Carolina Hurricanes: Alex Nedeljkovic Didn’t Come From Out of Nowhere

The Carolina Hurricanes, despite struggling for years to find stability in the crease, have seemingly had the answer to their goaltending woes this entire time; or, at least since 2014. Rookie goaltending phenom Alex Nedeljkovic, despite seemingly coming from out of nowhere to attain tremendous NHL success thus far in his young career, has actually been wildly successful at every single level he’s been deployed in.

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2014, to a Canes fan, seems both so close and yet so, so far in the past. The Carolina Hurricanes of 2014 were a very, very different team than the one that takes the ice and surges after home wins today. The 2013-14 season saw the Canes finish 7th in the Metropolitan Division with 83 points in the standings. Their leading scorer, with 61 points (21g, 40a), was Eric Staal. The leading goalscorer for the Canes that year was Jeff Skinner (33g). The only other 20+ goalscorer on the roster that year was (wait for it), Alexander Semin (who, funnily enough, just received his last paycheck from the Carolina Hurricanes a couple weeks ago).

On the other side of the coin, newcomer to the Canes Anton Khudobin manned the crease alongside Cam Ward; Khudobin’s stats that year were fantastic. Ward’s – a far cry from competent – were the worst he’d turned in thus far as a Carolina Hurricane.

The Canes’ abysmal 2013-14 season would land the Canes the 7th, 37th, 67th, 96th (via Vancouver), 97th, 127th, and 187th overall picks; only one of them would be used on a goaltender.

In the 2nd Round of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft, with the 37th overall pick, the Carolina Hurricanes would select Parma, OH native Alex Nedeljkovic of the Plymouth Whalers in the OHL.

AHL Tenure (2016-2020)

Alex Nedeljkovic would begin to make the transition to the Charlotte Checkers of the AHL in the 2016-17 season.

He’d see 25 games worth of AHL action, where he’d post an uncharacteristic .881 SV%, 3.40 GAA, 8-14-1 win/loss record, and 1 shutout.

Ned would return to the Florida Everblades, where he’d return to form a bit; Ned’s ECHL stats this season were a .903 SV%, 2.97 GAA, and a 6-4-0 win/loss record in 12 gp. He’d play in the ECHL postseason as well, where he’d notch 7 games played alongside a stellar .930 SV% and an equally stellar 1.92 GAA.

Ned would also see his first action in the NHL this season as well, in relief of Cam Ward against the Columbus Blue Jackets on January 17th, 2017.

We’d see Alex Nedeljkovic fully transition to a full-fledged AHL starter role in the 2017-18 season. Ned would lead the Checkers to the playoffs with a .903 SV%, 2.55 GAA, and a 31-12-5 win/loss record in 49 regular season games played. In the playoffs, Ned would register a .919 SV%, a 2.11 GAA, and a 4-4-0 win/loss record in 8 games played.

Alongside his first solid year in the AHL, Nedeljkovic would score a goal against the Hartford Wolfpack on March 10, 2018, cementing his place in AHL history as the 13th goaltender in AHL history to score a goal. He also scored back in his ECHL days, but who’s counting?

The 2018-19 season would see Alex Nedeljkovic transform into a fully-fledged NHL-ready goaltending prospect. Ned would again lead the Checkers to the postseason, this time with a .916 SV%, 2.26 GAA, and a gaudy 34-9-6 win/loss record in 51 regular season games played.

The 2018-19 AHL Playoffs would see Ned reach a whole new level of success, as he’d backtop the Checkers to a Calder Cup Championship win after posting a .916 SV%, 2.34 GAA, and a 10-4-0 win/loss record in 14 postseason games played.

The 2018-19 season would also see Ned win the Aldege ‘Baz’ Bastien Award for top goaltender in the AHL.

Needless to say, Alex Nedeljkovic was (in my opinion) ready to make the jump to the NHL at the conclusion of the 2018-19 season, but wouldn’t quite get there as the Canes had Petr Mrazek and James Reimer ahead of him on the depth chart going into the 2019-20 NHL Season.

Ned would be called up to the NHL, alongside fellow Checkers goaltender Anton Forsberg, and would play 4 games in the NHL during the 2019-20 season as both Petr Mrazek and James Reimer would become injured after the now legendary ‘David Ayres’ game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Ned’s stats were nothing special in that time frame (.887 SV%, 3.05 GAA, 1-2-1 win/loss record), and he’d be sent back to the AHL with Forsberg to complete the season. That is, until COVID paused both the AHL and the NHL seasons indefinitely.

Present Day

This season, NHL teams were told they must carry three goaltenders between their NHL roster and the newly implemented ‘taxi squads’ that were intended to give teams flexibility in having a full team of players in the event of a localized COVID outbreak amongst the teams.

Earlier this season, Alex Nedeljkovic was required to clear waivers in order to be placed on the taxi squad, as Mrazek and Reimer were still ahead of him on the depth chart.

This seemed to signal the end of the road for Ned here in Carolina; despite being tremendously successful at every level he’d been deployed in up to that point, the Carolina Hurricanes waived him and left him exposed for any team in the NHL to claim, completely free of charge.

We all know what happened next. 30 other NHL teams passed on a player that would, in a few weeks time, be one of the most coveted goaltending prospects in the league.

Petr Mrazek would go down with injury early on in the season after having arguably his hottest start as an NHL goaltender, leaving the Canes to rely on veteran netminder James Reimer, and greenhorn Alex Nedeljkovic in the meantime.

Ned would quickly surpass not only James Reimer in skill and performance, but a vast majority of other goaltenders in the NHL, both veteran and rookie alike.

Mrazek would eventually come back from injury, at which point the Canes determined they’d be fine relying on a three-goalie system. Nedeljkovic kept on performing and quickly proved that he not only deserved to be in the NHL full-time, but he even challenged Mrazek for the starter position and won. 

Ned’s accolades this season so far include the NHL Rookie of the Month Award for games played in March 2021.

At the time of writing this article, the Carolina Hurricanes have just dropped Game 1 of the 2nd Round of the 2021 NHL Stanley Cup playoffs against the defending Stanley Cup Champions. One of the biggest reasons the Canes have made it this far in the postseason is because of Alex Nedeljkovic’s continued stellar play.

Ned’s stats (as of the writing of this article) stand at .932 SV%, 1.90 GAA, a 15-5-3 win/loss record, and 3 shutouts in 23 regular season games played. As for this year’s playoffs, Ned is currently sitting at a .923 SV%, a 2.20 GAA, 4-3-0 win/loss record, and 1 shutout in 7 postseason games played.

Every single thing about Alex Nedeljkovic’s career up to this point says one thing and one thing only: Alex Nedeljkovic knows how to win, and he knows how to win big. The Canes might be down a game in the 2nd round at this point, but Ned has been very similar situations throughout his entire career. The end results up to this point include medals, championships, individual awards, and more accolades than he can shake his paddle at.

If there’s one thing anyone needs to know about Alex Nedeljkovic, its to never, ever count him out.

He’ll prove you wrong, just like he has everyone else.