Carolina Hurricanes: Brett Pesce, Elite Shutdown Defenseman

Carolina Hurricanes defense-man Brett Pesce has done more than enough to establish himself as one of the NHL’s best shutdown defenders. Enough to where he should start to gain recognition across the league.

Originally drafted in the third round of the 2013 NHL draft, Brett Pesce is already in his fifth season in the NHL. With 295 regular season games under his belt, the 24 year old has proved that he’s not only a key part of the Carolina Hurricanes blueline today, but he’s one of the better shutdown defenseman in the entire league.

Prior to turning pro, Pesce spent three season at the University of New Hampshire. Signing his entry level deal back in 2015, Brett made his NHL debut October 24th, 2015 against the San Jose sharks and hasn’t looked back since. Only appearing in a few games with the Charlotte Checkers, he spent most of his rookie season in the NHL.

Appearing in 64 games in 2015-16, he posted 16 points, four goals and twelve assists, decent production for a first year defenseman averaging around 18 minutes a night. In his sophomore season, when it’s common for young players to take a step back, Pesce did the exact opposite, taking massive strides forward on both sides of the puck.

Paired with Jaccob Slavin for most of the 2016-17 season, his time on ice increased almost three minutes per game. With an expanded role, his plus minus jumped from -7 to plus 23, tied with Slavin for the team lead. Although a stat that can be misleading at times, plus 23 was extremely impressive considering that the next closest player on the team was Lee Stempniak who was plus 2.

For anyone whose unfamiliar with plus/minus, a player gets a plus for every time they are on the ice when their team scores and a minus for every time they are on the ice for a goal against.

Last season, Pesce finished the year plus 35, a number that only was surpassed by Ryan McDonagh (+38) and Norris Trophy winner Mark Giordano (+39). To put into perspective just how solid of a number that is, Slavin and Dougie Hamilton were both even and four time Selke winner Patrice Bergeron finished the year plus 23.

Another stat Pesce leads the team in currently is blocked shots, with 14 thus far on the young season. Paired mostly with Joel Edmundson the duo has proved to be the team’s go to shut down pairing, leading the team in penalty kill time. With the full support of head coach Rod Brind’amour, he is clearly playing with a lot of confidence right now.

One thing that has led to his success in the defensive zone is his skating ability. On full display against the Islanders just a few days ago, Brett kept up with one of the fastest skaters in the league, Mathew Barzal. Through the entirety of his defensive zone shift, he kept Barzal to the perimeter of the ice, through the use of a tight gap, that directly led to the Canes coming away with the puck.

Known more so for his play defensively, Pesce appears to becoming a threat in the offensive zone as well. Like most of the defense core, Brett is off to a great start, averaging 22:10 through six games, he is already a plus four with three points, two goals and an assists.

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Fresh off of his best offensive year this past season, he credits his increased production to the coaching staff and management for encouraging him to jump into the “Weird Land,”  what he called the offensive zone in an interview with Mike Maniscalco after being named the first star against the Islanders.

Another thing that has lead to his success is his high hockey IQ. Rarely caught out of position, Pesce knows when he has the support from the forwards allowing him to jump into the rush. However should he end up in a tough spot, his fancy dancy stick work tends to bail him out, breaking up a potential scoring chance for opposing teams before it even develops.

On the cusp of entering his prime years, it is safe to say that the best is still to come. Signed through the 2023-24 season at an extremely team friendly cap hit of 4.025 the young blue-liner isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

Now that Slavin is slowly getting the recognition he deserves around the league it’s only a matter of time before Pesce’s name soon follows. If he should continue his stellar play, don’t be surprised to see his name surface in Norris conversations. This whole team is killing it defensively and having the one of the best goal differentials proves it.

Question for CC Readers: Where do you think Pesce ranks among the NHL’s elite defenseman?