The NHL caught lightning in a bottle this month with its inaugural 4 Nations Face-Off tournament.
The in-season tournament, which took place from Feb. 12-20, pitted NHL players from four countries – Canada, Finland, Sweden and USA – against one another in the first best-on-best hockey tournament in nearly a decade.
While there were many naysayers once the tournament was announced, at the end, nearly everyone was in agreement that the event was a major success (ESPN averaged 9.3 million viewers for the final between USA and Canada).
While Canada wound up taking the gold with a 3-2 overtime win over the Americans, one of the biggest talking points from the event was how good Carolina Hurricanes and Team USA defenseman Jaccob Slavin was in it.
Slavin, 30, has flown under the radar for years due to Carolina being a smaller market, but the fact of the matter is that he’s hands down one of the best defensemen in the entire NHL.
“Everyone here knows how good he is,” said teammate Sebastian Aho who faced Slavin for the first time in his career playing for Team Finland. “Obviously now, with a little bit of a bigger platform, everyone sees him. Best-on-best and he did a pretty damn good job shutting those guys down. He’s an unbelievable d-man and we’re so lucky to have him.”
Every time he stepped out onto the ice, the veteran blueliner became the talk of the hockey world, showcasing his elite defensive awareness and stick work time and time again whether it was blocking a shot or pass, saving a goal or just completely killing a play at the blueline before it could even develop.
No matter what channel the game was on – ESPN, TNT, Sportsnet, etc. – the broadcasters couldn’t stop raving about Slavin’s play and all across social media, nearly every hockey-related account was posting about the Hurricanes defenseman too.
“They couldn’t stop talking about him, it was great,” said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour. “It’s good for those kinds of players that maybe aren’t the guys who are scoring all the big goals all the time. Is defending a goal as important? Ask yourself that. We know it is and so he’s an elite player in his own right.”
Across his four tournament games, Slavin averaged 23:16 playing time per game as the shutdown pairing alongside Minnesota Wild defenseman Brock Faber.
The elite defender routinely had the toughest assignments, being tasked with defending the best players in the world such as Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon and Sidney Crosby, and he flourished in that role.
In total, Slavin was on the ice for only two goals against all tournament and in two games against the eventual champion Canada, the veteran played a perfect 54:08 (nearly a full game), not allowing a single goal while he was on the ice (included over four minutes of shorthanded ice time as well).
“One of the best defensive defensemen in the league,” said teammate Mikko Rantanen, who was no stranger to Slavin’s defensive game whether from his time in Colorado or with Team Finland. “I watched the [championship] game and he was the best d-man out there for both teams. Just tells you how good and smart of a player he is.”
While most people around the league know how good Slavin is defensively, this tournament gave a lot of them their first opportunity to really see for themselves.
“I always knew how good he was defensively, but seeing him up close and personal and playing on the same team as him, he’s, in my opinion, the best defensive defenseman in the league,” said Toronto Maple Leafs and Team USA captain Auston Matthews to TSN. “I’ve never seen a stick like his. The amount of plays he breaks up, shots that he blocks and still able to make great passes out of the d-zone and just the amount of ice he covers is pretty incredible. After playing with him, you definitely have a new appreciation for that.”
“Jaccob Slavin might be one of the best defending defensemen in the league, bar none,” said Pittsburgh Penguin and Team USA head coach Mike Sullivan.
So it’s good to see Slavin finally starting to earn the flowers he’s always deserved not only around the league, but internationally too.
“All the glory goes to God,” Slavin told the media in Toronto following the tournament. “Just thankful for the opportunity to use the gifts and abilities he’s given me on a world stage. When people recognize me, hopefully they just see Christ’s light shining through me.”
And lucky for Carolina, Slavin is already locked in with the team for eight more seasons, almost guaranteeing that he will be a lifelong Hurricane.
