Hurricanes Bolster Goalie Depth With Veteran Signing

The Carolina Hurricanes have announced that they have signed veteran goaltender Dustin Tokarski to a one-year, two-way deal for the remainder of the season.

Tokarski, 35, signed a professional tryout with the Chicago Wolves last month and in five appearances, posted a 4-1-0 record with two shutouts and a 0.933 save percentage.

The journeyman netminder has appeared in 80 career NHL games with five different organizations (Tampa Bay, Montreal, Anaheim, Buffalo and Pittsburgh) with a 23-24-12 overall record and 0.902 save percentage.

Tokarski has also played in 428 career AHL games though across 15 years with a 220-147-40 overall record along with a 0.911 save percentage and 30 shutouts. He's won the Calder Cup twice, once with Norfolk in 2012 and again with Charlotte in 2019.

Related: Hurricanes Frederik Andersen To Undergo Knee Surgery on Friday

“Dustin has played very well for the Wolves this season," said Carolina GM Eric Tulsky in a press release. "Given the injury to Frederik Andersen, we felt it was important to add to our depth at the goaltending position and this gives us another option with significant NHL experience.”

The deal will pay Tokarski $775,000 at the NHL level and $100,000 at the AHL level.

With Frederik Andersen sidelined following knee surgery and the team seeing just how fragile their goaltending situation is when Pyotr Kochetkov was out with a concussion for four games, it made sense to get another experienced goalie under contract, especially with neither Yaniv Perets or Ruslan Khazheyev being anywhere close to NHL ready.

Related: 'I'm Back': Pyotr Kochetkov Returns To Practice, Nearing Return To Game Action