The Carolina Hurricanes will host their first preseason game of the season on Monday, but don't be expecting to see too many regulars on the ice.
Instead, the Canes are much more likely to ice a lineup consisting primarily of young prospects as well as a few PTOs as well when they take on the Tampa Bay Lightning at 7 p.m. at Lenovo Center.
"Planning it out right now, I've got almost all the minor league guys or guys trying to get up there playing two or three games," said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour at training camp on Sunday. "Gonna get a good look at them."
The Hurricanes currently have 42 skaters and six goaltenders on their training camp roster, but they'll only need 18 skaters and two goaltenders for Monday.
However, Carolina can't just play only the prospects in the preseason as NHL rules mandate that at least eight "veteran" players must dress for every preseason game.
A "veteran" is a player who has either played in 30 NHL games the previous season, a goalie who dressed in at least 50 NHL games, any player who has played 100+ NHL games or a current year first-round pick.
The Canes didn't draft any player in the first-round this year, so that ones already out the window, but the team has quite a few other players who can fill that requirement.
For one, all three of the team's PTOs (Givani Smith, Kevin Labanc, Oliver Kylington) meet the veteran requirement.
Then there is the team's two depth defensemen, Mike Reilly and Gavin Bayreuther, who also meet the threshold.
So right there, there's five players and the team can also have one of their two veteran netminders (Frederik Andersen, Pyotr Kochetkov) backup a younger guy like Cayden Primeau too to bring that total up to six.
Then, it's just a matter of getting a few of the regular guys a game here or there and so while you'll see primarily the young guys on Monday, there'll still be a few regulars interspersed as well.
Oh, and it seems like rising star Alexander Nikishin will get a few more games than the rest of the regulars too.
"I count him as a young kid," Brind'Amour said. "When I talk about you're going to see a lot of our younger players, he's in that group right now."
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