Hamilton, Slavin Named Two of NHL's Top Defensemen

The Carolina Hurricanes boast one of the National Hockey League's best blue lines, and both players on the top pair rank among the league's top 20 defensemen, according to NHL Network.

Dougie Hamilton and Jaccob Slavin rank 7th and 17th, respectively, on NHL Network's list of Top 20 NHL Defensemen Right Now, as
revealed on Sunday night
.
NHL Network also

, who ranked Slavin 9th and Hamilton 11th.
Hamilton was compiling a career season before a freak injury in Columbus unfortunately cut his regular season short in mid-January. Still, in 47 games, Hamilton led all Canes defensemen in goals (14) and points (40). He ranked fourth on the team in points and eighth among all NHL defensemen in goals. Had he not missed the last 21 games of the eventually pandemic-shortened regular season, Hamilton likely would have put up career high numbers across the board (he was already a career-best plus-30) and would have had a strong case for Norris Trophy consideration (he finished seventh in voting). He also would have participated in his first career NHL All-Star Game.
In 129 career games with the Canes, Hamilton has tallied 32 goals and 47 assists (79 points), and over the last three seasons, no NHL defenseman has scored more goals than he has (49).

"Dougie Hamilton has figured it all out," NHL Network analyst and former NHL defenseman Ken Daneyko said. "He has become a stud, a force on the back-end."
Slavin has long been considered one of the league's best-kept secrets, though as the Canes continue to attract national exposure, it isn't much of a secret anymore. Slavin finished fifth in Norris Trophy voting, attracting one second-place vote and five third-place votes in appearing on 82 Professional Hockey Writers Association ballots.
Slavin set career highs in assists (30), points (36) and plus-minus (plus-30) in 68 games in 2019-20. He paced the team in average time on ice (23:24) and ranked sixth in the league in total shorthanded time on ice (210:55). Slavin recorded just 10 penalty minutes and finished fourth in Lady Byng voting with 31 first-place votes, second most among all players.
In Hamilton's stead, Slavin represented the Canes in his first NHL All-Star appearance. He won the Accuracy Shooting event at NHL All-Star Skills, hitting all five targets in 9.505 seconds.

In the 2020 postseason, Slavin became the first player to score an NHL goal in the month of August, his first career postseason goal and the fourth-fastest game-opening goal in franchise postseason history (1:01 of Game 1 vs. New York).

"You look at the depth of our defense, and I'd put it right up there with the top of the league,"
Slavin said after the season
. "Going into next year, I'm super excited about it."
What are your thoughts on the NHL Network list? Are there 16 defensemen in the NHL who are better than Slavin? I don't think so, and I think you'd be hard-pressed to name six, even. Is the fan list more accurate? It may well be. TV's Mike Maniscalco and I broke down the list (and re-ordered it) on
episode 147 of CanesCast
(35:40 mark).
NHL Network will continue their weekly positional countdowns in November with their lists of top 20 wingers, top 20 centers and top 10 goaltenders. Then in December, NHL Network will reveal its list of top 50 players.