Andersen has been sharp in the playoffs before injury
It turns out the Hurricanes weren’t done trying to extend players. Fresh off of the Taylor Hall contract extension, the Hurricanes announced on Saturday that they had reached an agreement on a one year contract extension for goalie Frederik Andersen.
The deal acknowledges that Andersen has had trouble staying healthy during his Hurricanes tenure. The base number is for $2.75 million—a drop from his current $3.4 million per year that he signed back in 2023—however he has the ability to earn another $750,000 to bring it slightly above his current deal thanks to games played incentives. If Andersen play 35 games or more, he’ll earn $250,000. A 40 game or more played season gets him another $250,000. Finally, if the Canes reach the Eastern Conference Finals in 2026 and he plays at least half of the games, he’ll get the additional $250,000.
Andersen has had a good tenure in Carolina but pot marked with several long injury stints. He has missed a large chunk of the last two seasons due to various ailments—blood clots in 2023-24, and knee surgery this year. He had been stellar in his playoff appearances this season—posting three wins, a 1.59 GAA and .936 save percentage. However he took a hard hit during game four of the series against the New Jersey Devils, knocking him out of that game and the series clinching game five.
That injury apparently is not serious enough to keep Andersen out of the net for the upcoming series against the Washington Capitals, however. When the team reported back to the ice for practice on Friday, Andersen was back in net and the starter’s crease. With the series now not starting until Tuesday, there should be little doubt as to who will start on Tuesday night in Washington, DC.
With this obvious injury history, the deal comes as a bit of a surprise at first. However, all one has to do is look at the free agent class this summer and realize that when Andersen is the one topping the list, there weren’t a lot of great options out there for improvement. It doesn’t help that the player the Canes were hoping would take Andersen’s place as the primary goalie—Pyotr Kochetkov—has been inconsistent and is currently in a downward swing since he allowed seven goals to the LA Kings back in March. His last two appearances have been his career in a microcosm—a bad goal or three that will put the team in a bad position, and then all of a sudden nothing can get by him.
This season was the year the Hurricanes were hoping that Kochetkov would show that he would seize the reins and Carolina could go in a different direction. However, he’s still not ready so the Hurricanes chose to go ahead and make sure they had some certainty in net for the start of free agency.
With this move it’s possible the Canes could make a trade for a goalie, with the two years at $2 million per left for Kochetkov as part of a move for any team looking to off load an expensive but quality goalie. General Manager Eric Tulsky can also kick the can down one more season and hope that all Kochetkov needs is one more offseason while exploring younger options to develop in the minor leagues.
The extension also means the Canes are down to seven unrestricted free agents as of July 1: Jack Roslovic, Eric Robinson, Tyson Jost, Dmitry Orlov, Brent Burns, Riley Stilman, and Jesper Fast. Only Skyler Brind’Amour and Domenick Fensore are restricted free agents.
This still leaves the Canes in excellent position for the offseason, as they have approximately $29 million of cap space left and very few holes to fill. Between the cap space and the draft picks picked up from Dallas as part of the Mikko Rantanen deal, there’s room for Tulsky to make some big moves once this season is done.
In the meantime, two big pieces of this season—Hall and Andersen—can attack the playoffs with the knowledge that they will still be in Raleigh as of October, 2025.