With Artemi Panarin playing through the final year of his contract, Mike Sullivan and the New York Rangers need to work their way around a new deal for the Russian star in the NHL.

NEW YORK - Goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov is expected to start for the first time this season as the Carolina Hurricanes visit the New York Rangers on Tuesday.

A month into games with Sullivan in charge, the Rangers have been way more successful at keeping the puck out of their own net than putting it into their opponent’s.

The New York Rangers struggled defensively last season, and they never found a reliable defense partner to play alongside Adam Fox on their top pair. This offseason, they traded K’Andre Miller to the Carolina Hurricanes and signed Vladislav Gavrikov to a seven-year,

Pyotr Kochetkov will make his season debut against the New York Rangers on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, truTV, TNT, MSG, SN1). The goalie was activated from injured reserve Oct. 31. He has not played this season because of a lower-body injury.

New York has stumbled on home ice thus far but proved itself a road warrior with a third consecutive win Saturday night to cap a long trip.

The New York Rangers are one of the worst teams in the NHL right now, and one of their defensemen is popping up in trade rumors.

Chmelar has five points in nine AHL games this season, Othmann went pointless in one NHL game during recent call-up