Literally almost from the first game of his NHL career. He played a few games on the 3rd pair but has been anchored on the 2nd-pair for over a year now...and it's not because the Canes lack for quality defensemen.
He's been the best Canes defenseman at both ends of the ice a few nights this short season to date.
His stats (goals/assists) will likely always be "underwelming" unless he develops his shot better and/or gets more PP opportunity. Faulk and Hanifin (and maybe Murphy now that he's back) will get the lion share of PP TOI. Pesce has been performing very well in his overall game though and there are many less goals scored when he's on the ice 5v5.
This article delves into that.
http://cardiaccane.com/2016/11/03/brett-pesce-carolina-hurricanes/
I don't agree with the title of his article, because like it or not, defensemen have to both defend and contribute to offense, but it shows how well Pesce is doing on the "defending" part of the equation.
