In the latest series of the NHL Network's best players ranked at each position, Carolina Hurricanes' Jaccob Slavin ranks as the league's 13th best defenseman.
The NHL Network released their top 20 best defensemen rankings yesterday with Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin landing at #13.
Slavin who signed a 8-year extension with the Hurricanes on July 1st to stay with the only team he's ever known, will be entering his 10th season in the NHL this coming season. For at least the last 5 or so of those years Slavin has established himself as one of the league's best shutdown defenders in the league. Out of the 12 NHL defensemen ranked above him on this list in Cale Makar, Quinn Hughes, Victor Hedman, Roman Josi, Miro Heiskanen, Gustav Forsling, Charlie McAvoy, Adam Fox, Evan Bouchard, Devon Toews, Rasmus Dahlin and Josh Morrissey, you can make the case that Slavin may be the best of them all when it comes to strictly defending.
While Slavin is known for his superb defensive skills, the 30-year-old from Denver, CO is no slouch offensively either. In 81 games last season Slavin produced 6 goals, 31 assists for 37 points. Slavin had his best season offensively for the Canes during the 21-22 season, reaching the 40 point mark for the first time in his career with 4 goals and 38 assists totaling 42 points.
With the departure of Brady Skjei to the Nashville Predators this summer, Slavin could get some more PP time which would likely see an increase in points for Slavin. The Hurricanes however did bring back a familiar face in Shayne Gostisbehere so there will be competition for minutes on the 2nd unit, with Brent Burns likely entrenched as the PP QB on the first unit.
The point production that Slavin produces isn't quite to the level of some of the more offensive minded defenseman that appear on this list but Slavin does have some hardware that most don't. Slavin brought home the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy last season as the leagues most gentleman like player, only having a total of 8 penalty minutes last year. It was the 2nd time that Slavin won the Lady Byng, with his first one coming in the 2020-2021 season.
One award that Slavin doesn't own yet is the Norris trophy for the leagues best defenseman. Slavin finished 14th in Norris voting this past season, garnering one 4th place vote and five 5th place votes. With the Norris trophy typically going to defensemen who scores a lot of points, it might be hard for Slavin to win the coveted trophy.
Whether or not Slavin ever ends up adding a Norris trophy to his resume one thing is for sure; Jaccob Slavin will likely go down as one of, if not the best Hurricane's defenseman of all-time.