Pyotr Kochetkov Is The Carolina Hurricanes Player To Watch This Season

The Carolina Hurricanes once again fell short in the playoffs even if they’re among the best regular season teams in the NHL over the past half of a decade. They enter an offseason full of big decisions. Former general manager Don Waddell was let go and replaced by Eric Tulsky. The team avoided making a major coaching change by re-signing franchise legend Ron Brind’ Amour.

The Carolina Hurricanes currently have seven pending unrestricted free agents and three important restricted free agents in Seth Jarvis, Martin Necas and Jack Drury. Major trade deadline acquisition Jake Guentzel might be too expensive to keep and Brett Pesce has been the subject of numerous trade rumors over the past two seasons. On Wednesday the Hurricanes reportedly extended top defenseman Jaccob Slavin and numerous roster questions remain.

Pyotr Kochetkov Is The Carolina Hurricanes Player To Watch This Season

Entering next season the most important Hurricanes player to watch just might be goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov. Ever since their return to contention by making the playoffs every season since 2018-2019 the Hurricanes have used a goaltending tandem of aging goaltenders in the second half of their careers. In 2018-2019 they used Curtis McElhinney and Petr Mrazek. In 2019-2020 they used Mrazek and James Reimer. In 2020-2021 they used Mrzaek and Alex Nedeljkovic. Nedeljkovic earned himself a Calder Trophy nomination for his play but was traded in the offseason to the Detroit Red Wings over a contract dispute.

Since 2021-2022 the goalie tandem was Antti Raanta and Frederick Anderson with Kochetkov earning 24 games in 2022-2023. Last season when Frederick Anderson was sidelined with a blood clotting issue Kochetkov took the reins of being the Hurricanes number one net minder finishing with a 23-13-4 record and a 2.33 goals against average and a .911 save percentage.

His play is widely credited with helping turn around the Hurricanes season. Entering a December 12th game against the Ottawa Senators no Carolina goaltender had a save percentage above 0.894. The Hurricanes had the league’s worst overall save percentage at 0.867 entering play on December 7th while allowing the least amount of shots in the NHL per game (25.00) and having -14.4 goals saved above expected.

Kochetkov represents the Hurricanes best chance to have a true number one goaltender since Cam Ward. At the time we though Nedeljkovic might be that guy, but the trade to Detroit prevented that. His drop in play since joining the Red Wings might make the trade look like a good move for the Hurricanes, in hindsight.

There’s legitimate reasons why teams in today’s NHL would prefer the 1A and 1B goalie tandems instead of a true workhorse starter. For one, it helps manage both goaltenders workload in a more even split. Second, it helps with cap concerns by spreading some of that contract money around.

If the Hurricanes had two very good goaltenders one good contracts where age wasn’t an issue, think of how the Boston Bruins handled Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark, there would not be an issue with this strategy. In fact, they would be crazy for not continuing it. The Hurricanes reality is that their “1A and 1B” from last season was the injured and aging Anderson and the aging, ineffective, and put on waivers at one point Antti Raanta.

Take into account potential playoff performance as well. Because Anderson returned strong, Kochetkov saw his potential post season playing time diminished. Recent teams who have gone on to Stanley Cup championships almost always have their top, go to guy as a workhorse starter in the playoffs, with very few and rare exceptions. Think of how the Tampa Bay Lightning might have finished in 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 if they couldn’t count on Andrei Vasilevskiy for every postseason start?

None of that is sustainable, but Kochetkov might be. For a team in free agency turmoil he can be a steady presence in the crease and was as in his cap hit. Kochetkov signed a four year extension with an average annual value of $2 million in 2022. The Hurricanes have a lot of decisions to make, but the decision of who to turn to in net shouldn’t be one of them. With that a lot of the Hurricanes success this next season lands on Kochetkov continuing his climb to being a star.