As of right now, the Carolina Hurricanes top-6 defense could look something like this: Jaccob Slavin and Dougie Hamilton as the first pairing, Brett Pesce and Justin Faulk as the second pairing, and Jake Bean/Haydn Fleury and Trevor van Riemsdyk as the third pairing.
While this doesn’t sound terrible, this defense is stacked on the right-hand side, but atrociously lacking in experience and skill on the left-hand side outside of the top pairing. This is where Jake Gardiner comes in.
Most of the Hurricanes’ current defensive lineup are offensive-minded two-way defenseman.