The evolution of Jalen Chatfield's game continues to make him one of the Carolina Hurricanes' best finds ever. They took a low-risk, high-reward chance on him in 2021, and he's paid them back in spades as one of their most trusted shutdown guys. He's not the most offensively inclined defenseman ever, but that's not always what the team needs.
After a career season in 2023-24 earned him a three-year extension with the Canes, Chatfield has been about as steady as you'll see during the regular season. While his numbers weren't quite where they were when he signed his new deal, they hadn't been far off. However, his postseason numbers left something to be desired. In 2025-26, Chatfield brought it all together.
Chatfield was setting his teammates up while playing shutdown defense
The Canes tried to buck their trend of putting an offensive defenseman with Jaccob Slavin. Instead, Chatfield and Slavin formed a lethal shutdown tandem. Unfortunately, Slavin's early injury shut that down for a bit. Chatfield saw a lot of time with K'Andre Miller and Shayne Gostisbehere, but once the defense got healthy, Chatfield and Slavin were reunited for good.
Offensively, Chatfield wasn't scoring a lot of goals. He didn't break through until the 44th game of the year against Anaheim and only had one more the rest of the way. However, Chatfield set a new career high with 15 assists. In 72 games, he finished with 17 points, continuing a slight drop in production, while averaging a career-best 20:08 on ice per night.
Chatfield did much of the same in the postseason. He was held to one point in each of the first two rounds, though his point against the Flyers was important. In the second period of a tied Game 3, the Canes were on the penalty kill. After Jordan Martinook dove to send his teammates on a 2-on-1, Jordan Staal found Chatfield for a one-timer. Chatfield's goal served as the game-winner in a 4-1 win.
The points really started coming in the second half of the playoffs. Chatfield responded after a bad Game 1 against Montreal with two assists in Game 2, finishing the series with three points. In the Stanley Cup Final, he played his best hockey. Chatfield had two helpers in Game 1 and added one more in Game 4 while shutting down the Golden Knights to help the Canes finish the job.
Chatfield is due a big pay day as he enters a contract year
Entering the 2026-27 season, Chatfield is one of the few players on the roster set to become an unrestricted free agent at its conclusion. Early in the summer, there were some experts who thought Chatfield could fetch somewhere around $6-7 million on his next deal. He'll be 31 years old next summer, so there will be plenty of eyes on him this season.
Personally, as much as I'd love to have Chatfield back on the Hurricanes next season, I don't see it happening for that amount. I'm not convinced that number is what it'll actually be, unless he makes it to free agency and someone goes all out. Of course, Chatfield could easily go out and have another career year, making it a tough decision for the Hurricanes' front office.
We'll get a better idea of how the Hurricanes will look defensively when training camp begins, though I can see a world where Slavin and Chatfield are back together to begin the new year. There's no shortage of options for where to put him, but their top pair was excellent against Vegas. If Chatfield uses this opportunity to drive more offense, he should be in really good shape.
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