Carolina Hurricanes Offseason Grades: Brent Burns

While the Carolina Hurricanes season ended in disappointment, the team had a lot to be proud of. Now in the offseason, tough decisions will be made, and management will work to put the team in a place to succeed next season. In the meantime, we will take a look back at individual players’ seasons and see how they did. For the Carolina Hurricanes offseason grades, today we look at Brent Burns.

Carolina Hurricanes Offseason Grade: Brent Burns

It’s not much of a secret of who Brent Burns is. The six foot five inches, 230 lb. offensive defenceman stands tall above most of the players on the ice. At 38 years old, Burns takes physical conditioning very seriously. It’s a big reason why he is still playing at elite levels in the NHL. This personality trait fits in well with Carolina and head coach Rod Brind’Amour.

A former Norris Trophy winner for the league’s best defenceman, Burns found his way to Carolina in the offseason of 2022. After Carolina lost Dougie Hamilton two years ago and traded Anthony DeAngelo to the Philadelphia Flyers last offseason, they needed a new top-pairing offensive defenceman. Burns became that man and Carolina completed the trade for a very reasonable price. This is not to mention that the San Jose Sharks retained a portion of Burns’ salary for the three years left on his contract (at that time).

Off the ice his personality is very notable. He seems to always have a grin on his face, many times showing his toothless smile. The “storm surge” after Hurricanes wins seemed to be something he not only willingly took part in but enjoyed. He could also readily be seen wearing a tank top shirt showing his tattoos while carrying a military-looking backpack full of…..well all sorts of stuff. But this was what Carolina needed. He brings so much to the Hurricanes both on and off the ice. Burns quickly fell into place on the top defensive pairing with Jaccob Slavin and top powerplay unit.

Brent Burns’ Regular Season

Playing beside Slavin can make most defensemen look really good. But what works best is when a player like Burns has the ability to free will beside a defensively responsible partner in Slavin. And that’s what happened. This season, Burns broke a Hurricanes record for points by a defenceman with 18 goals and 43 assists for 61 points. He played in all 82 games.

With San Jose looking like a rebuilding team, Burns seemed to get a new jolt of excitement coming to play for Rod Brind’Amour in Carolina. He was third on the team in points, tied for first in assists and second in powerplay points with 23. His point totals this year put him in line with other notable defencemen such as Roman Josi and Mikhail Sergachev. Meanwhile, his goalscoring was tied for third in the league with Josi and fellow Hurricanes defencemen Brady Skjei.

On the analytical side, Burns was second on the team in expected goals and goals scored above expected as well as second in Corsi and Fenwick while having 2.73 expected goals against. Where Burns really stood above the rest was his on-ice goal differential at 34 and on-ice expected goals differential at 43.9. He averaged 23.2 minutes per game of ice time while also playing on the first powerplay unit and killing penalties.  His on-ice expected goals differential was fourth in the league. The Burns/Slavin pairing led the league for all forward lines and defensive pairs playing at least 150 minutes together in expected goals with 67.2. They also led all defensive pairings playing at least 150 minutes in shot attempts and unblocked shot attempts. These numbers show just how effective that pair was at generating chances and getting shots on net.

Burns is very good at is finding ways to get shots, especially point shots, through traffic and to the net. This largely helped that top defensive pair excel. He led the entire league in Corsi and Fenwick for defencemen playing at least 250 minutes this season. Whether it’s walking the blue line, shooting quickly, deciding to be patient to wait for the forwards to clear a lane, or dishing the puck and waiting for a return pass, this ability greatly helped the Hurricanes this season as they strongly relied on shots from the point to generate offence.

Brent Burns’ Playoffs

Brent Burns’ return to the playoffs helped the team much like his regular season play. He was second among all defensemen in the playoffs in shots. Additionally, his 2.1 expected goals, 8.5 on-ice expected goal differential, and 59% Corsi put him third overall for all defencemen playing at least 100 minutes. His 59% Fenwick had him at fourth in that category too for defencment playing at least 100 minutes. Burns offensively was able to score two goals and seven assists, including four assists on the powerplay, to lead all Hurricanes defencemen in points and powerplay points.

All of these stats back up the eye test that showed Burns was again a shot and chance generating machine. He was using his ability to get shots through at the point to try to get something going for Carolina. For a lot of the playoffs, it worked. This was until facing the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference Finals when goal scoring became tougher for Carolina.

Outside of the numbers and stats, Burns brought something more to Carolina this postseason. And this may have been a big reason the Hurricanes made it to the Eastern Conference Finals. Burns has an ability on the ice to make “things happen.” When little seems to be working, having a player like that is invaluable. In fact, at times Burns was the one dangling guys down to the goal line to try to get a different looking chance in tight and create some magic. We previously took a look at this in more detail. Call it whatever you like, but it seemed like Burns was providing Carolina with a certain x factor in the postseason that carried over from the year.

The Verdict

Burns’ play, work ethic and personality brought Carolina something special this year. Fans’ had high expectations given his past and place as a top-pairing defenceman. Most gauged that expectation with the factor of his age. However, Burns had shown before this year that age seemed to be just a number. To the extent there were doubts about Burns joining the team, he silenced them this season. Not only did he put up excellent numbers and provide Carolina with an elite top defensive pairing, but he also fit the culture and his assimilation seemed seamless. This largely affected this Carolina Hurricanes offseason grade. Carolina will have Burns for two more seasons barring a trade. It will be interesting to see if Burns ever slows down and that will affect his future. But for now, Carolina will look to him for another big year next season as they chase the Stanley Cup.

Grade: A