The Carolina Hurricanes made a surprise call-up of netminder Spencer Martin this morning without any additional context regarding their current combination of Frederik Andersen and Pyotr Kochetkov. That context has finally come to light with DailyFaceoff’s Frank Seravalli reporting that Andersen sustained an injury in the team’s most recent game against the Seattle Kraken.
Seravalli adds that the injury isn’t supposed to be long-term and isn’t connected to Andersen’s blood cot ailment from last year. The Hurricanes couldn’t ask for better timing if there were to be a short-term injury to a rostered player as their six-game road trip concludes tonight against the Vancouver Canucks. The team returns home this Thursday and won’t have to leave Raleigh again until November 9th.
That should give the Carolina medical staff more than enough time to work with Andersen and make for a quicker recovery. Besides securing a victory against the Canucks this evening it should make for one of the more important organizational goals for the time being.
Despite solid offensive play from Martin Necas and Sebastian Aho, there is a credible argument that Andersen has been the team’s best player to start the 2024-25 campaign. He’s produced a 3-1-0 record through his first four games with a league-leading .941 save percentage and 1.48 goals-against average. That kind of play in the crease would be a boon for any team including a Carolina roster that lost several offensive talents up front this past offseason.