Jacob Slavin top dman?

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Unbiased Fan

Registered User
May 24, 2019
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Can Jacob Slavin make a case as the most valuable dman in the NHL?

To me as a goalie who played competitive hockey all my life I really appreciated the defensive guys.

Watching the 4 nations I really had a chance to watch slavin (and every other dman there and I’m a leafs fan who is Canadian so there is zero bias here).

To me a player who single handedly stop 3 goals is more important to a team than a guy who scores one. Makar for an example while still very good defensively is still not close to his level as a shut down defender. He lead the Americans in TOI and without him they likely would have lost 4-2. A guy that can run a top PP like DeAngelo or a prime Tyson Barrie is so much easier to find than a defender that can log 25 minutes of good 2way hockey.

I guess the big argument I have is the Vancouver Canucks imo would be so much better with DeAngelo and Slavin in and Quinn Hughes out

Am I the only one who sees him in the Makar conversation?
 
Is your argument that the difference between Slavin and Makar defensively is roughly equivalent to the difference between them offensively?

Which is to say, you really think Slavin brings more than 3 times as good of defense as Makar?

Slavin has 20 points. Makar has 63.
Yes I do think he is that much better then him defensively and the gap between him and the 2nd best player defensively is bigger then the gap between Makar and Hughes
 
He doesn't have the fancy offensive side but every GM would love to have him on the top pairing. He's in the top 10 for sure and maybe 5 that's saying something for a guy who doesn't put up big numbers back there offensively.
 
While it's far from perfect, we can look at these images and see if it's close:
aaaslav.PNG

aaamaka.PNG
 
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It is a disgrace that it has taken this long for a huge number of hockey fans to take note of the Slavster - **** you, Gary - but I have also long said he’s quite overrated by his fan club (which includes me). The lack of offense is inexcusable. Peak Ekholm was just as valuable, for example.
 
It is a disgrace that it has taken this long for a huge number of hockey fans to take note of the Slavster - **** you, Gary - but I have also long said he’s quite overrated by his fan club (which includes me). The lack of offense is inexcusable. Peak Ekholm was just as valuable, for example.

Slavin is very, very good in transitioning out of his defensive zone. I can’t remember the exact stat but at one point he was literally the most efficient player in the entire league at defensive transitions.

He just doesn’t have a very good shot, which means he never gets PP time and generally doesn’t shoot at ES. That doesn’t just means he scores few goals, but he also doesn’t pick up the assists associated with deflection and rebound goals.

I believe 4 is bigger than 3.3

No shit. I’m looking at the bottom right hand corner.
 
The Hurricanes are not seen much at all in Canada.

But I can tell you that many people in the sports broacasting industry north of the border have had their eyes opened on slavin during this tournament.

Everyone is gushing over him and he's no longer a secret.
 
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You can win with guys like Slavin, he's absolutely underrated in terms of overall defense rankings because of his lack of offense and highlights.

However, the Canucks would be significantly worse with Slavin and whomever than with Hughes. Unlike Makar or Werenski, Hughes is far and away his teams top offensive player. They couldn't survive losing that. Maybe Slavin and a healthy Demko could shut teams down enough but no they'd be worse with Slavin no question.

Overall I would agree he's underrated. I have him in the top 10 for sure. Defense is huge but Hughes and Makar are both underrated on the defensive end. They routinely stop goals against too. Fewer than Slavin sure but the difference on the offensive end in actual production is too big to ignore. Maybe there needs to be more (good) mainstream stats for defensive impact. Stuff like +/- don't capture what Slavin does at all. Most fans see goals and points and plus minus (and maybe hits) so to them Slavins true impact is near invisible.
 
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