – she almost tapped out and didn’t do it. It’s something I’ll always remember.

Was there any lobbying for an easier last name to pronounce (than Svechnikov)?

I know, she was so upset that she messed it up. It was a tough one.

You’ve been at this for the last six months. How much different is this than regular business for you? The elements that maybe aren't a part of the regular business world that are a part of the sports world.

The main difference is that it’s harder – you’ll get a bigger variation in what people consider value. We are going to always think someone overvalues something and they’re going to think we undervalue it, or the opposite. I’m used to asset values being in a more narrow range or tighter range. That doesn't make it wrong or bad, you’re just dealing with human beings and how pieces fit together. That’s probably been the main difference, is just how do you really come up with a standard unit of measurement for things that are inherently difficult to value?

The draft in and of itself, and the whole experience – not only the draft but the trade – you get a dynamic player in Andrei Svechnikov and you engineered a culture change. These were at least two of the checklists that you had to come out of the draft and come out of the offseason with. How do you feel about where the team is after those couple of days?

I want to be careful about getting too excited about winning in the summer. You want to win hockey games. But getting the luck on the draft lottery, and that had nothing to do with any of us, that’s just luck. Then to have this kid be there. I’ve told a few people that he’s so good that if he was a terrible guy we’d still pick him.

But it turns out he’s maybe the most impressive young man I’ve ever met in my life. He’s hard working, he’s physical – as a matter of fact we’re going to have to dial him back a little bit I think. On top of that, he’s compassionate and kind. His general manager, scouts and people from his minor league team were there, and when he had to leave to get interviewed he went back to check on them.

He tried to clean up the suite – trying to clean up the dirty plates. He’s as good as it gets as the kind of character and people you want to be around. That’s just luck.

Now I know that your focus is on improving the goaltending situation, and I know how involved you are because you have thrown yourself into the sport like nobody he’s ever seen. Have you targeted a goalie?

We’re all doing a lot of work on it. We’re investing a lot of time with Scott Darling, and he’s investing his own time and energy to try to do better. He moved to Raleigh, bought a house. He’s there working out. He’s undeniably talented and had a really good track record until he had a tough year this year. There’s some real tangible, obvious things that contributed to that situation that we’re all addressing together, including him, because he’s the key to it. That’s an asset, that’s a person that we have that we have to get the best out of.

At the same time, the culture of the team is supposed to be highly competitive and you have to earn your spot. While he’s trying to earn that spot, we’ve got to find more competition. There are lots of choices, and hopefully we’ll make a good one. We’ve got a lot going on there, but most importantly we have to get the most out of the asset we’ve got.

Correct me if I’m wrong – you’d be comfortable with Scott Darling as your goaltender going into next year based on what you’ve seen and what his level of commitment is?

Well, if he earns it, right? I’m comfortable that we’re going to have two really good choices and we won’t be sitting here next year talking about goaltending as the reason that – if we’re not successful, that won’t be why. I’m pretty comfortable with that. We have enough things going on that we’ll have enough choices that we won’t look back and think this was the problem.

If Scott Darling is part of the mix, does that mean Cam Ward cannot be since that dynamic didn't work last year?

I don’t know about that. It didn't work and we can’t change the past, but we still have to make the best decision today, and Scott is doing the things he needs to do, Cam is working hard and we’re working hard to try to find – as we’ve always said – better players than the ones we’ve got. If we can do that, we will, and if we can’t then we’ll go with the best players available to us.

I don’t think anything is closed for us. In general, the philosophy is going to be to continue to look at all of our options every day and push the players we’ve got to do the things they need to do to be better. Different is not always better. We didn't go into this thinking we had to do anything. There are things we would have been open to doing, but it’s not as if - the players we traded are really good players and they’re going to be really good somewhere else.

There was nothing wrong with those players. If Cam Ward plays for us or somebody else, he’s going to be a good player. If Scott Darling does the things I think he can do, he’ll be a good player. Whether or not they’ll all good players here or somewhere else, time will tell.

I want to get to a couple of things off the ice. First of all, the schedule came out and the first thing I looked at was to see how long the State Fair road trip was going to be. It’s only three games, and in fact you play a home game on the final Saturday of the State Fair. Is that something you pushed for?

I was looking at buying the team before the season started last year, and I was pretty frustrated – as I told you I got invested before I even bought it. I was pretty frustrated with that trip and I didn't understand it and then I got to Carolina, and they said, ‘Well, there’s a fair.’ I said it seems like it’d be fun to play a day game when people go to the fair, so we made that happen, and the NHL worked with us. I think it’s going to be great. I’m surprised that isn’t something that’s been done before, because it seems fairly obvious, so we’ll see. I have a feeling it’s going to be a pretty fun day.

Couple of other things. The third jersey came out. Was that something you pushed for personally or something someone came to you and said needed to be changed?

They had been working on that before I showed up – I agree with you, (the old design) didn't make any sense, right. We tweaked those jerseys. I really like them. I have a 16-year-old son, and he’s got opinions about jerseys and these kind of things, and he was not a fan of our old one. As soon as it came out, I got a text from him. I like it. I hope other people like it.

Any chance that becomes the regular home sweater and the red becomes alternate?

We are working on figuring out what we can and can’t wear and how often we can wear it. My personal opinion, and I’m not going to use the veto card on this, but I’d like to see a lot more red and black than red and white – so we’re just going to figure out how we can do that. We’ve got some ideas, and I think it’s high probability, but there are other people that have to sign off on all this stuff. The black is great. I love the red too. I don’t like the white very much.

What does this mean for Whalers gear? You have talked about a throwback night in the past.

We’re going to wear it, at least once, maybe twice. We’ll do a throwback night, maybe home and away. I think it’s fun. This is entertainment, so I think it’d be fun to do it. We’re going to wear it.

I’m curious where we stand on the negotiations with Chuck Kaiton?

I don’t really know. The radio broadcast, the way I looked at it, there is a certain amount of interest in sponsoring and listening ot that broadcast, and that creates a certain amount of revenues. If that business is a sustainable business with Chuck that’d be great, because he’s a great guy, he cares about the franchise. But those details are probably things I won’t get into unless I have to, but that’s my mandate. It can’t be a tax on the business.

We want to put our dollars on the ice and not subsidizing radio shows that people aren't listening to. So, if people listen and sponsors sponsor then we’d have an individual radio show. And if not I think we’re real comfortable simulcasting – I think John Forslund and Tripp Tracy do a good job too. I think we have two good options there. I can’t say I’m spending a lot of time on it – I understand it’s emotional for some people.

The number of people that listen, that’s what I focus on. It’s not as many as you would think.

Will you be here at all for prospect camp?

I’m trying – I don’t know if I’m going to make it. I go back and forth on whether it’s a good thing if I’m there or not. I’m leaning toward it just being better that they focus on what they need to do. If you’re around, maybe they’re thinking about their contracts versus just playing. I’m leaning toward not going right now.