Carolina Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour issued injury updates to two key players today: Jaccob Slavin and Pyotr Kochetkov. As relayed by team reporter Walt Ruff, Slavin is still “being evaluated” for a lower-body injury, and is currently questionable to travel with the team on its upcoming six-game road trip. Additionally, Kochetkov will not travel due to his own lower-body injury, though they did add the caveat that he may join the team on the road at some point. Finally, Brind’Amour said that waiver addition Brandon Bussi will get to start a game “at some point” on their road trip.
While the full extent of Slavin’s injury is not known at this point, any extended Slavin absence would be a massive loss for Carolina. Slavin is the team’s most important defenseman and is in the eyes of many the league’s premier shutdown defender. He was the team’s number-one defenseman last season and averaged nearly three minutes a night on its penalty kill. Meanwhile the loss of Kochetkov is also notable, though the Hurricanes are more well-equipped to handle his absence. They already have experienced veteran Frederik Andersen on their roster, and Bussi’s resume from the AHL suggests he very well could be able to handle a backup’s workload while Kochetkov recovers.