The Hurricanes will be without another goalie for the foreseeable future as the team announced that Pyotr Kochetkov is in concussion protocol, meaning he is out indefinitely. In a subsequent move, the team announced the recall of Yaniv Perets from ECHL Norfolk.
Kochetkov suffered the concussion in last night’s game against Anaheim, leaving in the second period. The timing of it certainly isn’t ideal as the 24-year-old was in the midst of a nice run, posting a .924 SV% in his last ten games, giving Carolina some much-needed stability between the pipes. He joins Frederik Andersen (blood clots) as netminders who are out of the lineup.
This means that veteran Antti Raanta will take over the number one role for the time being. It has been a rough year for the 34-year-old as his early struggles eventually resulted in him passing through waivers unclaimed last month before being recalled after two AHL games. Raanta has a 3.27 GAA with a save percentage of just .862 in 17 games this season.
He’ll be joined by Perets, the only recallable option the Hurricanes have. The 23-year-old is in his first professional season after a stellar college career with Quinnipiac where he had a 1.34 GAA and a .935 SV% over three seasons with them. This season, he has played exclusively in the ECHL (since Carolina doesn’t have a direct AHL affiliate), posting a 2.62 GAA with a .906 SV% in 15 games.
The Hurricanes have been speculatively linked to a handful of goaltenders in recent weeks but with Kochetkov playing well lately, that speculation had started to cool off. However, if the young netminder is set to miss extended time, GM Don Waddell may have no choice but to seriously explore what options might be out there.