Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin a finalist for the NHL’s Lady Byng Trophy
Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin, who won the NHL’s Lady Byng Memorial Trophy last year, is a Lady Byng finalist again this season, surprising no one with the Canes.
“You could name it after him,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said Wednesday. “He plays the right way and does it at a high level,”
The Lady Byng is given each year to the player who has exhibited the “best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of play” — a description often used about Slavin.
In addition to Slavin, this year’s finalists are Kyle Connor of the Winnipeg Jets and Jared Spurgeon of the Minnesota Wild, it was announced Wednesday. The winner is determined in voting by the Professional Hockey Writers Association.
“It’s exciting, obviously,” Slavin said Wednesday. “It’s always an honor to be named a finalist for any award but for me that’s a character award. It’s who I want to be as a person and using my hockey to glorify God and how I carry myself on and off the ice. So it’s definitely an honor.”
Slavin, often paired defensively with Tony DeAngelo, led the Canes in ice time per game (23:32), plus/minus (plus-35), blocked shots (121) and takeaways (74) in the regular season as Carolina won the Metropolitan Division title and allowed a league-low 202 goals. His 42 points and 33 even-strength points both were career highs.
Slavin elevated his play in the opening round of the playoffs against the Boston Bruins, He had eight points in the seven-game series (two goals, six assists) and a plus-10 rating that was a team best.
Despite constantly being on the ice against the other team’s best forwards, Slavin had 10 penalty minutes in the regular season and two minutes in the playoffs series with the Bruins.
“I went more to the box this year than last year,” Slavin said, smiling. “But one of things I like to focus on is just positioning. Obviously skating is huge, just making sure I’m in a good position to set myself up where I don’t have to take reaching penalties.
“I’m not a physical player, really. You don’t have to worry too much about roughing penalties. It’s just good positioning, good skating and good stick work.”
Canes defenseman Brendan Smith said in his opinion there is no defenseman in the league better with his stick than Slavin. His hand/eye coordination is elite and his instincts usually on point, including when and when not to jump into a play offensively.
“When you talk about a player, he’s obviously fleet afoot and he’s big and strong,” Smith said. And the fact he can do that and stay out of the (penalty) box, I don’t know what that’s like but it just goes to show you how good he is.”
Smith once played with Hall of Fame defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom with the Detroit Red Wings and said there are similarities in Slavin’s play, joking, “He’s going to be happy with me saying that.
“But there are some of those things that I see. He brings it every day. I think that highly competitive nature is why you become elite like he is.”
The winners of the 2022 NHL Awards will be revealed during the conference finals and Stanley Cup finals. If Slavin receives the award again, he would be the first repeat winner since Martin St. Louis in 2009-10 and 2010-11, and the just the second defenseman to do it — Red Kelly won with Detroit in 1952-53 and 1953-54.
This story was originally published May 18, 2022 at 1:28 PM with the headline "Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin a finalist for the NHL’s Lady Byng Trophy."
