Hurricanes blame injured Frederik Andersen for elimination

The Carolina Hurricanes managed to get to the second round, and unfortunately lost in seven games, with backup goalie Antti Raanta in between the pipes, and sometimes third netminder Pyotr Kochetkov taking over.

However, with the Canes still digesting the elimination at the hands of the New York Rangers, there is a feeling that number one but injured goalie Frederik Andersen could have returned in the postseason to help his team. This is how The Athletic’s Sara Civian puts it:

“There’s a sense that some in the Canes organization wish Andersen would have pushed through and played, while others sympathized with the complexity of a goaltender injury on such a big body.”

Civian is clear about the fact that Andersen was injured and the complexity of his recover was constantly being re-evaluated during the playoff run.

However, what does it mean moving forward, not only for the Canes who will need to make roster changes for 2022-23, but also for Andersen?

“Regardless, the Canes need to make sure Andersen is in a position to succeed next season and that they’ve exhausted every resource in understanding what happened and how to help. They also need to come to terms with the fact that Andersen might not play through an injury. If they don’t feel confident in him as their No. 1 at that point, they need to cut their losses and move on.”

The Hurricanes need to focus on re-signing many of their free agents with close to $20 million in cap room to make it happen. The Hurricanes have four players who will be restricted free agents: Martin Necas, Tony DeAngelo, Ethan Bear and Steven Lorentz, along with six players headed to unrestricted free agency in Vincent Trocheck, Nino Niederreiter, Max Domi, Ian Cole, Brendan Smith and Derek Stepan .

This will need to be figured out before looking at the situation in net. Raanta sustained a brutal injury in Game 7 against the Rangers and wouldn’t have been able to play for at least a little while had the Canes advanced.

If the Canes cannot accept that Andersen won’t push through an injury to be on the ice, they might feel the need to trust a younger goalie to get some insurance in between the pipes. It might depend on who in front office is saying Andersen should have pushed through the injury this postseason…