Jacob Slavin top dman?

[Ghost of Murph]

Slavin is elite defensively. There is not a GM, even the bad ones, in the NHL who would take Slavin over Makar. Always good to see Slavin and d-men in general get some love, but let's not get crazy here.

 

[tarheelhockey]

-9.6% is pretty staggering. I couldn't find quality of competition but I controlled for OZone starts.

View attachment 980650

I took Ozone starts as the x variable and Rel xG% as the y variable. The above are the forecast and actual. It's quite the gap. Unless he's defending Lemieux and Gretzky each shift it's not a great number. And yes I know who he is. But this thread is about him being the top D-man, it's not even close.

His most common partner Brent Burns is only -5.30%.

Take those stats over to the Canes board and start a thread “proving” that Burns is better than Slavin defensively.

Just give me a heads up so I have time to make popcorn first.

 

[a mangy Meowth]

Take those stats over to the Canes board and start a thread “proving” that Burns is better than Slavin defensively.

Just give me a heads up so I have time to make popcorn first.

Can you ping me if he does? I'd like to watch.

 

[benfranklin]

Until there is a defensive dman award, no.

 

[NVious]

He's too nice of a guy, I'm sending him to the Scott Stevens/Chris Pronger defensive camp this summer.

 

[Stephen]

Slavin is elite defensively. There is not a GM, even the bad ones, in the NHL who would take Slavin over Makar. Always good to see Slavin and d-men in general get some love, but let's not get crazy here.

Yeah basically this. I'll take the 26 year old with a Norris, Conn Smythe, Stanley Cup, 90 point season, Calder, that 4 Nations, that's plenty enough value for me.

Slavin is amazing. Elite defensive play, cool under pressure, second, third effort, length defending, smooth transition, workhorse minutes are all amazing qualities he possesses. But there are also more valuable, rarer things.

 

[Unbiased Fan]

As a single player? No. But every single contending team, especially those who go far in playoffs need a player like him. There are plenty of PP1 guys, but how many excellent defencive D-man do exist?

It's about supply & demand imo.

Is there even another player like him? Maybe Faber? I take Slavin tho. Towes, Brodin, Lindholm, Ekholm are alll a tier below imo. Clearly the USA coaching Staff thought McAvoy was a tier below aswell if you look at TOI

 

[spcastlemagic]

I was really impressed - he looked Lidstrom in the defensive zone how the attack died anytime the puck got near him. But he doesn’t look like Lidstrom in the transition game or on offense, so he’s not that guy.

 

[wetcoast]

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

Wonder is you were watching both guys last game.

Slavin was great defensively but Makar was great everywhere.

 

[wired14]

Watching him in the 4 Nations, he looked great. I hadn’t watched him enough to get a good feel for how good he truly was, but he was just shutting down the best players in the world. So yeah, he’s good.