Jaccob Slavin, ‘a walking manual for how to play defense,’ has earned this moment

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RALEIGH, N.C. — For six years, Matthew Tkachuk and the most underrated elite defenseman in the NHL were ships passing in the night.

Tkachuk had heard things about Jaccob Slavin, of course. How could you not? The backbone of the Carolina Hurricanes might be under-discussed, but he is not invisible. But when Tkachuk played for the Calgary Flames, he only had to deal with Slavin twice a year, limiting his firsthand experience and forcing him to base most of his opinion on the words of others.

In the 2023 Eastern Conference finals, his appreciation grew.

“Each game you play (Slavin) you see something different,” Tkachuk said.

To truly learn what Slavin is about, though, is to skate with him. To watch him up close — and on that front, thanks to the 11-year absence of true best-on-best international hockey, Tkachuk never had the opportunity. In February 2025, that changed.

“At that (4 Nations Face-Off),” Tkachuk said. “I really saw how unbelievable a player he is.

“Defensively, his stick, blocking shots, the little plays he’d make. He got every shot through. Like, the little stuff that people don’t get credit for that you might look at — the top point-getters in the league for (defensemen) get all the credit. But I mean, he’s right up there with the best in the world.”

It made sense, then, for Tkachuk to help start a moment that Slavin, three months later, still seems to be living inside. He had already been one of the tournament’s breakout stars in the United States; broadcast crews on ESPN and TNT decided, en masse, that it was time for the guy who does the little things better than anyone to assume a larger platform.

Tkachuk helped it along. Wearing a microphone for the 4 Nations final against Canada, Tkachuk, along with his brother Brady and Detroit Red Wings center Dylan Larkin, were recorded on the Team U.S. bench gassing up Slavin for one of his signature skills.

“What a stick, Slavo,” Tkachuk yelled. “That was special.”

On May 15, Capitals coach Spencer Carbery pushed the snowball even further down the hill, moments after his team’s season ended. Carbery could’ve opened his media conference by saying anything about anyone. He chose to gas up the guy who’d tortured Washington most acutely in their five-game series, keeping the Capitals in neutral and turning yet another appreciator into a true believer.

“He doesn’t get enough credit,” Carbery said. “I think he’s started to get credit since the 4 Nations. Jaccob Slavin — how he’s not in the Norris Trophy conversation every single year, it doesn’t seem right. Obviously the guys that are there are tremendous players in their own right, but that is one heck of a player.

“This team — and that’s the reason I mentioned Slavin early, because he leads the charge in this — they are just relentless with their pressure. And their ability to break plays up with their sticks, there’s no team in the league like ’em.”

Jaccob Slavin pushes past Brandon Duhaime for the puck in Game 5 of the second round. (Geoff Burke / Imagn Images)

Slavin, for his part, appreciates the shine but says he doesn’t require it. A lyric from the Christian artist Lecrae — “If you live for their acceptance, you’ll die from their rejection” — is never far from his mind.

Why this degree of recognition was delayed is, in all likelihood, due to a combination of factors. The Hurricanes play in a small market, which never helps. Their head coach is the face of their franchise, which is uncommon. Slavin’s game revolves around breaking up plays, batting down passes and cutting off puck carriers, which takes him out of the Cale Makar class.

“Slavin doesn’t get that (level of attention),” Minnesota Wild and Team USA defenseman Brock Faber said. “And so you never really understand the impact he can make on a game, with basically just being invisible, when you don’t notice him. He’s the best because he’s just closing plays. He’s not turning the puck over. He’s doing so many little things that just go unnoticed that make such an impact.”

Slavin’s 2024-25 season was, for him, boilerplate; he was seventh among regular NHL defensemen in both scoring chance percentage (57.4) and expected goals percentage (56.4) at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick. He did all that playing tough minutes against elite competition, and he did it while leading one of the NHL’s best penalty kills. That’s who he is, and it’s who he’s been for years.

In any case, the recognition has arrived. And it’s deserved, regardless of how much time Slavin spends on tracking it.

“I think anybody would say it’s nice to have it happen that way and people starting to notice that you’re a good player, but at the end of the day for myself, it’s just words,” Slavin said. “It’s not where my identity lies. That’s not where my confidence comes from.”

And that confidence, if you watch closely enough, manifests on ice. What other word would you use to describe the goal Slavin scored to put Carolina up 2-0 in Game 4 of their first-round series against the New Jersey Devils?

Slavin, already inside New Jersey’s blue line, pressured Devils forward Stefan Noesen even further, denying the clearing attempt and setting up a bad-angle shot for himself that he still managed to bury.

It didn’t happen quickly enough to miss — but it might have happened too quickly for the full impact to fully register.

“Most players in that situation would be trying to get their stick in the lane, hoping to deflect the clearing attempt. Jaccob doesn’t just try to get his stick on it; he swings his stick down toward the puck like a fly swatter,” Hurricanes general manager Eric Tulsky said.

“The audacity of that play is incredible — he’s not just trying to deflect the dump-out, he’s trying to catch it! And he does, and then he finishes the play with a perfect shot, but it all starts with a defensive stick play that I don’t think anyone else in the league would even try to make.”

Scott Morrow feels the same. The Hurricanes rookie defenseman, with all of 17 NHL games under his belt, has spent large chunks of the last few months watching Slavin at practice, on video and from the press box. In some ways, Morrow said, Slavin is “a walking manual for how to play defense.” In others, well …

“He’s an alien, almost, with how good he is at some of this stuff,” Morrow said. “I try and learn as much as I can, but there’s some things where I’m like, ‘Oh man, I don’t know if I could ever be as good as this guy at this specific thing.’”

Such as?

“The way he bats pucks out of the air, like, instinctively,” Morrow said. “If I’m playing a rush, I have my stick on the ice trying to take away the passing lanes, but he’s got the whole airspace covered as well. It’s insane how he has 3-4 a game where he just knocks out of the air and kills the play. It’s incredible to watch.”

That doesn’t just apply to rookies, either. Longtime teammates can be amazed, too.

“You try and get it through him and when you do, you get pretty excited about it. That’s like scoring a goal. So you cheer pretty hard when you can get it through him or get it by him,” said Jordan Martinook, who has played with Slavin since 2018.

“Obviously, we’re lucky to see that every day and we’re not gonna take it for granted, because he’s an incredible player and it’s nice that he starts getting some recognition that he deserves.”

(Top photo: James Guillory / Imagn Images)

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