This piece will be another in my series of player profiles, where I’ll give some thoughts on the performance of a member of the Carolina Hurricanes this season. This article will focus on Jaccob Slavin.
This season, Slavin further solidified himself as one of the most well-rounded defensemen in the league.
He was playing 19:24 per game at even strength, over a full minute more than any other player on the team and was second on the Hurricanes in TOI per game on the penalty kill, averaging over three minutes per game. Slavin was also able to add offense, as he reached a career high in points, despite playing 14 less games than he had in each of the last three seasons. His corsi for percentage was excellent at 55.6 per cent, he finished fifth on the team in shots and also led the Hurricanes in blocks. Plus, a fun highlight: he attended his first All-Star Game when Dougie Hamilton got injured and even went on to win the shooting accuracy competition.
Next season, he should be back to playing with Dougie Hamilton. The duo makes for a pair that can both defend against a team’s top players and generate offense in the process. Should the Hurricanes manage to re-sign Hamilton, the duo should probably be the top pairing for a long time to come as well.
Defensemen who are very capable in both the offensive and defensive aspects of the game don’t come around overly often but once again, Slavin was a leader on the back end for the Hurricanes who could do it all. The Hurricanes are shaping their roster into one that will be able to truly contend for a long time and Slavin remains one of the key pieces in that process.
Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted Saturday):
Does Jaccob Slavin's contract bring the most value per dollar of any long-term deal on the Hurricanes' payroll?
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
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