Pyotr Kochetkov of the Carolina Hurricanes drinks water during the second period against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 4, 2025 in New York City. Kochetkov stopped 19 of 22 shots Saturday in a 6-3 win over Buffalo.
Sarah Stier
Getty Images
Raleigh
Carolina Hurricanes goalie Pyotr Kochetkov will have surgery and likely will miss the remainder of the 2025-26 season, coach Rod Brind’Amour said Monday.
Kochetkov took part in Sunday’s practice session at the Lenovo Center and was believed to be the probable starter for Monday’s game against the New York Rangers. But on Monday, the Hurricanes placed the young goalie on injured reserve, and Brind’Amour made the announcement a few hours before game time.
Brind’Amour said Kochetkov, 26, has been dealing with a lower-body issue all season and made the decision to undergo surgery and then rehab the rest of this season. In an interview on the Canes pregame show, he added Kochetkov had a hip ailment.
Kochetkov’s surgery is another blow to the injury-riddled Hurricanes. The Canes’ top forward, Seth Jarvis, and best defenseman, Jaccob Slavin, remain sidelined, and their status is listed as “week to week.” Defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere missed Monday’s game with a lower-body concern.
Despite the injuries, the Canes went into Monday’s game with a 23-11-3 record, leading both the Metropolitan Division and the Eastern Conference.
Without Kochetkov, Brind’Amour said the Canes must rely on Brandon Bussi and veteran Frederik Andersen, who has had his own injury issues. Bussi, slated as Monday’s starter, has been one of most remarkable stories of the NHL season, coming to the Canes off waivers from the Florida Panthers before the season and putting together a 12-1-1 record that included a nine-game win streak that tied Cam Ward’s franchise record.
Kochetkov had played in nine games this season, with a 6-2-0 record, 2.22 goals-against average and .899 save percentage. His overall record is 71-38-12 with 11 career shutouts.
“He didn’t feel right all year,” Brind’Amour said. “He’s been playing great. That’s the hard part. You can kind of fight through it, but he didn’t want to take it that way, so we’ll get it fixed and go from there.”
Kochetkov did not play in the first 11 games of the season, making his first start Nov. 4 against the Rangers and notching a 26-save shutout.
The Canes were in the position of likely carrying three goalies this season. That’s not the case anymore.
“The luxury we had is no longer a luxury,” Brind’Amour said.
Brind’Amour called the season “unprecedented” in terms of the injuries. Only one defenseman, Sean Walker, has been available every game.
“We went a couple of years when we didn’t have our D get any injuries,” he said. “We were pretty lucky then, but now it’s been all year. Every team has a certain degree of it … We’ve just got to figure it out.”
This story was originally published December 29, 2025 at 5:39 PM.
In more than 40 years at The N&O, Chip Alexander has covered the N.C. State, UNC, Duke and East Carolina beats, and now is in his 15th season on the Carolina Hurricanes beat. Alexander, who has won numerous writing awards at the state and national level, covered the Hurricanes’ move to North Carolina in 1997 and was a part of The N&O’s coverage of the Canes’ 2006 Stanley Cup run.
Frederik Andersen of the Carolina Hurricanes is introduced prior to the game against the New Jersey Devils at Lenovo Center on October 09, 2025 in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Jared C. Tilton
Getty Images
Raleigh
With the NHL season approaching the end of its first gradable quarter, it’s fair for onlookers to start pulling out the No. 2 pencils to fill in the test ovals — and perhaps fill out a holiday wish list while they’re at it.
A torrent of injured defenders has made it nearly impossible to truly tell what the Carolina Hurricanes are in 2025-26, while simultaneously cranking the wheel of the in-season trade target rumor mill.
After Saturday night’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Edmonton Oilers at Lenovo Center — the second of back-to-back games at home before a four-game road swing — the team’s needs remain much the same as they did in Week 1.
If the Hurricanes’ early-season trials and tribulations have done nothing else, they’ve perhaps prematurely outed Carolina as an organization with a glut of young defensive depth. If the Canes were hoping to mask that depth as a bargaining position for future trade talks or contract negotiations, the team’s three dozen man games lost to injury on the blue line alone — and the team’s subsequent success — have eradicated that line of thinking.
Saturday, the Canes started a third consecutive game with the same six defenders, their second-longest stretch of consecutive games with the same grouping this season. Shayne Gostisbehere again found the scoresheet, earning his 11th assist of the season, and the group acquitted itself well overall.
Ditto up front, where Eric Robinson and William Carrier each missed significant time with simultaneous, unrelated injuries. No problem: In stepped Bradley Nadeau. Veteran Mark Jankowski came out of the press box, and a stable of young forwards — like Felix Unger Sorem — awaits in Chicago, hoping to follow similar paths to those of Charles Alexis Legault, Joel Nystrom and Dominic Fensore.
Jankowski was back in the lineup Saturday after an injury to Jesperi Kotkaniemi on Friday, and Nadeau was back in the building, in case Seth Jarvis was unable to go after his injury scare against Vancouver.
On the scoring front, Robinson found the net, Carrier added an assist on a Jordan Staal goal, and Nik Ehlers continued his strong rebound to a slower start to the season with his fourth goal.
None of the above had an answer for the Oilers’ big guns. Connor McDavid had a pair of goals and an assist on the OT winner. Leon Draisaitl had that game-winner and two assists.
Pyotr Kochetkov of the Carolina Hurricanes drinks water during the second period against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 4, 2025 in New York City. Sarah Stier Getty Images
Frederik Andersen, prior to Saturday’s game, had started nine times. He had a 3.00 goals-against average and an .892 save percentage. Among 31 NHL goalies with nine or more starts, Andersen was 19th in GAA, and 24th in save percentage.
Brandon Bussi has been a breath of fresh air in the early going, a surprising waiver wire success with four wins in five starts, a 2.60 GAA and an .898 save percentage.
Brandon Bussi of the Carolina Hurricanes makes a save on a shot by Alexander Wennberg of the San Jose Sharks during the second period at SAP Center on Oct. 14, 2025 in San Jose, California. Ezra Shaw Getty Images
And Pyotr Kochetkov, injured to begin the season, has been solid since his return. In four appearances — three starts — Kochetkov is 3-0 with a 1.92 GAA and a .908 save percentage.
The numbers are fine, for sure. A cumulative 2.88 team GAA is ninth best in the 32-team NHL, which is in line with a team also sitting ninth best in shots allowed per game.
But ninth best of 32 looks a lot better than ninth best of 16, and 16 is the number that matters more — it’s how many playoff teams there will be, and a middle-of-the-road GAA isn’t typically part of a recipe for playoff success.
In the NHL playoffs, the game gets tighter. Games with final scores like 6-3, 7-4 or even 4-3 are replaced by multiple 2-1 and 3-2 games. The teams with better cumulative defense and, yes, goaltending, advance. Those who struggle in tight, low-scoring games do not.
Through 18 games this season, the Hurricanes are scoring 3.71 goals per game, third best in the NHL, and that number is propped up by the team’s opening six-game stretch — all wins — during which it scored four or more goals in each contest.
In the Hurricanes’ 12 wins this season, they’ve scored four or more goals 11 times. The Canes’ record in games in which they score fewer than four goals? 1-6.
A win is a win is a win, until the numbers turn on you.
It also doesn’t help when the Hurricanes create their own problems. Friday, two glaring defensive lapses created untenable situations for Kochetkov. Saturday, Andersen gift-wrapped the Oilers’ first goal with a direct pass to Jack Roslovic. (Nothing Andersen could do on McDavid’s power- play goal, though, nor his second of the night in the third period.)
Frederik Andersen of the Carolina Hurricanes is examined by a trainer in a game against the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena on April 16, 2022 in Denver, Colorado. Dustin Bradford Getty Images
What could the Canes do?
The luxuries the Hurricanes have in this situation, though, are twofold: They have money, and they have time.
No one worth a shred of credibility can say for certain before (American) Thanksgiving which players on which teams will for certain be available in any trade or sign-and-trade scenario, nor which teams will play ball at all. Even those teams currently sitting at the bottom of the league can point to the worst-to-Cup 2019 St. Louis Blues as a harbinger of what’s possible.
But given the Canes’ solid start to the season — they are, after all, sitting among the top five in the NHL standings — there is no urgency to make sudden moves. (And if someone in the front office did have a hair trigger, Carolina would likely already have a new defenseman in the rotation.)
The other factor to consider — eventually — is whether any possible moves actually make the team better. Acquiring the “top goalie from a team that isn’t doing well” works well in fantasy sports dynasty leagues, but not so much when term, cap space and player proclivity are factors.
Of those extraneous factors, though, cap space is the least of the Canes’ concerns. They are currently sitting on about $10 million, give or take, with only about $5 million currently tied up in the goaltending position among the three who have played games this season to date.
Cayden Primeau of the Toronto Maple Leafs skates against the Montreal Canadiens at Scotiabank Arena on Oct. 8, 2025 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Chris Tanouye Getty Images
The Hurricanes did go back to the waiver wire and reacquire Cayden Primeau from the Maple Leafs, an ultimate boomerang move, and that addresses one kind of depth.
There is nothing in the empirical data to directly suggest that Andersen, Kochetkov, Bussi or Primeau can’t become the playoff goalie the Hurricanes need this season — Andersen and Kochetkov last season posted the second-best GAA in the NHL playoffs, for what that’s worth, and some guy named Cam Ward caught lightning in a bottle at the right time in 2006.
But there’s also nothing lost by exploring all of the team’s best options, given its positive fiscal situation and now-apparent strength and depth elsewhere in the lineup.
Justin is a 25-year veteran sports journalist with stops in Lewiston, Maine (Sun Journal), and Boston (Boston Herald). A proud husband, and father of twin girls, Pelletier is a Boston University graduate and member of the esteemed Jack Falla sportswriting mafia. He has earned dozens of state and national sportswriting and editing awards covering preps, colleges and professional leagues.
Raleigh, N.C. — The Carolina Hurricanes are making a change in net.
Goalie Pyotr Kochetkov will get his first start of the postseason Thursday night against the New York Rangers, Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said Thursday morning.
The Hurricanes trail the Rangers 2-0 in their best-of-seven playoff series. Game 3 is at PNC Arena at 7 p.m.
Frederik Andersen has started all seven playoff games for the Hurricanes. He is 4-3 with a 2.58 goals against average. The Rangers have scored four goals in each of the first two games with most of the damage on the power play.
“Freddie’s played really well, but he’s also played a lot,” Brind’Amour said. “I think giving him a little rest is the best thing.”
Kochetkov’s last appearance was on April 14. He played in 42 games this season, with 23 wins, 13 losses and a 2.33 goals against average.
“He’s fresh and hopefully has a great game,” Brind’Amour said. “He’s got a different demeanor, that’s obvious. Freddie’s really calm and cool, and Kooch is a little more passionate and wears his emotions on his sleeve. But they’re both pretty good goalies.”
“We all understand where we’re at and the situation,” Brind’Amour said. “I don’t think we need to dwell on that. It’s how can we find that extra play here or there that makes the difference. That’s really what it’s about.”
Hurricanes’ power play woes
Through two one-goal losses and a power-play conundrum, the Carolina Hurricanes find themselves trailing by two games in the second-round series against the New York Rangers.
The Hurricanes have gone scoreless on 10 power play opportunities in the first two games and were unsuccessful in trying to snap Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin’s streak of 29 playoff games of giving up three or fewer goals in Tuesday night’s Game 2. After squandering leads of 2-1 and 3-2, periods of inspired play in the first and second overtimes didn’t result in any game-winners as the team’s road playoff woes seem to have returned.
Brind’Amour knows Tuesday night’s events signify the momentum swings and razor-thin margins for error that come with the territory in playoff hockey.
“You got to fight for everything,” Brind’Amour said. “And then, even then, it’s not enough sometimes.”
“The games have been real tight,” Brind’Amour said. “A play here or there and we got to keep fighting to try to get that extra play because that’s really what is coming down to.”
Carolina is now 1-3 on the road this postseason, a callback to 2022 when they were 0-6 in two rounds against the Rangers and Boston Bruins.
It’s not for a lack of shooting. Shesterkin, who was upended by Andrei Svechnikov behind the net in the first period, stayed even-keeled through a barrage of shot attempts and made 54 saves.
Not wanting to go down 3-0, the urgency toward repairing the power play is at a fever pitch.
“They’re keeping us to the outside a little too much and we’re settling for that,” Brind’Amour said about the power play.
An active net-front presence to create traffic in front of Shesterkin will be key going forward. The Canes had 18 more shots than the Rangers, but didn’t consistently get the positioning on screens and tip-ins needed to throw off Shesterkin.
“I thought there was a lot of great shots in that game all alone in front of the net,” Brind’Amour said. “You know, he’s a great goalie. It’s obvious.
“We knew that coming in and we just got to keep, you know, you look at the goals we scored. They’ve basically been deflections or stuff that you can’t do anything about. That’s what we’re going to have to keep trying to do.”
In net, there’s a possibility the Canes go back to Pyotr Kochetkov, who hasn’t played since April 14. Frederik Andersen made 39 saves in Game 2, but allowed four goals for the second-straight game.
Max Comtois played in place of trade deadline acquisition Evgeny Kuznetsov in Game 2. Kuznetsov could return to action Thursday after scoring goals in Game 1 and Game 5 in the first round.
