Do The Hurricanes Want To Go From One Injury-Prone Goalie To Another With John Gibson?

There is a chance that the Carolina Hurricanes move off of 35-year-old Frederik Andersen this offseason after his contract is done. He hasn't been able to stay healthy since first signing with the team back in 2021, whether it is in the regular season or playoffs. That has continued to hurt them even though the Hurricanes are in great position to go deep into the playoffs every season.

There have been constant rumors surrounding a potential acquisition of John Gibson, but given Gibson's injuries this season and prior, the question of if it is worth it comes up.

Gibson is still a good goalie, and now that the Ducks are improving in front of their goaltending, his numbers have started to come back. The 31-year-old is going to finish with his first .900 SV%+ since 2021-22 and his highest SV% since 2018-19. He has started just 28 games this season though.

Gibson has a 11-11-2 record with a 2.77 GAA and .911 SV%. Remember that his first five seasons in the league were stellar and he received Vezina Trophy votes in two of those. He has been held back and sunk by a very bad team for a number of years since the 2018-19 season. But now that the team is starting to get better, Lukas Dostal has emerged as the young option in net that is going to take him over.

I think the Hurricanes are still very much interested in bringing in Gibson this offseason as the Ducks should be inclined to trade him. There are some big cap hits coming off the books in Carolina and Gibson's contract still has two years left at $6.4 million AAV. This isn't a bad length as he will be 33 at the end of it, still two years younger than Andersen is right now.

Even though there is risk, the reasons why I think Carolina still tries to get Gibson from the Ducks is because they have liked their tandems, and even if Gibson gets injured at times, like Andersen has, Pyotr Kochetkov can stand in and start. Kochetkov is also on a great deal, so the contender won't be spending too much on goaltending. We'll have to wait to see if the Hurricanes pick up conversations in the offseason, run it back with Andersen again, or look elsewhere.