The 35-year-old netminder will play his first game back in the NHL since Feb. 18, 2023

The Carolina Hurricanes will be turning to veteran netminder Dustin Tokarski tonight against the Columbus Blue Jackets in what will be his first start as a Carolina Hurricane.

"We were going to have to put him in here at some point," Brind'Amour said. "He's been out a while and hasn't played a lot. So we have to get him in there to get him up to speed."

Tokarski, who will be the fifth goaltender to see game action for Carolina this season, joined the team earlier this month after signing a one-year, two-way deal on Dec. 2.

Just one month earlier, Tokarski wasn't even playing hockey as he hadn't been offered a contract in either the NHL or AHL.

However, Carolina's goalie injury problems had a ripple effect down to the Chicago Wolves of the AHL and they had brought Tokarski in on a PTO where he posted a 0.933 save percentage in five games.

Tokarski is a veteran of 80 NHL games and 428 AHL games and has played for a plethora of different organizations.

According to Brind'Amour, Kochetkov is not injured, but I would have to imagine this is also a bit of a message to the young Russian who currently has a 0.895 save percentage and has seen a handful of bad goals against as of late.

Competition brings out the best in pro athletes so if Tokarski can perform well, it may help to elevate Kochetkov's game who has been the lone guy carrying the load since Frederik Andersen went out with a knee injury.