The Carolina Hurricanes are already dealing with a potential goalie injury and the season hasn’t even officially started yet.
Netminder Pyotr Kochetkov’s status is now up in the air for the season opener on Thursday after missing practice on Wednesday.
“He got nicked up the other day,” said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour. “Got through the game fine and so I’m not sure if it was in practice or what. I’m not sure what his status will be.”
The Russian goalie missed various days of practice throughout training camp, but played in the team’s final preseason game Saturday in Nashville.
As Brind’Amour inferred, the 26-year-old goaltender looked to be fine coming out of that game and practiced with the team following it, but it appears something new is now bothering him.
If he does miss time, the team will be relying pretty much solely on Frederik Andersen until he returns.
The 36-year-old goalie is heading into his 13th NHL season and fifth in Carolina.
The team would love to not have to to do that, as the Dane has dealt with a plethora of injuries throughout his career, most recently having had knee surgery after playing just four games into the 2024-25 season.
And if Kochetkov can’t go, Andersen will have to have a new backup as well, which would be Brandon Bussi, who the Canes acquired off of waivers from the Florida Panthers.
“He looks good,” Brind’Amour said after getting Bussi onto the ice with the main group for the first time. B”ig guy. Hopefully we’re not going to be relying on that, but if we do, we have a lot of confidence in him.”
Bussi has no prior NHL experience, but the 6-foot-5 netminder has 111 games of AHL experience, where he posted a 63-31-13 record with a 0.915 save percentage and eight shutouts.
The plan heading into the year was to have Cayden Primeau as the third, but he too was claimed off of waivers by the Toronto Maple Leafs.
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