Hurricanes head into offseason with question marks in net

The Carolina Hurricanes have relied on Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta for the past two seasons, but now with both of them being unrestricted free agents, there's no guarantee on who will be in net for opening night.

After two years of security in net, the Carolina Hurricanes currently have only one netminder under an NHL contract heading into the 2023-24 season, that being the young Russian, Pyotr Kochetkov. 

The duo of Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta took the Canes by storm, winning the William M. Jennings Trophy in 2022 and helping lead the team to two division titles and an Eastern Conference Final appearance, but now they're both unrestricted free agents.

However, each has expressed an interest in returning. 

Both netminders are coming off of two-year deals, with Andersen's having paid him $9 million and Raanta's $4 million.

In their two year run, the netminders combined for 90 regular season wins and 11 shutouts, with Andersen posting a 0.915 save percentage and Raanta posting a 0.911 save percentage.

In the postseason, those numbers ramped up with Andersen having a 0.927 save percentage and Raanta having a 0.918 save percentage across 14 wins.

"It shows that you just want to get there to start and then you take it from there and enjoy it and have fun," Andersen said in his exit interview. "I enjoyed playing throughout the playoffs. It had been a while and it was fun to get back.”

While their abilities have been proven, the only real question mark is their overall health and durability.

Andersen, 33, and Raanta, 34, have each dealt with extensive injury histories throughout their careers, and both had their fair share of time missed in Carolina too. 

“Both goalies want to come back, we know that," said Carolina general manager Don Waddell at his end-of-season interview on Wednesday. "It’ll depend on what the contract terms are. We just want to make sure we do our due diligence not only in our guys, but making sure we know what the options are."

The Hurricanes aren't going to rush into any decision when it comes to their goalies for next season though, especially with how important the position is and with Kochetkov still being an unproven commodity.

“We believe Kochetkov is our future for sure," Waddell said. "Is he ready for that full-time thing right now? We’ll find out probably beginning next year. But it doesn’t matter who you have and we went through it before these guys were here. This position, we always seem to have injuries, so we’re going to have to have three capable players, that’s for sure.

"The day of goalies playing 55-60 games are behind us for the most part. Some guys still do, but I think our situation, if we have to use a three goalie system, we’ve learned this year that we’re fine with that. At the end of the day, the bottom line is that there will be three goaltenders that compete for those jobs.”

So whether or not Andersen and/or Raanta come back, or if it's completely new guys between the pipes, the Canes are confident they can make it work. 

"Goaltending seems to be a question all the time, but we’re fortunate because with the defense that we’ve built here, it really helps our goalies," Waddell said. 

And he isn't wrong.

Just look at all the goalies that the Hurricanes have brought in over the past five years. Guys like Curtis McElhinney, Petr Mrazek, James Reimer, Alex Nedeljkovic and who can forget the David Ayres game, have all come in and had immediate success.

Carolina has built a system that elevates their goaltenders, so the team isn't as concerned with finding the next top guy as they are with just simply bringing in guys that will do their job and fit in. The system will take care of the rest.

Andersen and Raanta have earned the right to give it another run, but they've also earned the right to chase the money if some teams come calling, but if one thing is clear, it's that this won't be a dragged out process.

"The decisions are coming in the near future because free agency starts July 1 and we want to make sure we’re ahead on that," Waddell said. "In the next couple of weeks, I think we’ll figure the whole goaltending thing out.”