While the Carolina Hurricanes season ended in disappointment, the team had a lot to be proud of. Now in the offseason, tough decisions will be made, and management will work to put the team in a place to succeed next season. In the meantime, we will take a look back at individual players’ seasons and see how they did. For our final Carolina Hurricanes offseason grades, today we look at Jaccob Slavin.
Carolina Hurricanes Offseason Grade: Jaccob Slavin
Fitting the saying “saved the best for last,” this final Carolina Hurricanes offseason grade takes a look at arguably one of Carolina’s most important players: Jaccob Slavin. Slavin is a 6′ 3″, 207 lb. left-handed defenceman who is one of the league’s best defensive defencemen. The Hurricanes drafted Slavin in the fourth round of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft out of Colorado College. He may be one of Carolina’s biggest draft steals in franchise history. After making his NHL debut in 2015, Slavin has become a mainstay for Carolina’s back end.
In 2020 Slavin was named an NHL All Star following an injury to then Hurricanes defenceman Dougie Hamilton. Slavin has spent the last few years on the top defensive pairing with various offensive defencemen including Hamilton, Anthony DeAngelo, and Brent Burns. And for each of those defencemen, Slavin’s elite defensive ability has helped them thrive. He uses his reach, skating and gap control to stop opposing players. He will then create turnovers in his own zone and create space for himself to rush the puck out and make a quick breakout pass. Not only is Slavin historically great defensively, but his transition game is also very strong while his offensive ability may be a little underrated. His skating is deceptively good and at times he shows off some decent hands. While Slavin is not going to lead the league in points, he is a foundational piece of Carolina’s core.
Jaccob Slavin‘s Regular Season
This season, Slavin was once again a crucial part of Carolina’s success. Statistically, Slavin’s goals increased from four to seven this year from last, but his assists dropped from 38 to 20. He did have an overtime goal which was more than the last two seasons. One reason for this drop was that he was not needed on the power play unlike last year. But even though his offensive points dropped, his game is really more notable in other areas.
One thing about Slavin that has been true essentially all of his career and carried through this season is his consistency in doing the little things right. He will have his own miscues at times, but it is not common. His elite defensive and transition play showed all season. In fact, his consistency for the Hurricanes makes his offseason grade a little difficult. He simply showed up and did the little things right time and time again. But he didn’t all of a sudden jump off the page statistically.
On the advanced analytics side, he dropped in expected goals from 8.7 last year to 7.5 but his expected goals per 60 minutes was almost the same. His goals scored above expected, Corsi and Fenwick all improved. His on-ice goal differential at -2 compared to expected differential at 14.9 was one of the biggest negatives. A lot of this was likely due to the weight Slavin carries on the penalty kill. At five-on-five, he improved in most advanced analytics this year including his goal differential of 10 compared to 27.9 expected. His expected goals against of 79.8 was slightly more than actual goals against of 78. So, he was pretty even there too.
One area to look at from this season that shows Slavin’s impact is his effect on the top pairing with Burns. They played the fourth most minutes of any pairing in the league and were top five in Corsi and Fenwick. They also led the Hurricanes in goal differential. You could see their effectiveness on the ice. Slavin and Burns seemed like perfect partners. Both are bigger guys with decent skating. Burns was electric this season and some of that is due to Slavin’s ability to cover defensively and to engage when appropriate offensively. This allowed Burns to wheel and deal, sometimes even down low, because he knew Slavin has his back. Slavin did so much work for Carolina this season and was once again counted on for defensive consistency.
Jaccob Slavin‘s Playoffs
Much like the regular season, Slavin was a cornerstone piece for the Hurricanes defence, and frankly their entire team. He jumped slightly statistically in the playoffs. But for the most part his playoff performance factored into his offseason grade very similar to his regular season. Slavin had two goals and four assists in 15 games but again it’s not necessarily the offensive points that paint the picture of his play. The Slavin/Burns pairing was second for all defensive pairs playing at least 150 minutes in the playoffs in expected goals percentage, fourth in goals, third in Corsi, and first in Fenwick.
Individually, Slavin led the team in goals for percentage at 65.52% and had 15.68 expected goals against but only ten goals against. Not that the team couldn’t win without Slavin, but they deeply felt his presence. These numbers backed up the eye test of his effectiveness. It doesn’t matter if he is taking tough matchups, playing on the penalty kill, or is needed to help provide a little bit of push from the backend, he can do it. All through the playoffs he was doing the little things right and his pairing with Burns excelled. Speaking of the penalty kill, even though he played the most minutes of all Hurricanes defencemen, his advanced analytics still held strong.
Slavin played in all 15 playoff games this year but unfortunately was knocked out of most of game four of the Eastern Conference Finals following a hard hit from Sam Bennett. The Hurricanes lost that one on an essentially last second goal from Matthew Tkachuk. Would Slavin have had enough impact to have changed that game? Who knows. The team played well but you could certainly see the hole created in his absence.
The Verdict
With consistency being the name of the game for Slavin, he again showed that this year. His stats are only one side of the story. They show that while Slavin is decent analytically, he doesn’t really jump off the page on anything individually. However, when you look at Slavin’s effect on his defensive partner, and the team, it’s no secret how effective he is. While once an under the radar defenceman, Slavin has now caught more of the hockey world’s eye. This season was not much different. He did not do much extra but simply continued his effective defensive play.
Slavin deservedly has served as the team’s alternate captain and could be a candidate to replace Jordan Staal as captain whenever that time comes. As one of the few Hurricanes who do not have expiring contracts in the next year, Slavin will likely be counted on to stabilize the team’s core. He seems to have settled into the area with his family and is involved in the community. While teams need players that light up the score sheet, players like Slavin are almost equally as valuable.
As this wraps up the Carolina Hurricanes offseason grades, we hope you enjoyed this series. With a potentially pivotal offseason ahead, the Hurricanes will likely be busy. Stay tuned as the offseason progresses.
Grade: A-
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Main Photo: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
