Raanta won’t return for 12th NHL season
Raanta won’t return for 12th NHL season
35-year-old goalie teamed with Andersen to win Jennings Trophy for 2021-22 Hurricanes
© Josh Lavallee/NHLI via Getty Images
Antti Raanta will not return to the NHL for the 2024-25 season.
The 35-year-old goalie played 11 seasons for the Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers, Arizona Coyotes and Carolina Hurricanes. He was 139-80-29 with a 2.48 goals-against average, .915 save percentage and 20 shutouts in 277 regular-season games (251 starts) and 9-9 with a 2.48 GAA, .911 save percentage and one shutout in 24 Stanley Cup Playoff games (19 starts).
“At the end of the season and in the summer, I thought about all sorts of things, but as the summer progressed and my body felt good, Europe started to attract me more,” Raanta told Finnish news outlet Ilta-Sanomat on Saturday.
Raanta last played an NHL game when he made nine saves in relief of Pyotr Kochetkov in Carolina’s 5-2 win against the Colorado Avalanche in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Feb. 8, before leaving with a lower-body injury. He played eight games for Chicago in the American Hockey League and was 2-2-4 with a 3.54 GAA and .873 save percentage.
Raanta teamed with Frederik Andersen for the Hurricanes to win the 2022 William M. Jennings Trophy, presented annually to the goalies who play a minimum of 25 games for the team allowing the fewest goals (202) during the regular season, combining to win the award for the first time in Hurricanes/Hartford Whalers history. Raanta went 15-5-4 with a 2.45 GAA, .912 save percentage and two shutouts and was Carolina’s starting goalie for all but one playoff game after Andersen was injured. He finished the postseason 6-5 with a 2.26 GAA and .922 save percentage in 13 starts.
To know Rants is to love Rants. It's as simple as that.
Thanks for everything, Father Finn. Best of luck in whatever is next ❤️ pic.twitter.com/8L78z4MyPF
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) September 15, 2024
