As the Carolina Hurricanes teem with optimism, this could be their Achilles heel
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Hurricanes add top forwards and defense, hold deep roster and ~$10M cap.
- Goaltending pipeline remains shallow; Andersen and Kochetkov show durability gaps.
- Cap flexibility lets Carolina pursue an established starter or depth via trade.
Nik Ehlers arrived in Raleigh to fanfare befitting one of the top available forwards on the free agent market.
Ditto K’Andre Miller on defense, a younger-than-Brent Burns blue-liner with tremendous upside.
The Carolina Hurricanes have a stable of young, already-proven NHLers, a bevy of prospects in the Chicago-to-Raleigh pipeline, and are coming off an NHL Eastern Conference Final appearance.
And we are long past the days of the “spend to the floor and save a buck” mentality that doomed the franchise to nine consecutive years without a sniff of playoff hockey.
Seven consecutive trips to the postseason — three of those to the conference final — and an owner in Tom Dundon who has publicly vowed to spend to the cap to ice a winning team make it easy to be bullish on the Canes.
But there’s a nagging feeling in the back of your mind, isn’t there?
Maybe that uneasiness is borne in the fact that the Canes still have so much cap space in which to maneuver this early in the season — nearly $10 million.
Perhaps you’re one of those “if anything can go wrong, it will” people who is perpetually prone to nagging feelings.
But maybe you’re looking at the Hurricanes’ roster with a measured, practical mind.
Ehlers? Offense. Locking up Blake, Hall and Jarvis, and seeing Bradly Nadeau in the pipeline? More offense.
Miller? Defense. Nikishin, Reilly, and having Charles-Alexis Legault in the pipeline? More defense.
But goaltending … ah yes … there’s the rub. But not for a lack of raw talent.
Frederik Andersen, entering his fifth season as the Canes’ top netminder, has been statistically better-than-average to excellent.
In two games this season, Andersen has earned wins, despite allowing three goals in each. His goals-against average with the Canes is 2.28, with a .914 save percentage.
Pyotr Kochetkov is a promising young goalie who appears ready to hit his prime years (goalies mature later than skaters, remember) as a solid 1A-1B option.
But the stable of established, game-ready — playoff-ready — talent gets pretty thin, pretty quickly. To that end, Cayden Primeau, acquired from the Montreal Canadiens in the offseason, would have been a great option. Toronto thought so, too, and claimed him off waivers.
Brandon Bussi, in waiver-wire-taketh-waiver-wire-giveth serendipity, arrived in Raleigh the same day, claimed from Florida while he was driving to the Panthers’ AHL affiliate in Charlotte. What’s another 100 miles on the car, anyway? And while Bussi has an impressive minor league pedigree, he is not — at least not yet — at the same level as Primeau.
And why is goalie pipeline depth so important?
Because Andersen played 22 regular-season games last season. He played 16 in 2023-24; 34 in 2022-23; and 52 in 2021-22 (but none in the playoffs).
Because Kochetkov played 47 regular-season games last season. He played 42 in 2023-24; 24 in 2022-23; and three in 2021-22).
Antti Raanta, Spencer Martin, Dustin Tokarski and Yaniv Perets filled in the requisite gaps, but none were a long-term playoff solution.
And for all of the optimism surrounding the 2025-26 Hurricanes — for good reason — Canes fans and those around the NHL were again reminded Thursday, on opening night, what the team’s glaring weakness is: Kochetkov, after suffering an injury in practice this week, did not suit up Thursday. Head coach Rod Brind’Amour said Friday that Kochetkov would miss at least a week. Bussi backed up Andersen for the team’s first two games.
The group’s overall numbers haven’t been an issue. Its durability has.
In the past 10 Stanley Cup Finals, six of the 10 winning goalies have played more than 50 regular-season NHL games. Another played 42 in the COVID-shortened season.
Of the remaining three champions, two rode a single goalie through the playoffs after a regular-season split or late-season switch.
The lone outlier? The 2016-17 Pittsburgh Penguins, who probably could have won the Cup that season with the Charlestown Chiefs’ Denis Lemieux in full 1970s gear.
This isn’t the first year this has been an apparent issue for the Hurricanes, but it might be the first in this stretch during which they have the ability to do something about it. For one, the Canes have addressed other issues, glaring or otherwise, already. And secondly, the Hurricanes have managed the NHL salary cap so well, they’re sitting on a veritable gold mine as the season opens.
With Kochetkov already missing at least two games to open the regular season, and with Carolina’s recent history at the position, any questions surrounding the Canes’ pile of unused cap space shouldn’t be about which position to use it on, but which goalie(s) to keep an eye on and target in a trade.
Just in case, of course.
