Carolina Hurricanes goalie Pyotr Kochetkov is expected to miss the rest of the season after surgery to address a lower-body injury, coach Rod Brind’Amour said Monday.
Kochetkov, 26, was injured during the preseason and started the season on injured reserve. Projected to once again share goaltending duties with Frederik Andersen, Kochetkov has been limited to nine games this season, going 6-2-0 with an .899 save percentage and 2.33 goals-against average.
Kochetkov was expected to start against the New York Rangers on Monday, but Brind’Amour instead said his goaltender was likely done for the season.
“He’s decided to have surgery, so he’s probably going to be out for the year,” Brind’Amour said, according to the Hurricanes’ website. “He didn’t feel right all year. He’s been playing great; that’s the hard part. He was kind of fighting through it, but doesn’t want to continue that way, so we’ll get it fixed and go from there.”
Kochetkov, in his fifth NHL season, shared the crease with Andersen in his previous two seasons and has appeared in 10 career postseason games for the Hurricanes.
Carolina is ranked 24th in the NHL in team save percentage (.884) despite being 10th in team goals-against average (2.86).
Andersen, 36, has struggled this season with a 5-8-2 record and .869 save percentage. But that has been counterbalanced by the emergence of 27-year-old Brandon Bussi, a former minor league goalie for the Boston Bruins who has gone 12-1-1 with a .912 save percentage in his first 14 games with Carolina.
It was Kochetkov’s injury earlier this season that opened the door for Bussi, whom the Hurricanes claimed on waivers from the Florida Panthers on Oct. 5. Bussi had signed with the Stanley Cup champions as a free agent in July.
The Hurricanes are 23-11-3 (.662 points percentage), the top team in both the Metro Division and Eastern Conference.
