While the Carolina Hurricanes season ended in disappointment, the team had a lot to be proud of. Now in the offseason, tough decisions will be made, and management will work to put the team in a place to succeed next season. In the meantime, we will take a look back at individual players’ seasons and see how they did. For the Carolina Hurricanes offseason grades, today we look at Frederik Andersen.
Carolina Hurricanes Offseason Grade: Frederik Andersen
Originally drafted by the Carolina Hurricanes in the seventh round of the 2010 NHL Draft, Frederik Andersen took a long path, including re-entering the Draft, to finally sign with Carolina in 2021. The 6′ 3″ Danish has had a pretty solid career with the Anaheim Ducks, Toronto Maple Leafs and Carolina. He won the William M. Jennings Trophy twice for the NHL’s tandem of goalies allowing the least goals in a season and is a two-time all-star. Andersen is a big goalie who utilizes his size and positioning to cut down angles and make saves. Very little seems to rattle Andersen and his cool presence is generally felt on the ice. Over his career, he has a 2.58 GAA and a .915 SV%.
However, Andersen has had his fair share of unfortunate injury luck. While his numbers have been good, Andersen is still searching for the elusive Stanley Cup. Carolina has provided Andersen with a good shot over his two-year contract with them, while Andersen has provided Carolina with solid goaltending. Some of Andersen’s injury troubles have followed him to Carolina, but he has still been that stable, calm goalie between the pipes.
Frederik Andersen‘s Regular Season
Andersen, in conjunction with Antti Raanta, provided Carolina with very solid goaltending this season. While Carolina’s strong defence may skew the goalie stats, Andersen still stood tall. He didn’t necessarily put up Vezina caliber numbers but seemed to be solid when needed. Sometimes, you would see Andersen make a mental mistake and let in an easy one, but almost always after he would shut the door and play mentally strong.
With that said, during the regular season there was never really a true number one goalie for much of an extended period of time. Andersen did play the most games of Carolina’s three goalies but it was almost an equal split amongs Andersen, Raanta and Pyotr Kochetkov. The goalie by committee approach seemed to work best for Carolina. Even though Carolina’s style of play and strong defence is a big reason they were second in the league in goals against, strong goaltending was also a big factor.
Some of the goalie by committee approach pulling the clear starting tag from Andersen could have been due to him missing the middle of the season. After missing the playoffs last year with an injury, he started the season ready to go only to leave again with an injury in November. After a few months, Andersen came back in January and was able to go the rest of the season and into the playoffs. Over the regular season this year, Andersen had a 2.48 GAA and a .903 SV%. He did however have a -3.5 goals saved above expected and his stats were an overall dip from last year. With one shutout to his name, he led the Hurricanes with 21 wins while having 11 losses and one overtime loss.
Frederik Andersen’s Playoffs
Carolina’s start to the playoffs presented a pretty hard question for head coach Rod Brind’Amour. Which goalie would start? Andersen was the best on pure skill, but Raanta was playing the best down the final stretch of the year. Brind’Amour decided to start Raanta against the New York Islanders. It turned out this was largely due to an illness to Andersen. But when you have multiple goalies you can rely on, why push it if one is hurt or sick?
Andersen did suit up for Carolina in game six agains the Islanders and played very well in their two to one victory. Following that game, Andersen would man the net for most of the remaining games of the playoffs. Raanta stepped in a few games too, but it predominantly Andersen. And overall, he was outstanding.
Andersen went five and three with a 1.83 GAA and .927 SV%. He faced 245 shots and only let in 18. He was second for all goalies playing at least two games in the playoffs in GAA and fourth in goals saved above expected. Ultimately, he played extremely well in the playoffs for Carolina. Even when they were swept by the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference Finals, Andersen was great. Had it not been for Sergei Bobrovsky‘s borderline god-like performance, Andersen’s play very well may had been more than enough to propel Carolina to the Stanley Cup Finals.
For a team that pushes their defence up into the offensvie play, having a cool, calm and steady goaltender like Andersen paid off in the playoffs. Carolina plays a heavy shot suppressing defence which can be hard on goalies because they don’t see as much rubber. But even when that was the case, Andersen seemed to be ready for the other team’s push.
The Verdict
Overall, this was another solid season for Frederik Andersen. He played his style and showed why he is still a great goalie. While his season wasn’t perfect, and injuries still played a factor, he played in a way that seemed to work very well for Carolina. If you are going to use a goalie by committee approach, it takes the goalies being on board just as much as their individual on-ice skills. Andersen seemed to show no issues with splitting time on or off the ice. His playoff performance was really the most impressive as that was the time when he sort of grabbed the reins and took over the number one spot. Raanta had also been very good, but Andersen showed why in the rotation he was still the 1A goalie.
Like many other Hurricanes players, Andersen’s contract is up after this season. Carolina would ideally like to keep him, and he expressed interest in staying as well. But Andersen has shown he can be a decent starter and the weak free agent market might drive his price up. It will be an interesting summer for Carolina and Andersen and one to certainly keep an eye on. For this Carolina Hurricanes offseason grade, however, Andersen seemed to do pretty much as expected with a slight bump in the playoffs.
Grade: B
Main Photo: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
