Hurricanes To Wait Until After Playoffs To Talk New Deal For Frederik Andersen

The Hurricanes find themselves on a long break between rounds.  As a result of starting the second round early, sweeping Philadelphia, and seeing Montreal and Buffalo go to seven games, they now find themselves with the longest break between series in modern NHL history, according to The Athletic’s James Mirtle (Twitter link).

But while that leaves ample time for the team to work on some looming contracts for pending unrestricted free agent goaltender Frederik Andersen, that isn’t going to be the case.  Speaking with NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti, GM Eric Tulsky indicated that their plan is to wait until after the playoffs before beginning those discussions.  By contrast, Carolina re-upped Mark Jankowski, who was a pending UFA himself, to a new two-year deal earlier this week.

It has been an up-and-down year for the 36-year-old.  Thanks to a long-term injury to Pyotr Kochetkov, Andersen made 35 starts during the regular season, his highest total since 2021-22, the year he finished fourth in Vezina Trophy voting.  But his overall numbers weren’t particularly impressive as he posted a 3.05 GAA with a .874 SV% on a team that finished first in the Eastern Conference.  Kochetkov (in limited action) and Brandon Bussi both put up considerably better numbers than he did.

But with Bussi faltering a bit down the stretch and Kochetkov only getting into some brief AHL action on a conditioning stint before the regular season ended, Andersen got the nod to start the playoffs.  It’s fair to say that decision has worked out tremendously for both Andersen and the Hurricanes.  He has won all eight of Carolina’s postseason games thus far, allowing just 10 goals on 201 shots in the process.

If he can even come close to continuing that type of play in the next round (or two, should they advance to the Stanley Cup Final), that would certainly be a huge boost to his stock heading to free agency.  But on the flip side, if the long layoff results in him reverting to his regular-season form, it could be one of the other two netminders getting a shot at some point in their next series.

Accordingly, it makes sense for Tulsky and the Hurricanes to wait to see how the rest of the postseason goes before starting talks on a new contract.  After all, Bussi begins a new three-year contract next season while Kochetkov is signed through 2026-27 as well.  Technically, they have their goalie tandem in place already, at a combined cost of just $3.9MM.

But Carolina has been one of the few teams that has been unafraid to carry three netminders on a regular basis which could create an opening for Andersen to return, albeit at a price tag likely below his current $2.75MM plus bonuses ($250K of which has been met with another $250K likely).  Tulsky indicated that they “would love to have him back.”  We’ll have to wait a little while yet to see if that will ultimately happen.