Hurricanes defensemen Brett Pesce, Tony DeAngelo exit COVID protocol

Two key players for the Carolina Hurricanes can get back on the ice now that they’re out of the COVID protocol, but Brett Pesce and Tony DeAngelo will not travel to meet the team in Canada. The Hurricanes are currently on a road trip through Western Canada, where they’ll face the Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks over the next few days.

It’s not clear yet if the two defensemen will join the team in Minnesota, where Carolina is set to take on the Wild next Tuesday, but getting them back to training is obviously a positive. Pesce, one of the most reliable defenders in the league, has played just 15 games this season after missing time in early November. The 27-year-old has averaged more than 21 minutes of ice time in those games, however, and is a key part of the team’s penalty kill and second power-play unit. He has seven points on the season after earning Norris Trophy votes in 2020-21 for registering 25 points in 55 games.

DeAngelo meanwhile is still third on the team in scoring despite missing the last few matches. He racked up 19 points in his first 20 games of the season. Six of those came on the power play, where he logs more ice time than any other player on the Hurricanes. A talented offensive player, he’s been a strong fit for the team after the departure of Dougie Hamilton in the offseason.

The Hurricanes went through a short rough patch, losing three in a row as they adjusted to life without some of their regular defensemen, but have gotten back in the win column of late. Tuesday night they defeated the Winnipeg Jets 4-2, but it required Jaccob Slavin to log nearly 30 minutes of ice time (including more than six minutes on the penalty kill) to do it. He’ll be as happy as anyone to see some of his defense group get back as soon as the team returns to the U.S.