Rookie Blueliners Helping Canes Navigate Early Injuries

RALEIGH, N.C. - Entering the 2025-26 regular season, the Carolina Hurricanes' expected defensive pairings had them in the conversation for the best corps in the league.

Anchored by Jaccob Slavin's defensive excellence, the additions of solidified stalwart K'Andre Miller and top prospect Alexander Nikishin brought a plethora of excitement to a cast returning Jalen Chatfield, Shayne Gostisbehere and Sean Walker.

With Mike Reilly waiting in the wings as the seventh defenseman, the makings were promising for another season of not just limiting opponents' chances - Carolina has allowed the fewest shots (27.2) and goals against (2.63) among all teams since Rod Brind'Amour took over as head coach - but also offensive contributions.

While there's a long road left in front of them left to determine whether or not they'll have that same success on the blue line again, the beginning stretch of the journey has been thrown a wrench, and the story on defense has been the emergence of up-and-comers forced into becoming lineup regulars.

Just two games into the campaign, Slavin, who missed most of training camp, went down with a lower body injury. A week later, Gostisbehere suffered the same fate. The very next contest, Miller found himself sidelined.

There's no replacing Slavin, but Reilly was ready when the opportunity presented itself. When Gostisbehere and Miller, the team's two power play quarterbacks went down, it meant not only sizeable holes on special teams, but responsibilities left to be filled by first-year players.

Before the call-ups began, it meant an immediate increase in workload for Nikishin.

Although Rod Brind'Amour spent most of late September and early October reasoning how he wanted to ease the former KHL star into learning what was expected of him while he also continued his efforts of learning the English language, his hand was forced. Having success running the power play for SKA St. Petersburg in Russia, Nikishin's opportunity was now.

And not just in that capacity, his game's seemingly continued to flourish more each day.

In addition to scoring his first two NHL goals, Nikishin's early-season highlight reel also includes heavy hits and goal-saving efforts.

"He's been noticeable in a real positive way," Brind'Amour said. "It's not an easy position to walk into and then ask a kid to basically be playing top-four minutes right off the hop. That's a ton to ask and he's done a great job. He'll just get better as he goes."

Ironing out the details is a daily process for Brind'Amour, Nikishin, and Assistant Coach Tim Gleason, but all remain excited about the potential.

"There's a lot to like, but I think he's just getting by on raw talent versus the actual structural stuff that we have to shore up," Brind'Amour said. "There's still some things that are not great in a sense of, 'Okay, you need to be here or there,' or just reading the play. It'll come and it is coming. It's getting better and better the more we work with him."

As Nikishin rapidly became the team's top available left-handed option, he was joined on the blueline by another briskly blossoming defender, 2023 fifth-round pick Charles Alexis Legault. Lauded by the team for his size and smarts, not only did Legault once again impress at September's Prospect Showcase and during five preseason games, the organization kept him around as their eighth option through the conclusion of training camp.

Making his NHL debut in Vegas on Oct. 20, the towering right-handed shot has shown both his range and defensive prowess.

"We've known the player for a long time, but he's matured so well as a player," Brind'Amour said. "He's got all the physical attributes - he's big, strong, he's a guy who can skate. This early in the season in the season, it's kind of an earned call-up on the work he put in during the summer and the training camp he had."

His game may not be flashy, but the promise of a steady presence capable of logging NHL minutes after just one pro season also has the team excited about what's to come in the years ahead.

"He's just such a big guy who can skate, you just hope the other stuff can come around. Especially on the blue line, that's such a huge asset - being able to have that reach and being able to handle the heavy guys," Brind'Amour continued. " That's what hopefully he can kind of grow into... That's the projection that we'd hoped. Obviously we're throwing him in here a little earlier than we'd like, but that's what you're hoping he can get to."

While the Canes knew Nikishin was ready for the big stage and Legault's debut was only a matter of time, Joel Nystrom's first showing came a little sooner than the organization expected.

Rushed from Chicago to Denver on the afternoon hours of Oct. 23 to play against the Colorado Avalanche, a delayed flight also meant missing warmups and the proverbial solo lap for the 2021 seventh-round pick. Thrown right into the fire, he made the transition look like one he was prepared for.

"I'd heard a lot about him. Our scouts, particularly Kevin McCarthy, who really watched him, was raving about this kid. I didn't see a lot of him, but in preseason, I thought he looked solid," Brind'Amour reviewed. "That's about all we could go on. He's done a really nice job."

Not only has Nystrom showcased what made him successful in parts of five seasons in Sweden's top league, he too narrowly avoided a significant injury in his short time with the team. On Oct. 28 against Vegas, Nystrom took a shot to the face and had to be helped off the ice.

Receiving stitches in the back and amazingly returning for the next period, the head coach commended Nystrom's guts in what appeared to be a gruesome situation.

"You guys didn't get to see the actual injury and how bad it was. It filleted his whole chin and lip," Brind'Amour detailed. "That would've been an easy one to say, 'I'm good,' but he knew we were down all these guys and said, 'I've got to get out there.' I think that says a lot about the kid. (It's) endearing to the group, for sure."

In that same game, Domenick Fensore made his 2025-26 season debut, making Carolina the first team to roll out four rookie defensemen this season.

"They've done their job," Brind'Amour complimented of the youth. "They have done what I've expected and more. They're giving us everything they can and they're learning on the fly. You can actually see them getting better. It's not ideal, but they're doing everything they can."

Growing pains? Surely. Invaluable experience? Also that.

"They're playing against players who are elite in the world and they're hanging in there," their head coach said. "That has not been the issue in some of the games we've thrown away at the end. It's not those guys. I think they've done everything that we've asked them to do."

As the team anxiously awaits the return of Gostisbehere, Miller, and Slavin, the young talent has set themselves up for when their next opportunity comes.

"Being consistent is hard. Being a pro, we're still learning to do that with a lot of guys. I give them a lot of credit though," Brind'Amour finished with. "All of the young kids that have been jumping in the lineup have looked really good."