For a position that has long been treated like a soft spot, the Hurricanes’ goaltending turned into one of the defining stories of 2025-26. The group didn’t post a pretty save percentage, and that was nothing new. But Carolina kept winning, kept goals off the board, and got exactly what it needed from the last line of defense.
Pyotr Kochetkov’s season never really got rolling until November 4, when he finally returned from a lower-body injury and blanked the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. That debut came after a delay that stretched from a week to a month, but injuries kept hanging over him.
Kochetkov ended up making only nine appearances before hip surgery in mid-December. He finished 6-2-0 with a .899 save percentage and a 2.33 GAA, and at first it looked like that would be the end of his year.
It wasn’t. He got healthy enough to return at the end of the regular season, and he would have played in the finale if not for a paperwork issue.
By the time the playoffs arrived, he was the team’s No. 3 goalie because his only game action during rehab came in the AHL. Then Frederik Andersen’s injury in the Stanley Cup Final bumped Kochetkov into the backup role, which automatically put his name on the Stanley Cup even though he didn’t meet the games-played requirement.
Final Grade: C+
Andersen’s regular season was a strange one. He played 35 games, his most since his first season in Raleigh, but it was also the worst regular season of his career.
He did open by helping the Canes win five of his first eight starts, and one of those early highlights was a 44-save shootout win over Colorado. But injuries and uneven play dragged him into a nearly two-month stretch without a win, during which he went 0-7-2 with a .840 save percentage.
He steadied himself late, going 11-4-3 over his final 18 starts, and finished 16-14-5 with a 3.05 GAA and a .874 save percentage.
Then the playoffs changed everything. Andersen looked like a different goalie once the postseason began, allowing five goals in each of the first two series as Carolina rolled to a pair of sweeps.
After a rough Game 1 against Montreal, he settled right back into form and won four straight. Vegas finally got to him in the Stanley Cup Final, and an injury ended his season in Game 3.
His postseason line finished at 13-2 with a 1.89 GAA, a .910 save percentage, and three shutouts. Andersen has since signed a one-year deal with the Edmonton Oilers on July 1, but the run he carried for Carolina will be remembered for a long time.
Brandon Bussi’s season was the kind of story nobody could have written in advance. He was supposed to start in Charlotte after years in Boston’s system, but a waiver claim sent him to Raleigh, another claim made him the Wolves’ likely starter, and then an injury pushed him onto the Opening Night roster in a matter of days.
He made his NHL debut in San Jose on October 14 and stopped 16 of 17 shots for his first win. From there, he kept piling up milestones.
Bussi became the quickest goalie to 10 wins, getting there in 11 games, and he won the most games through 25 starts with 21. He also stacked up plenty of team history along the way.
The Olympic break may have been the one rough patch in an otherwise dream season. Bussi went 8-3-1 after the pause, but the wins weren’t as clean, and his save percentage and GAA took a hit.
Even so, he finished his first NHL season tied for fourth in the league with 31 wins and sixth in GAA at 2.46. That performance earned him a three-year extension and Team MVP honors.
When the playoffs came, Andersen held the starter’s job and didn’t give it up. Bussi stayed ready, which was nothing new for him.
His moment arrived in the third period of Game 3 against Vegas, and he made the most of it. Even after the 2OT loss in that game, he started the next three and won all of them, then shut out Vegas in Game 6 to help deliver the Stanley Cup.
In Other News...
How One Outsider Crashed The Hurricanes Stanley Cup Celebration
A lifelong New York Islanders fan from Long Island found himself in the middle of Carolinas Stanley Cup celebration in Las Vegas, and for a stretch it looked as if he belonged there. Andrew Metelitz managed to join the Hurricanes on-ice scene after the final, spending about 20 minutes with players, coaches and family members, snapping photos and soaking in the kind of moment most fans only dream about.
Metelitzs night did not end when the ice was cleared, either. He later turned up at the teams parade and after party, staying close enough to celebrate with the champions as the festivities rolled on. For the Hurricanes, it was one more odd and memorable footnote to a title run that already had plenty of them. [Read more 🡒]