When it comes to goaltending in the NHL these days, it is wise for teams to have two goaltenders that are capable of winning games, whether it is in the regular season or the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Just look at what the Stanley Cup Champion Vegas Golden Knights accomplished in winning it this year. They used both Laurent Brossoit and Adin Hill, both of who are not number one goaltenders, to win hockey’s Holy Grail.
Going into free agency, it was unclear as to what the Carolina Hurricanes were going to do when it came to their goaltending. They quickly figured it out on the first day of free agency when they went out and re-signed both of their goaltenders.
The team re-signed starter Frederik Andersen to a two-year deal worth $3.4 million per season while also re-signing their backup, Antti Raanta, to a one-year deal worth $1.5 million. Getting these goaltenders under contract for the combined next three years was extremely smart for a few reasons.
For starters, they are both good goaltenders. When Andersen, 33, is healthy, he is one of the most consistent goaltenders in the league.
A good example of this was his first season in Carolina, which was the 2021-22 season. In that season, Andersen was 35-14-0-3 with a 2.17 goals-against average, a .922 save percentage, and four shutouts.
It would have been interesting to see how he would have played in that year’s playoffs had he not gotten hurt. When the New York Rangers beat them in seven games in the second round, the team was using Raanta and Pyotr Kochetkov as their goaltenders.
Andersen has also posted solid numbers for his career. He is currently 282-125-0-52 with a 2.58 goals-against average, a .915 save percentage, and 24 shutouts.
Raanta, 34, is also a solid goaltender. When Andersen got hurt last season, Raanta came up big for the Hurricanes as he finished the season with a record of 19-3-0-3 with a 2.23 goals-against average, a .910 save percentage, and four shutouts.
Raanta, like Andersen, has been a pretty consistent goaltender throughout his NHL career. He is currently 127-73-0-27 with a 2.43 goals-against average, a .918 save percentage, and 19 shutouts.
Secondly, having two good goaltenders means that one can step up should the other get hurt. This has been the case with Andersen in his first two seasons with the Hurricanes.
When he got hurt at the end of the 2021-22 season, Raanta came in and got his team to within one win of getting to the Eastern Conference Finals. Without Raanta, that probably would not have been possible.
This past season, Raanta was excellent after Andersen got hurt, as can be seen from the numbers above. With him in the net, there was not much of a dropoff in play as Rannta helped his team win plenty of games and provided consistent goaltending.
Lastly, when both of these guys are healthy, they are one of the best goaltending tandems in the league. These past two seasons have shown that both know how to win, and they also know how to step in for each other when one goes down.
The next step for this tandem is to get them back to the Eastern Conference Finals. The Hurricanes have the roster to get it done, so now, the goaltending must stay healthy and step up in order to try and win the second Cup in franchise history.
