The Hurricanes will be welcoming back a critical piece of their back end for tonight’s game against Seattle. The team announced that defenseman Jaccob Slavin has been activated off injured reserve.
They’ll be hoping that the second time is the charm when it comes to returning from injury. Last month, Slavin returned from a lower-body injury only to sustain an upper-body issue in his third game back. As a result, the 31-year-old has been limited to just five games so far this season.
Slavin has received down-ballot Norris votes in each of the last nine seasons and is widely regarded as one of the top shutdown defenders in the NHL. He’s sitting on 299 career points in 750 career regular season contests so he has certainly been more than just a traditional stay-at-home blueliner. His previous play was good enough to earn a spot on Team USA for the Olympics next month despite hardly playing in 2025-26.
The Hurricanes enter tonight’s action atop the Eastern Conference which is especially impressive given how infrequently Slavin has been available to them. He’s listed by the team as being likely to be on their top pairing tonight alongside Jalen Chatfield.
On Friday, Carolina sent blueliner Joel Nystrom back to AHL Chicago without calling anyone else up. As a result, they had an open roster spot to activate Slavin. Their roster now stands at the maximum of 23 players once again.