The Carolina Hurricanes have been one of the best teams in the NHL all season. Their regular season is already finished, having won the Metropolitan Division with 116 points. But with the playoffs about to start, one of the best players on the team got some distressing news Friday.

Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour updated his goalie, Frederik Anderson’s status saying “Obviously, if he doesn’t touch the ice, he’s not going to play. That’s for sure. You can kind of gauge that… If he gets on the ice, I’m not going to count anything out. He’s doing everything he can. Obviously if he’s ready to go, that’s on the table for us for sure.”

The Hurricanes starting goalie went 35-14-3 in net this year. But he missed Carolina’s final six games of the season after suffering a lower-body injury during a 7-4 loss to the Colorado Avalanche April 16th.

Hurricanes GM Dave Waddell went into it further, noted by NHL.com’s Kurt Dusterberg.

“He’s working out daily. There’s no timetable until he gets on the ice, but we’re very confident in the other guys that are here, that they can provide us with what we need. Whenever Freddie takes the ice, we will go from there.” That certainly sounds as though Andersen is not going to be available to being the playoffs.

Earlier Friday, the tandem of Andersen and Antti Raanta won the 2021-2022 William M. Jennings Trophy, presented to the goaltenders who play at least 25 games on the same team that allowed the fewest goals in the NHL.

This season, Hurricanes net minders Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta allowed a league-low 202 goals. Carolina might need to lean heavily on Raanta in the first-round of the NHL playoffs. They will be facing either the Boston Bruins or the two-time defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning. Neither of which will be an easy opponent.