Pyotr Kochetkov is back in the AHL with the Chicago Wolves.
The Carolina Hurricanes activated the 26-year-old goaltender from injured reserve Friday and sent him to Chicago on a conditioning assignment. A lower-body injury has kept him out of action this season. The Wolves host the Toronto Marlies on Saturday night (8 p.m. ET) and Sunday afternoon (4 p.m. ET). Both games can be seen on FloHockey.
Kochetkov won the Calder Cup with the Wolves in 2022 when went 5-1 | 1.65 | .950 that postseason. The 2019 second-round pick had arrived in North America midway through that 2021-22 regular season after 23 games in the KHL with Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod. He split the 2022-23 campaign between Carolina and Chicago. After a three-game run with the Syracuse Crunch in 2023-24 when the Hurricanes did not have their own AHL affiliate, he stuck with Carolina full-time.
2025 Toronto Marlies vs Chicago Wolves
Last season he went 27-16-3 | 2.60 | .898 while playing 47 games for the Hurricanes. Carolina signed him to a four-year contract extension in November 2022 that will take him through next season.
The Wolves stand to benefit from Kochetkov’s AHL stint, which is allowed to last up to two weeks. Carolina has dealt with goaltending upheaval on its organizational depth chart coming out of training camp, and that situation has impacted the Wolves as well. Carolina lost Cayden Primeau, someone who could have been a premier number-one netminder for the Wolves, on waivers to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Oct. 6. Losing Primeau meant that the Wolves have gone with an Amir Miftakhov-Nikita Quapp tandem instead.
Chicago is off to a 3-2-1-0 start, but head coach Cam Abbott pulled Quapp after four first-period goals in an eventual 6-1 home loss to the Rockford IceHogs this past Tuesday. After that mop-up duty against Rockford, Miftakhov surrendered four goals to the Milwaukee Admirals in a start the next night. Miftakhov is 2-1-0 | 3.27 | .878 in four appearances while Quapp has gone 1-1-1 | 4.22 | .896. Miftakhov signed with Carolina as a free agent in the offseason after a strong KHL season with AK Bars Kazan, but he had not played in the AHL since 2021-22. Quapp only had 34 games of DEL experience before coming to North America this season.
Kochetkov’s assignment allows for plenty of potential playing time. After this weekend’s slate, the Wolves will go through a stretch of four games in seven days before his conditioning period expires.
However, his eventual return to the Carolina roster will also force the 7-4-0 Hurricanes to consider how they plan to structure their goaltending picture. With Kochetkov out, incumbent Frederik Andersen has taken seven of Carolina’s first 11 starts this season in a tandem with Brandon Bussi, going 4-3-0 | 2.96 | .894. He had 20 stops in a 2-1 road loss to the Boston Bruins on Saturday afternoon.
The 27-year-old Bussi, who has gone 3-1-0 | 2.25 | .916 in his first four NHL appearances, spent the past three seasons in the Boston organization with the Providence Bruins before signing with the Florida Panthers as a free agent July 1. After spending training camp with the Panthers, however, Carolina claimed him on waivers from Florida on Oct. 5. The following day the Hurricanes lost Primeau, their own offseason signing. Bussi’s last appearance came this past Thursday night when he made 26 saves in a 6-2 home win against the New York Islanders.
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