Season in Review: Defensemen

This is the third installment in a four-part Season in Review series. Part One: Canes Fall Short of Postseason | Part Two: Forwards | Part Three: Defensemen | Part Four: Goaltenders
A headlining asset for the Carolina Hurricanes is its young, talented defensive corps, and what follows is a breakdown of each of the nine defensemen to skate with the team this season.

Trevor Carrick
One game played, 0 goals, 0 assists, 0 pointsRestricted free agent
Carrick was recalled in mid-October while van Riemsdyk was sidelined with a concussion. He logged a shot on goal and two penalty minutes in 7:32 of ice time against Edmonton on Oct. 17. Carrick, of course, spent the vast majority of the season with the Charlotte Checkers, where he recorded 11 goals and 33 assists (44 points) in 73 games.
Carrick is a restricted free agent this summer.
Klas Dahlbeck
33 games played, one goal, four assists, five pointsRestricted free agent
Dahlbeck was among the group of players that the Hurricanes exposed in the expansion draft, and, in terms of games played, he was an ancillary piece to the team's defense in the 2017-18 season. But, it was his physical edge that separated Dahlbeck's play on the back-end. He was sparingly used, playing in just 33 games, but he didn't shy away from mixing it up in front of the net or using his body to jostle the puck loose from opponents. He embraced his role as the "seventh" defenseman in a professional manner and is a restricted free agent heading into the summer.

Justin Faulk
76 games played, eight goals, 23 assists, 31 pointsUnder contract through the 2019-20 season
It was a curious season for Faulk, tabbed as a co-captain of the team in October. Relied upon for his offensive contributions, especially in goal scoring, Faulk's point total was the lowest it's been since he played just 38 games in 2012-13. After having scored 15, 16 and 17 goals, respectively, in the last three seasons, he netted just eight in 2017-18. Three of those goals came against Los Angeles in a 7-3 win on Feb. 13, as Faulk became the fifth defenseman in franchise history to record a hat trick and the first to record a natural hat trick.
"I didn't score as much," he said. "I just wasn't able to find the back of the net enough, as much as we've come to expect. … I'm going to expect to rebound from that."
Though his goal scoring dipped, he recorded 23 assists and 19 power-play points, most in a season since 2014-15 for both categories.

Faulk skated with a number of defensemen throughout the season, including Slavin, Fleury and Dahlbeck, but he never seemed to be as comfortable or effective in his own zone as he was a season ago with Ron Hainsey, who was his defensive partner more often than not.
Faulk has two years remaining on his contract, and the Hurricanes would benefit from a bounce-back effort in 2018-19.
Haydn Fleury
67 games played, 0 goals, eight assists, eight pointsUnder contract through the 2018-19 season
After playing in 69 games with the Charlotte Checkers in his first professional season in 2016-17, Fleury was prepared to make the jump to the big club as a full-time NHL defenseman. Fleury skated in 67 games with the Hurricanes in his rookie NHL season, at times looking like a seventh overall draft pick and at others looking like a rookie; it was a learning season for the 21-year-old blueliner, and he should be better prepared heading into his sophomore campaign. Playing with the Charlotte Checkers in the Calder Cup Playoffs should boost Fleury's confidence heading into the summer and beyond.
Noah Hanifin
79 games played, 10 goals, 22 assists, 32 pointsRestricted free agent
Unlike Pesce and Slavin, Hanifin entered his third NHL season without a new contract and he turned in what amounted to a breakout performance with career highs on offense and an All-Star selection. After scoring eight goals combined in his first two seasons, Hanifin found the back of the net 10 times in 2017-18, and he led team defensemen in scoring with a career-best 32 points. His dynamic skating and puck-moving abilities translated to being named to the Metropolitan Division All-Star squad for the first time in his career.

There's no question Hanifin is a unique offensive talent on the back-end, and his skating and puck-moving abilities are crucial traits of a successful modern defenseman. There remain some growing pains in Hanifin's defensive game, and that's where he could stand to make the biggest strides moving forward.
Since the Canes did not ink Hanifin to an extension last summer, the 21-year-old defenseman is a restricted free agent.
"I want to be here. I love this group and this organization," he said. "I want to be a part of it. I think there's a bright future here."
Roland McKeown
10 games played, 0 goals, three assists, three pointsUnder contract through the 2018-19 season
Playing in his second professional season, McKeown made his NHL debut with the Hurricanes on Nov. 4 in Arizona and logged a shot on goal and two penalty minutes in 9:05 of ice time. Three nights later back home against the Florida Panthers, McKeown tallied his first two NHL assists before being reassigned to Charlotte. In a late-season recall, McKeown played in seven of the Hurricanes' final nine games. He was a career-best plus-3 against Ottawa on March 26, and on April 2 in Florida, he challenged MacKenzie Weegar to fisticuffs after the Panthers defenseman boarded Brock McGinn.
McKeown figures to be in the mix to compete for a full-time spot with the Hurricanes in the 2018-19 season.
Brett Pesce
65 games played, three goals, 16 assists, 19 pointsUnder contract through the 2023-24 season
Like his usual defensive partner Slavin, Pesce inked a long-term extension in the summer of 2017 after establishing himself as one half of one of the league's best kept secret defensive pairs. Though "flashy" isn't the right descriptor for Slavin, Pesce embodies more of the steady qualities you find in a defenseman: he's probably not going to wow you with any one ability, but he's got a solid grip on most everything. Like Slavin, he probably wasn't as consistent in 2017-18 as he was the season prior - his team-best plus-23 from 2016-17 took a nosedive to a minus-6 - but his points per game production increased from 0.24 to 0.29.

Pesce was shut down toward the end of the season with a shoulder injury.
"I decided against surgery. I talked to a few doctors, and they said it's not necessarily necessary," he said. "I'm just going to rehab it hard and come back next year strong."
Jaccob Slavin
82 games played, eight goals, 22 assists, 30 pointsUnder contract through the 2024-25 season
In the 2016-17 season, Slavin solidified himself as one of the best young defenseman not only on the team but in the NHL. He then inked a mammoth seven-year, $37.1 million contract extension with the Hurricanes. What followed in the 2017-18 season was a mixed bag. While Slavin had shut-down stretches, he also struggled at times and occasionally found himself separated from Pesce, one of the most underrated defensive pairs in the league just a season ago; a year after posting a team-high plus-23 with Pesce, Slavin's plus/minus dipped to a plus-1 in 2017-18.

Slavin's game improved as the season went along, and even through his struggles, he remained a workhorse. He led the team in time on ice per game (22:35), shorthanded time on ice per game (2:36) and even-strength time on ice per game (19:22). Slavin is a staple on the team's penalty kill, and his patented backhand move continues to be a weapon in the shootout.
His performance in 2017-18 might not have been as consistently dominant as it was the season prior, but Slavin is going to be a stalwart on the Canes' back-end for years to come.
Trevor van Riemsdyk
79 games played, three goals, 13 assists, 16 pointsRestricted free agent
Van Riemsdyk was an expansion draft-related acquisition for the Hurricanes in the summer of 2017, as the Canes obtained the defenseman and a 2018 seventh-round draft pick from Vegas in exchange for a 2018 second-round pick. He was a depth add, another piece from Chicago bringing a winning pedigree in tow. Van Riemsdyk was a perfect fit in his role in the 5-6 pairing; he wasn't flashy, but he was steady and solid. He finished the season a team-best plus-9 and equaled his career high in points from a season ago with 16 (3g, 13a).

Van Riemsdyk is a restricted free agent this summer and could easily be brought back into the fold.