Antti Raanta to AHL; What’s Next for Hurricanes Goaltending?

Raanta woke up Monday morning as a member of the American Hockey League’s Chicago Wolves. A move that wasn’t guaranteed. His movement to the AHL creates a lot of new and more urgent questions about the Hurricanes’ depth between the pipes.

Where does the Hurricanes’ front office go from here? Could there be a trade in the works? Does the organization still have confidence in who they have?

Chaos in Carolina

Almost nothing has gone according to plan for the Hurricanes to start this season. As head coach Rod Brind’Amour put the pieces of the puzzle together in the preseason it became clear something was missing.

While I feel the need to stress that Raanta is not to blame for the majority of the Hurricanes’ struggles so far this season, I will agree that it’s clear his confidence isn’t there and he has struggled to find a steady baseline throughout his 14 games this season.

Brind’Amour spoke about Raanta’s mental state after the team’s overtime loss to the Nashville Predators on Friday night, Dec. 15. “You can struggle as a forward or as a defenseman and nobody even knows. [The media] don’t even talk about it that much. You’ve got other guys to cover it up. It’s just a hard position to play.”

Raanta is in his third season as a member of the Hurricanes. In the offseason, he re-signed with the team on a one-year contract worth $1.5 million. In his time with the organization, he has fought his way to a 40-13-8 record, 2.59 goals-against average (GAA), and a .901 save percentage (SV%). In 2021-22 he was awarded the William M. Jennings Trophy for allowing the fewest goals against in the regular season alongside Frederik Andersen.

Antti Raanta Placed on Waivers

Twenty-four hours later Raanta went unclaimed by one of the NHL’s other 31 clubs, opening a 30-day window to reassign him to the AHL.

“We still believe in the guy,” Hurricanes GM Don Waddell said while appearing on the team’s radio pregame show, The Storm Watch on 99.9 FM in Raleigh. “He’s been through a little of a rough patch here. So we thought the best thing to do was put him on waivers. Once he cleared I met with him.”

“We were going to assign him to Chicago,” Waddell continued. “It might be two games. It might be two weeks. We have to figure out a way to get his game back. He’s played well for us over the years. Right now I think he’s fighting it a little more. And it’s not his abilities. It’s confidence. When you’re going through a stretch like this, we thought as an organization it would be better to get him some games.”

Raanta wouldn’t be the first NHL goalie sent down this season in hopes of improving their confidence. The Edmonton Oilers’ Jack Campbell has spent the past month with his AHL club after a rocky start to the season. There’s also something interesting about his re-assignment to the Hurricanes’ former AHL affiliate. Seems like another sign of a mending relationship.

Storm Watch host Adam Gold was able to get Waddell to pull the curtain back and reveal Raanta’s mental journey over the last 32ish hours.

“When I talked to him, he honestly said that last night he wasn’t sure what he would do,” Waddell said on the pregame show. “He woke up this morning and decided he didn’t want to go out this way. You know he is a proud athlete who wants to have an opportunity to bounce back.”

A large number of goalies with Rannta’s resume would refuse to play in a league below the talent level of the NHL. In fact, the Hurricanes front office was reminded of that when they elected not to sign a player on a professional try-out (PTO) last month who refused to play for an AHL team.

“To me, that’s a great answer. I love to hear it,” Waddell said about Raanta’s choice to play in the AHL. “We know he has the ability. There is no question about that – it’s just goalie is a hard position. And the team hasn’t played great in front of him. So let us make sure we don’t let them off the hook here.”

Yaniv Perets Called Up

With Andersen out with a blood clotting issue, you may be asking who’s going to fill Raanta’s skates with the Hurricanes. Introducing Hurricanes goalie prospect Yaniv Perets from the Norfolk Admirals of the ECHL.

Perets signed a two-year, entry-level contract after winning the NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey National Championship in April.

“Yaniv was a crucial part of Quinnipiac’s run to the national championship this season, and he has been an elite goaltender for his entire collegiate career,” Hurricanes GM Don Waddel said in a statement. “He is a proven winner, and we look forward to seeing him develop in the crease.”

I was able to speak to Perets when he was in Morrisville this summer for development camp at Invisalign Arena. There are a couple of comments from him that I thought were worth sharing.

“I always have confidence in myself no matter where I am,” Perets said in the Hurricanes locker room. “I know it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. Try to keep going one day at a time. Keep digging, you know. But I think the most important thing is competing as hard as you can every single day and always believing in yourself. There are tons of great goalies out there. You just have to worry about yourself and keep a chip on your shoulder.”

It seems impossible that Perets didn’t have offers from other NHL teams after winning the national championship. This leads me to ask why Perets would sign with Carolina when they already had three NHL-caliber goalies. Did he come to Carolina to grow into a role or did he have faith in his own abilities to leave the coaches with no choice?

“I’m just taking it one day at a time,” Perets responded. “I think no matter where you go, no matter what organization you play for there is going to be good goalies. You’re not just competing against the goalies in your organization, you’re competing with the goalies all around the league. I mean it’s the NHL. Guys are here, guys want to win.”

Perets will probably get his first NHL start against the Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens are the weakest opponent in the next set of back-to-back games. While it sounds like he’ll be with the Hurricanes for at least a bit, don’t expect to see him in game action a whole lot.

Pyotr Kochetkov In The Starter’s Crease

24-year-old Pytor Kochetkov will be cemented in Carolina’s starting crease for the foreseeable future. With only 42 NHL games under his belt, he’ll be the veteran of the two goalies left on the Hurricanes’ active roster. It will be an easy decision to start him until next week’s back-to-back games against the Predators and Canadiens.

Kochetkov has grown in a multitude of ways since coming to North America less than two years ago. In that time he’s won a Calder Cup as a member of the Chicago Wolves, stepped into the blue paint at crucial points for the Hurricanes, and entertained fans no matter where he played.

Yet, this stretch of the regular season is going to be the most important challenge that Kochetkov has faced. If he’s able to prove himself to be a stable NHL starter, he’ll be handed the role when Andersen’s current deal expires.

Not to sound over dramatic, but this is a put-up or shut-up moment for the Russian netminder. Kochetkov can create as many spectacles on the ice as he wants. If they don’t come hand-in-hand with winning it won’t matter. The responsibility laid on his shoulders with Raanta and Andersen out of the picture might be a lot. Although, if he’s able to carry the load he’ll never have to worry about the AHL again.

Frederik Andersen’s Blood Clot Timeline

For over a month, Hurricanes fans have had questions about Andersen’s progress. Late last week Brind’Amour said, “It’s one of those things that it’s month-to-month to get rechecked and to see if things are looking good” to local media in Raleigh. His comments to the press didn’t shed much light on the situation.

Since the Hurricanes announced Andersen’s diagnosis, updates on his status have been few and far between. Brind’Amour’s update last week was the first real news to come out about Andersen since the team’s original statement.

Last night when appearing on Storm Watch, Waddell provided a few more crucial updates on Andersen. “I think he’s going to be on the ice really soon,” he said. “He’s been cleared to work out in full. He got cleared this week and he’s been to the gym. I think over the next week to 10 days he’ll be hitting the ice more.”

It’s welcome news for Hurricanes fans who have been forced to deal with the reality of an uncertain recovery timeline. Waddell also mentioned in the interview that he expected Andersen to be back in “a month or so.”

Impending Hurricanes Trade?

Now that the train has derailed and the Hurricanes front office is doing their best to clean up the mess, a lot of fans have speculated about an impending trade for a goalie.

When asked by Adam Gold pregame about what the team’s front office has done to find a netminder, Waddell gave a simple answer. “It’s my job to talk to every team that has goalies available. And we have certainly done that. Not just over the last few days but over the last couple of weeks.”

Armchair GMs should be happy to hear that the team has been making calls on available goalies for at least the last couple of weeks. Most of them are still upset that nothing has already happened, a subject Waddell addressed with Adam Gold.

“We were willing to do something, but we really believe in [Andersen and Kochetkov] long term. So, the one thing we didn’t want to do is put ourselves in a pickle for something moving forward after this year.”

Kochetkov is playing in the first year of a four-year contract signed last season, while Andersen’s current contract expires at the end of next season. In the eyes of the Hurricanes front office, there’s no need to look for a long-term solution to a short-term problem. If you go out and trade for a goalie with term what are you going to do with them next year? Surely you can’t expect to send Kochetkov back down to the AHL after this.

Reading between the lines tells us that there is no blockbuster goalie trade in the works for the Hurricanes. Of course, that could change at any moment. Waddell’s words might sound like he’s closing the door on a trade but in reality, it’s just returning to its normal ajared position.

“We continue to talk though,” Waddell said. “I’ve said it all along, it’s nothing against the guys we have. If we can upgrade that position we’ve got to continue to look at it and continue to talk to teams.”

What’s Next?

If I am reading the tea leaves right, the Hurricanes are not actively pushing for an upgrade in net. The team has faith in Kochetkov to lead the way in the short term with assistance from Perets. In the slightly longer term, they also expect Andersen to make a full recovery and return to the team before the All-Star Break in February. There is also some faith in Raanta to find his mojo in the AHL and return to his stall in the Hurricanes dressing room.

It fits the front office’s thinking to shy away from gambling with future capital to fix a problem that time will solve. Expecting the Hurricanes to change their way of doing business at this moment is unrealistic. Once the front office makes a decision they don’t often waver.