Carolina Hurricanes: Battle of the crease
Changes aplenty have been happening in Carolina. With a load of new faces coming to the City of Oaks, the Carolina Hurricanes will have a completely new tandem to stop pucks. Antti Raanta and Frederik Andersen both signed 2-year deals with the Carolina Hurricanes organization. While there’s a lot of questions being asked about these two, there’s a lot of hope being sparked as well.
Carolina’s new netminders both have the question of injuries. Can they stay healthy? We know that if Raanta and Andersen can stay out of the medical rooms at PNC Arena, they can get in constant reps in practice and not be forced to nurse little bumps and bruises, they’re going to be very good. At least that’s what their career stats suggest.
Freddie was the definition of consistency in Toronto for many years. Recording a .918 in each of his first two seasons, and then started slacking with a .917 in year three. He’s the model of consistency. However, a .909 in the COVID shortened season and a .895 this most recent season asks questions of which way he is trending.
Andersen has also been forced to battle injuries during the reason parts of his career. Somewhat due to being overplayed in Toronto, the netminder has suffered wear and tear on his body and hasn’t been able to stop pucks in the same way he used to. That doesn’t mean he can’t be a great goaltender, but it does mean he’ll need a good backup to provide some rest. Enter Antti Raanta.
Carolina’s other new netminder is a question of staying healthy. Antti Raanta has only started more than 30 games in a season once. That year, he recorded a .930 save percentage. His career average is .919. There’s clearly a talented goalie here. However, his.905 this year combined with his difficulty staying in the crease has seen a lot of questions raised about him.
While this has been mostly discussing the goaltenders’ stats and talking about their injury issues, there’s a lot of reasons to be hopeful moving forward, as I said right at the start. With this tandem, there’s potential for great success. There’s also potential for grave disappointment. It really does depend on how well they can avoid the medical team. Staying on the ice will be their biggest challenge.