Surprise goalie retentions and defensive depth battles highlight the final cuts as the Hurricanes solidify their lineup ahead of Tuesday’s clash with Florida.
The Carolina Hurricanes have their opening night roster set, trimming their roster down to the 23-player maximum.
The team announced on Sunday that they have reassigned both Felix Unger Sorum and Bradly Nadeau to the Chicago Wolves and have placed defenseman Juuso Valimaki on waivers for the purpose of reassignment.
In addition, Seth Jarvis has been placed on injured reserve as he continues to recover from his offseason shoulder surgery.
That means that the final roster will look like this:
Andrei Svechnikov - Sebastian Aho - Eric Robinson
Taylor Hall - Logan Stankoven - Jackson Blake
Nikolaj Ehlers - Jordan Staal - Jordan Martinook
Nicolas Deslauriers - Mark Jankowski - William Carrier
Jaccob Slavin - Jalen Chatfield
K'Andre Miller - Sean Walker
Shayne Gostisbehere - Charles Alexis Legault
Brandon Bussi
Pyotr Kochetkov
Extras: Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Mike Reilly, Cayden Primeau, Seth Jarvis (IR; shoulder)
So in the end, Charles Alexis Legault and Mike Reilly won out the competition for the team's sixth and seventh defenseman spots over Pierre-Olivier Joseph, Juuso Valimaki and Joel Nystrom.
Reilly had by far the best showing amongst all the prospective blueliners, anchoring the team's top pair through the first two preseason games and while Legault wasn't as impactful, he has the physical traits and playing style that the team wants in that depth role.
In addition, neither Unger Sorum nor Nadeau impressed the organization enough to dethrone any of the team's established forwards, although perhaps we could see one or both at some point in the season.
Both players have dominated the AHL and had really good showings in the preseason to boot, but for whatever reason, the staff isn't yet sold on them.
Lastly, it seems the team is perhaps worried about placed goaltender Cayden Primeau on waivers, hence why they're keeping him up, at least to start the year.
Primeau, 27, has over 50 games of NHL experience and is coming off of a really strong AHL season where he had a 21-11-7 record and a 0.916 save percentage (9-9-0; 0.913 Sv% in the postseason).
Even though he's on a two-year deal, there is a good chance he gets claimed, which did happen last year before the team managed to reclaim him after he spent around a month in Toronto.
But this is the lineup that the team will be sending out against the Florida Panthers for the NHL season opener on Tuesday.
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