One of the easiest bets you could make prior to the Carolina Hurricanes’ return to the Stanley Cup playoffs after ten years in the wilderness was that the rest of the league would see just how talented the Canes’ defensive corps is. But even given that expectation, there were few who would have predicted that Jaccob Slavin was about to catapult himself into the conversation alongside some of the game’s greats.
Entering the eleventh game of his playoff career, that’s exactly where he is. Slavin has 11 assists, already a franchise record for a defenseman in a single playoff season, and he needs two more points to match Frantisek Kaberle’s club record in that category, set in 2006.