Hurricanes place Frederik Andersen on injured reserve

The Carolina Hurricanes have announced that goaltender Frederik Andersen has been placed on injured reserve, and that they’ve recalled defenseman Ty Smith from their AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves.

Despite the fact that Andersen hasn’t played a game since October 26th due to a knee injury, this is actually the first time that he’s been placed on IR this season. That likely indicates that this isn’t a setback in his recovery process, but is just a transactional process to make room on their roster for Smith.

Andersen has been skating on his own as of last week, so while he won’t be returning quite yet, he is getting closer. He was initially given a timeline for return of 8-to-12 weeks, a window that he will enter this weekend.

The knee injury has limited Andersen to just 4 games this season, which is unfortunate considering the start he had to the year. Before going down, he had a 3-1-0 record, a .941 save percentage, and a 6.81 goals saved above expected.

Smith returns to the Hurricanes roster after he was placed on waivers over the weekend and went unclaimed. He’s generally rotated the role as the Hurricanes extra defenseman with Riley Stillman this season, so Andersen’s move to IR allows them to continue doing so.

The injury to Shayne Gostisbehere had allowed Smith to get into a string of NHL games for the Hurricanes this season, playing 8 games where he has 1 goal and 1 assist for 2 points. Smith has also played 13 games in the AHL with the Wolves, where he has 3 goals and 7 assists for 10 points.

The Hurricanes will look to bounce back from Sunday’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks when they visit the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday at 6 p.m. EST. Carolina currently sits in third place in the Metropolitan Division with a 26-15-3 record.