They say two’s company and three’s a crowd. When it comes to the Carolina Hurricanes’ crease, it’s a nice problem to have. With Frederik Andersen out with an injury for the last six-plus weeks, rookie Pyotr Kochetkov has taken charge of Carolina’s net.
After beating the Devils 4-1 Tuesday night to take over first place in the Metropolitan Division, the Hurricanes have at least one point in 12 consecutive games. Kochetkov, since being recalled Nov. 8, is 10-1-4 with a .928 save percentage and 1.94 goals-against average.
With Andersen back on the ice practicing, one would think a difficult decision is coming.
“Not too hard, to be honest,” coach Rod Brind’Amour said with a grin after the win over New Jersey.
Kochetkov was called into duty late last season when Andersen was injured and showed flashes of being Carolina’s future goaltender despite having just a couple months of experience in North America.
The plan this season was for Andersen and Antti Raanta — last year’s Jennings Trophy winners, both in the final year of their contracts — to man the nets while Kochetkov honed his craft with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves.
Fate intervened, and Kochetkov has gone from “goalie of the future” to “goalie of the present.”
“I don’t know if I’m surprised,” Brind’Amour said last week. “I didn’t have any idea what we were getting. It’s just one of those things sometimes. It’s a pleasant surprise because you weren’t counting on it.”
Kochetkov came to North America on Feb. 15 following his KHL season and two months later was recalled to Carolina when Andersen was injured. He won all three of his regular-season starts and played in four playoff games, then returned to Chicago and helped the Wolves win the Calder Cup.
“At this time last year, he wasn’t in the discussion,” Brind’Amour said. “And then because we had our guys go down, and we all remember that. It was just we had no choice.”
It seems like the Hurricanes have no choice again — Kochetkov has been too good to send back down once everyone is healthy.
Another win for Pyotr the Great 👑 pic.twitter.com/XR1lOokrow
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) December 21, 2022
And the best might be yet to come.
“I still think we’re scratching the surface with him,” Hurricanes goalie coach Paul Schonfelder told The Athletic. “I think he’s got a lot more in the bag.”
Andersen is a big goaltender who uses his size to protect the crease, while Raanta is smaller and more nimble. Kochetkov combines both — he is 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds but also extremely athletic. He’s also anything but a cookie-cutter goalie.
“That’s kind of the new style Russian goaltender,” Hurricanes forward Derek Stepan said. “They kind of play different than your typical North American goalie. It’s drop 100 pucks and save it. I don’t care how you do it, just save it.”
Russian goalies have risen to the top of the NHL in recent years. From Igor Shesterkin and Ilya Sorokin on each side of the Battle of New York to Alexander Georgiev in Colorado and Andrei Vasilevski with the Lightning, more and more teams are relying on Russians to carry the load in net.
Schonfelder said there’s “100 percent” a reason for the Russian renaissance in goal — athleticism.
“They don’t have a coach that’s breathing structure down their throat, so they have to figure it out on their own,” he said of young Russian goalies. “They learn to use their athleticism a lot more. They don’t look as structured and as robotic at a young age.”
Schonfelder compared that to kids in North America who often have goalie coaches before they’re 10 years old and are learning how to play the position rather than just finding a way to keep the puck from getting behind them.
“You see with the Russian kids, they develop a stronger athletic base at a younger age,” Schonfelder added. “Where a lot of the kids in North America, you see that they develop the structure part first. And then as they get older, you try to get them to be a little bit more athletic, and that’s really hard to do.
“It’s easier to take a kid that’s athletic and add structure than it is to take a goalie with structure and try to get them to play more athletic, and that’s all the Russian goalies in the league. They all have that dynamic athletic ability, and I think they develop that at a young age just because of the way they were brought up.”
One can already see how the Hurricanes have encouraged Kochetkov’s athleticism while smoothing out some of the rough edges in his game.
Last season, his athleticism was on full display, Kochetkov was quick to challenge shooters and rely on his reflexes to do the heavy lifting.
After just 10 months in North America, Kochetkov has been taught more structure by Schonfelder and Hurricanes goaltender development coach Jason Muzzatti, allowing the 23-year-old to “let the game come to him.”
“For Kooch, that athleticism is never going to go away,” Schonfelder said. “That’s ingrained in him. He’s not going to lose that. And I promote that in his game. Even the poke checks and stuff like that, you don’t see a lot of guys around the league poke-checking.
“It’s a lost art, but he’s good with a stick. He did it at a young age, and I’m not going to discourage him from doing it because it’s effective.”
😱 PYOTR KOCHETKOV 😱
The rare but beautiful flying poke check… executed to perfection. 🤌 pic.twitter.com/Nrz22W1VOe
— NHL (@NHL) November 11, 2022
Carolina defenseman Brady Skjei was with the Rangers when Shesterkin was coming through their system and said Kochetkov’s emergence is reminiscent of how last season’s Vezina Trophy winner arrived in the Big Apple.
“We heard about Shesty through like the KHL and him playing and setting records over there,” Skjei said. “So we knew he was solid, and he obviously just came in and has been really good. So, it’s similar — if he can be like Shesty, obviously that’d be great.”
Carolina’s front office certainly sees a bright future for Kochetkov — he was signed to a four-year, $8 million contract extension on Nov. 23, a deal that a month later already looks like an unreal bargain.
His teammates are also all aboard the Kochetkov train.
“He’s passionate and vibrant out there,” defenseman Jaccob Slavin said. “He has a lot of emotion.”
That emotion has trickled down to fans, who have started to yell “Kooch!” whenever the young goalie makes a stop, and it seems like regardless of the game — whether it’s his 37-save performance against the Devils or a 16-save shutout against the Islanders this month — he is ready for whatever the league throws at him.
“I think he’s just competitive,” Brind’Amour said. “I love it. I mean, he’s fiery, definitely passionate about what he’s doing.”
And the language barrier — Kochetkov, who has a limited grasp of English, has spoken to the media twice over the past two seasons, with countryman Andrei Svechnikov serving as translator — means even the coach isn’t totally sure what’s going on in his rookie season. goalie’s head.
“I have no idea,” Brind’Amour said when asked if the 2019 second-round pick is mature for his age. “His play is — he looks real calm in there. I don’t know if that’s just because he’s young and doesn’t know any better or if he’s calm, cool and collected.
“I mean, I don’t know. It doesn’t really matter, right? Just stop the puck, and that’s what he’s been doing.”
Kochetkov’s English has slowly improved. After the Devils win, he crashed Slavin’s postgame bench interview and offered a few words to the PNC Arena crowd.
“Thank you fans!”
Protect Pyotr at all costs@HannaRaeYates pic.twitter.com/71hAMcKJg1
— Bally Sports: Canes (@CanesOnBally) December 21, 2022
Chances are, we’ll be hearing a lot more from Kochetkov — both on the ice and, eventually, in the locker room.
“He looks like he’s been around forever,” Brind’Amour said. “He’s very poised in there. And I guess that’s probably it.
“It feels like he belongs.”
(Photo of Pyotr Kochetkov: James Guillory / USA Today)
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