What are the Carolina Hurricanes’ backup goalie options if another injury occurs?
The Carolina Hurricanes may be in a bind in terms of goaltending. Carolina figured it was fine with up-and-comer Pyotr Kochetkov there to give the veteran duo extra rest and fill in if — and when — one of the top two tweaked something with its oft-injured top tandem of Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta. Andersen, on the other hand, is dealing with a far more serious condition: the Hurricanes announced earlier this month that Andersen is suffering from a blood clotting problem and will be out indefinitely.
The Canes’ first reaction was to bring in free agent veteran Jaroslav Halak for a professional tryout. Last season, Halak served as Igor Shesterkin’s backup for the New York Rangers. Kochetkov was also called up from the AHL by Carolina. Carolina is 4-2 in six games since the Canes announced Andersen’s injury. Raanta improved to 3-1 with Wednesday’s win, despite leaving after the first period with his second “uh-oh” goaltending moment of the month.
Kochetkov is 1-1, with a road shutout, a home loss, and a solid, if not spectacular, “hold” against the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday. Did we also mention that the Canes officially released Halak from his PTO agreement this week? That could be the third “uh-oh.”
We already mentioned him, and the Canes are well acquainted with the 38-year-old journeyman who, among other things, battled Sidney Crosby in junior hockey and once gave Montreal Canadiens management a possible reason to bail on all-world goalie Carey Price with his stellar play in the 2010 playoffs while Price was injured.
Halak was in Carolina looking for his sixth NHL team, and he is just five wins away from reaching 300 in his 581-game NHL career. He has seven 20-game victories and a winning record in all but two of his 18 professional seasons. If the Canes are looking for a veteran presence, they could do a lot worse. That said, Halak was not practicing with an NHL team all summer, and staying sharp to play in the top league in the world isn’t easy when you’re not facing top-caliber competition. It’s most likely one of the reasons Halak was fired from his PTO position in the first place.
Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour is familiar with Yaniv Perets, as Brind’Amour’s son, AHL rookie Skyler Brind’Amour, played with Perets at Quinnipiac University last season, winning an NCAA title with the Bobcats.
Perets signed a two-year entry-level contract with the Hurricanes in April, and he was a regular at rookie camp and training camp during the preseason. Perets was assigned to the Norfolk Admirals of the ECHL this season due to the Canes’ lack of an exclusive AHL affiliate. Perets is 2-5-1 with a 2.93 GAA and.900 save percentage in eight games this season. Those numbers don’t scream “NHL-ready,” but he is the Hurricanes’ only other goaltender under contract. That alone qualifies him as a candidate, but winning a national collegiate championship and playing in the NHL are two entirely different things
.
Wait, Brian Elliott is still in the NHL? Technically, he is, though he, like Halak, has yet to suit up this season and has not officially retired.
Elliott most recently played for the Tampa Bay Lightning, where he spent two seasons as the primary backup to all-world goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy until the end of last season. Elliott was a respectable 23-12-5 in 41 games over two seasons, with a GAA under 3.00 and a save percentage above.900. Elliott was a top-tier NHL goaltender for several seasons in the early 2010s. His best statistical season was in 2011-12, when he had a 1.56 GAA and.940 save percentage in 38 games. In his 543-game NHL career, he has played for his original team, Ottawa, Colorado, St. Louis, Calgary, Philadelphia, and Tampa.
Mike Smith, 41, has yet to officially retire from the NHL after helping the Edmonton Oilers — yes, those Oilers — to a Western Conference final two years ago. He has played in 670 regular-season games and 45 playoff games, 16 of which came two years ago when he posted a 3.37 GAA and a.913 save percentage behind a potent offensive Oiler attack.
Smith also had a successful playoff run in 2012 with the Arizona (then Phoenix) Coyotes. After a 2.21/.930 regular season, he posted a 1.99 GAA and.944 save percentage in 16 playoff games that year. However, as previously stated, he is 41 years old. And he hasn’t played in over a year.
Aaron Dell, Jon Gillies, Michael Hutchinson, Jean-Francois Berube, and Christopher Gibson are among the lesser-known players who are still without an NHL contract. Dell, 34, most recently appeared in both the NHL and AHL for San Jose in 2023. From 2016 to 2020, he spent the majority of his NHL time — 107 of his 130 games — with the Sharks, with brief stops in New Jersey and Buffalo. Gillies, 29, was an NCAA championship goalie, winning the championship with Providence in 2015. He’s appeared in 25 NHL games, the most recent three with the Columbus Blue Jackets last season.
Hutchinson, 33, has the most NHL games played among this group, with 153. He, too, spent time with Columbus a year ago, posting not-so-great numbers (4.29/.877) over 16 games for the Blue Jackets. His best stretch came from 2014-17, when he played in 96 games for the Winnipeg Jets.
Berube, 31, has only played in 40 NHL games and was most recently with Columbus during the 2021-22 season. He appeared in 14 games for the Islanders in 2016-17 and 13 games for Chicago the following season. He appeared in five AHL playoff games with the Charlotte Checkers last season after appearing in 19 regular-season games with Florida’s farm club. Gibson, 30, was selected 49th overall by the Los Angeles Kings in the second round of the 2011 entry draft. He has appeared in 16 NHL games, most recently with Tampa Bay in 2020-21. In addition, he has appeared in 244 AHL games.
If nothing in the free agent market — or in-house — excites the Hurricanes, there is always the trade market, though it would likely be a difficult deal to make this early in the season to find a legitimate goaltending option. And then, assuming everyone returns to full health, the problem of what to do with the extra goalie would arise at the end of this run of injuries and illness.
It’s no secret that the Canes have two outstanding defenders in the final year of their contracts in Brett Pesce and Brady Skjei, not to mention seven other NHL-caliber defenders on the roster. Before the season began, there was speculation that the Canes would move one of their defenders to bring in another scoring threat, but as the season progressed, that chatter died down.
However, goalies who might be available are few and far between. Most teams are not ready to “give up” on their playoff chances at this point in the season, and few teams have a true glut of NHL-level goaltending.
