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 Pyotr Kochetkov.
Carolina Hurricanes Offseason Grade: Pyotr Kochetkov
Pyotr Kochetkov saw another season bouncing back and forth between Carolina and the Chicago Wolves in the AHL. Carolina selected Kochetkov in the second round of the 2019 NHL Draft. After some time in the KHL, Kochetkov made the jump to North America in 2021 and helped the Wolves win the Calder Cup. He also had to step in for Carolina for a few regular season games and in the playoffs after Frederik Andersen was out due to injury.
Kochetkov is a fiery, young Russian netminder who uses his athleticism to make saves. He plays with a ton of emotion and is not afraid to get involved when mayhem breaks out. Off the ice, he seems to generally have a smile on his face. This is true even if Andrei Svechnikov is translating his press interviews because of his broken but improving English. Due to his promise as the Hurricanes potential goalie of the future, and his electric personality, Kochetkov has become a fan favorite in Carolina.
Pyotr Kochetkov’s Regular Season
This regular season saw Kochetkov play 24 games for Carolina. In only his second season with the Hurricanes, he had a 2.44 GAA and a .909 SV%. He notably had a very good stretch in December when Andersen was out due to injury where he looked like he may take the reins as the starting goalie. He had back-to-back shutouts and went 7-0-1 with a 1.63 GAA and .939 SV%. This earned him rookie of the month for December.
However, he cooled off and the crease was more evenly split between Kochetkov and Antti Raanta until Andersen returned. This season overall was fairly evenly split between Kochetkov, Andersen and Raanta with them having 24, 27 and 34 games played respectively. Kochetkov spent the end of the season mostly down with Chicago, but this doesn’t mean he played poorly.
He led all Carolina goalies in goals saved above expected at 4.9 and goals against. Notably, he had four shutouts this year which was tied for third in the NHL with a handful of other goalies. One of them included fellow Hurricane Raanta. In fact, in most statistical categories, Kochetkov and Raanta were very close this season. Considering how Carolina fared in the regular season, the play of all of their goalies, including Kochetkov, was a big factor. Kochetkov showed his style based on athleticism (which is very different from Andersen) and made some highlight reel saves. But he also had some improvement in his rebound control and positioning. In his first true regular season in the NHL, Kochetkov played pretty well.
Pyotr Kochetkov’s Playoffs
In all honesty, Kochetkov’s playoff performance for the Hurricanes should probably not be considered in this Carolina Hurricanes offseason grade. While he sat on the bench behind Raanta for many games, he only got on the ice for part of game three against the New Jersey Devils. As the Hurricanes took a whopping eight to four loss, Kochetkov let in four goals and had a .818 SV% in Raanta’s relief. It was a very strange game that included the Hurricanes scoring three shorthanded goals but still losing by four. The whole team was off, and you can’t really put that one on Kochetkov.
The Verdict
As a very reliable number three option for Carolina this season, Kochetkov played pretty well. As mentioned above, he split time almost evenly with the veteran goalies. His passion for the game and desire to win carried through in almost every game he played. Sometimes, comparing skewed sample sizes can in fact skew statistics. But in this case, he was right there with Raanta and Andersen in games played in the regular season. And for moments like in December, he looked like he could take over. Carolina would love to see him stretch out that play shown in December over a larger stretch, and it very well may happen soon.
The Hurricanes took a bet on Kochetkov as their goalie of the future by signing him to a four-year extension in November of 2022. With both Raanta and Andersen needing new deals this summer, Kochetkov could see himself as the team’s starting goalie, or a very active backup. It will be interesting to see how Carolina handles the goalie situation. Their window to win is now but if they end up letting both or even one of Raanta or Andersen walk, it could show how they feel about Kochetkov. Well, that and possibly the cost depending on what another team may give one of those goalies. With that said, Kochetkov had a good rookie season this year and will likely see his role expanded for Carolina coming soon.
Grade: B+
Main Photo: Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports
