Hurricanes Notes: Kochetkov, AHL Loans, Chicago

With the Hurricanes not having a dedicated AHL affiliate this season, Cory Lavalette suggested in a recent mailbag piece for The Athletic (subscription link) that they might be inclined to carry three goalies on the NHL roster this coming season.  While Pyotr Kochetkov is now in the first season of a four-year, $8MM contract, the expectation was that they’d take advantage of his waiver exemption to get him some regular action in the minors.  But if they loan the 24-year-old to another team’s affiliate, there’s no guarantee Kochetkov would get any sort of consistent minutes as the other team would likely be more interested in developing their own prospect.  Accordingly, Lavalette wonders if Kochetkov’s best path to AHL minutes would be in the form of short-term loans for a game or two to keep him fresh.  With both Antti Raanta and Frederik Andersen having injury issues in the past, it’s quite possible that Kochetkov could still see some meaningful games with the Hurricanes this season.

More from Carolina:

• Also from Lavalette’s piece, GM Don Waddell indicated that they have found a place for most of their prospects to play this season although they’re still looking for a spot for a few of them. Carolina has loaned several prospects overseas already while their other AHL-bound players are likely to be spread across quite a few other teams.  That will be the case for any ECHL-bound players as well as their affiliate from last season in Norfolk is now aligned with Winnipeg.
• One AHL team that doesn’t appear likely to house any Hurricanes prospects is their former affiliate in Chicago. Wolves GM Wendell Young told Tony Androckitis of Inside AHL Hockey that while they discussed the possibility of still using some of their prospects, Carolina ultimately pulled the plug on that idea.  Young stated that Carolina’s desire to focus on prospect development over winning was the key driver in Chicago’s decision to operate as an independent franchise this season.