Carolina Hurricanes: Updated Look at the Defenders

ST LOUIS, MISSOURI - JANUARY 24: Jaccob Slavin #74 of the Carolina Hurricanes competes in the Honda NHL Accuracy Shooting during the 2020 NHL All-Star Skills Competition at Enterprise Center on January 24, 2020 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
ST LOUIS, MISSOURI - JANUARY 24: Jaccob Slavin #74 of the Carolina Hurricanes competes in the Honda NHL Accuracy Shooting during the 2020 NHL All-Star Skills Competition at Enterprise Center on January 24, 2020 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
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LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 15: Jake Gardiner #51 of the Carolina Hurricanes after a stop in play during a 2-0 Hurricanes win over the Los Angeles Kings at Staples Center on October 15, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 15: Jake Gardiner #51 of the Carolina Hurricanes after a stop in play during a 2-0 Hurricanes win over the Los Angeles Kings at Staples Center on October 15, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

After the deadline, the Carolina Hurricanes have strengthened their back-end with 2 blue line additions. But how does Carolina’s blue line now stack up?

So….. now Carolina have a VERY deep defense corps with many working pieces and many cogs. We saw against Toronto when David Ayers was forced into the game that the Canes now have a team capable of shutting down a game. After two VERY big additions at the deadline to bolster the D core, there are now a total of 9 NHL defenders on this team.

They all have different strengths and weaknesses, so there are a lot of different combinations of defenders that could be put on the ice together after the injection of extra strength at the deadline. You can now run an offensive defender and a defensive defender on the same pairing together, at the same time. You can run shut down D pairs, or you can run a D pair capable of blowing the wheels off an opponent.

There is now so much versatility on the Canes blue line with so many moving cogs and pieces, that it’s worth taking an updated look at it as a whole after the madness of the deadline. So, without any further delay, please join me in looking at the brand new D core and how strong this D core is going to be when everyone is healthy.

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