The Checkers have made two roster cuts, sending forward Kellan Tochkin and defenseman Austin Levi to the ECHL’s Florida Everblades.
The moves, made two days before Charlotte’s regular-season opener at Oklahoma City on Friday, leave the team with 14 forwards (including the soon-to-be-signed Stefan Della Rovere), seven defensemen and two goaltenders. Barring any other injuries and transactions that may occur in the meantime, that leaves the Checkers with three extra players to face the Barons.
Tochkin, Levi and goaltender Jesse Deckert, who the Checkers assigned to Florida earlier in the week, are the only three players cut from this year’s training camp.
Tochkin, an undrafted 22-year-old, joined the Checkers on Monday after the Hurricanes acquired him and a fourth-round pick in exchange for Zac Dalpe and Jeremy Welsh over the weekend. Having spent the entirety of his first professional campaign with Missouri of the CHL last season, where he produced 44 points (15g, 29a) in 56 games, he has yet to make his ECHL or AHL debut. Prior to arriving in Charlotte, he had spent the preseason with the AHL’s Utica Comets, affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks.
Levi, 21, is entering his rookie season after returning for a fourth full junior campaign with the OHL’s Plymouth Whalers last season. One of two defensemen chosen by Carolina in the third round of the 2010 draft (current Checker Danny Biega was the other), Levi scored 86 points (16g, 70a) to go along with 302 penalty minutes and a cumulative plus-81 rating while with the Whalers. He has yet to make his professional debut.
Both Levi and Tochkin are under NHL contracts with the Hurricanes. The Everblades open their season against Orlando on Oct. 18.