NEWARK, N.J. — Jaccob Slavin may not have won gold at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February, but he certainly made a claim to being the best defensive player in hockey.
None of that came as a surprise to his Carolina Hurricanes teammates and coaches, all of whom have raved and watched in awe for the past decade as Slavin stymied opponents and led the league’s best penalty kill, doing it all with a civility that has made him a two-time Lady Byng Memorial Trophy winner as the NHL’s most gentlemanly player.
Those aren’t the only award votes Slavin has received as the cornerstone of the Hurricanes’ — and, now that best-on-best international hockey is back on the docket, Team USA’s — defense.
What has eluded him — aside from a Stanley Cup — is the Norris Trophy, which is given annually to the league’s best defenseman. Slavin has appeared on Norris ballots in each of the last eight seasons and surely will again when the final tallies are released at the end of the season. He has, however, never finished better than fifth.
The reason? Slavin doesn’t put up the offensive numbers of recent winners like Cale Makar, Quinn Hughes, Adam Fox and Erik Karlsson. While Fox has three 70-point seasons, Makar topped 30 goals this year, Karlsson eclipsed 100 points two seasons ago, and Hughes quarterbacks both the Canucks’ and Team USA’s top power play, Slavin has never exceeded 42 points and doesn’t have a double-digit goal season on his resume.
“I don’t think people realize he’s got some great offensive skills too,” Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said after Carolina’s 5-2 win in Game 4 of their first round series against the Devils. “I think he could use it more.”
Slavin’s name comes up often when people discuss Carolina’s suffocating defense and league-best penalty kill — it’s been perfect against New Jersey as the Hurricanes built a 3-1 series lead — but on Sunday, his teammates were talking about his offense.
That’s because Slavin combined his game awareness, smarts, skills and a perfect shot to deliver arguably the best play anyone will see this season — NHL, internationally, anywhere.
After a long shift in the Devils’ zone, Carolina began a line change.
“We had a little bit of O zone time there, and I knew they were tired and they were just trying to get the puck out,” Slavin said.
Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler made a short pass to Stefan Noesen — a Hurricanes forward the previous three seasons — in between the faceoff circles in the New Jersey zone.
Noesen collected the puck and turned up ice, looking for an outlet pass out of the zone. Before Noesen even committed to the pass, Slavin’s stick was waving in the vicinity, looking to disrupt the play.
“I just tried to have a good gap and ended up knocking it out of the air,” Slavin said.
That’s standard fare for Slavin, whose stickwork and positioning are nightly masterclasses in defensive hockey.
What followed was an entirely new level of wizardry.
“I looked back, and I think everyone on our team was changing too,” Slavin said of all the space on the ice.
The left-handed Slavin located the puck to his right and swiped a backhand at it, knocking it ahead toward the left boards. He windmilled his stick over Noesen, accelerated to the loose puck and took a peek at Siegenthaler, who was closing to snuff out the quick-developing play.
Without a route to the net, Slavin took two quick strides parallel to the boards, coasted to near the bottom of the circle, and …
“I just tried and throw it at the net and got lucky.”
Devils goalie Jacob Markstrom, all 6-foot-6 of him, had, like Siegenthaler, assessed the threat and played the percentages, hugging his right post to take away any window of a shot for Slavin.
But he left a Death Star-esque, puck-sized opening over his right shoulder next to his ear, and Slavin somehow found the one weakness like he was … well, bull’s-eyeing womp rats back home to give the Hurricanes a 2-0 lead before the first period was half over.
“It’s the play to get the goal,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “It’s elite, and it’s how he reads the play.
“He realized we’ve been in there for a while, that they’re changing, and it’s an easy time to take advantage of maybe stepping up on a player. All that stuff. And then to make the play, the rest of it. I can’t really say much more about Jaccob.”
It was a reminder that Slavin, the NHL’s best shutdown defender, also has a trick or two up his sleeve in the offensive zone.
“What can you say about that guy?” Staal said. “I mean, he can do it all.”
