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 Brady Skjei.
Carolina Hurricanes Offseason Grade: Brady Skjei
Brady Skjei is a left-handed, 6′ 3″ defenceman whose best asset is his skating ability. The Minnesota native was a New York Rangers first-round selection in 2012. He played his first NHL game in 2015-16 and tied his career best in points with 39 the following year. While maybe not a prototypical offensive defenceman, Skjei fits more into the two-way defenceman mold. He uses his elite skating ability to jump up in the play and engage offensively. But he also uses that skating ability to get back defensively.
In 2020, the Rangers traded Skjei to the Hurricanes for a first-round pick. Since that acquisition, Skjei has been a very reliable top-four defenceman for Carolina. In the last few seasons, he has developed strong chemistry with defensive partner Brett Pesce. Pesce’s strong shutdown style compliments Skjei’s high flying, heavy skating style very well. Additionally, Skjei has been used in all situations for Carolina and has become a big piece in the team’s recent success. The Hurricanes will have some tough decisions in the offseason with Skjei, but his 2022-23 season was something to certainly look back at.
Brady Skjei’s Regular Season
This may have arguably been Brady Skjei’s best career regular season. While he fell one point short of his career best, he exploded in goal scoring with 18 goals. He complemented that with 20 assists. This was in 81 games played while his two 39-point seasons both saw him play 82. His 18 goals tied Brent Burns for the team lead in goals by defencemen. They were enough for him to finish tied for third amongst all NHL defencemen with Burns and Roman Josi. He also scored a career-high four powerplay goals and three game-winning goals while contributing a shorthanded goal as well.
The reason for Skjei’s huge jump in goal scoring from nine goals last season seemed to largely be a product of getting more shots on net and improving his shooting. From 2021-22 to 2022-23, his expected goals jumped from 8.8 to 10.1, his Corsi and Fenwick improved five percent each, and his expected goals percentage improved almost two percent. The biggest jump, however, was his goals scored above expected. This made a shocking leap from 0.2 to 7.9.
This data suggests that Brady Skjei was driving more chances and taking more shots, but more importantly was taking better shots for the Hurricanes. Maybe his offseason work focused on this. One move in particular that he utilized this season was a fake shot to toe drag where he would create a shooting lane and move towards the center of the ice. Then he would pinpoint an accurate wrist shot into the corner of the net. While the Hurricanes weren’t counting Skjei to be the top goal-scoring defenceman this season, that’s what he became.
While Skjei led the Hurricanes defencemen in most offensive categories, both in points and advanced analytics, his defensive play was solid as well. He had 86.07 expected goals against but 82 goals against. This left him with an even zero goal differential. The Skjei/Pesce pairing took some of the hardest defensive matchups for Carolina this season. Skjei had the second most defensive zone starts for Carolina defencemen after Pesce. And even with that, he was able to defend fairly well with a positive ratio of expected to actual goals against.
This pairing stayed together essentially all year and provided arguably one of the best second defensive pairs in the league. They were second in the league in expected goals for pairs playing at least 150 minutes. Only behind Burns and Jaccob Slavin. With Burns as the offensive guy on the first pairing, Skjei supplied an almost equally as deadly offensive threat from the back end on the second pairing without being a defensive liability.
Brady Skjei’s Playoffs
While Skjei’s goal scoring slowed down in the playoffs, he still was fairly solid for the Hurricanes. He put up one goal and three assists, all primary, in 15 games. This is only one point less than his career high of five points. He played the second most minutes of any Hurricanes defenceman and was second for Hurricanes defencemen in expected goals with 1.6. However, his goals scored above expected dropped to -0.6. This is not super surprising that his offense would dry up some in the playoffs given playoff-style hockey. You could see him working on the ice, but the space just wasn’t as easily available compared to the regular season. Still, you would hope to see him be more at the top of the team’s defence in goals based on his regular season.
Again, Carolina utilized Skjei and Pesce against some tough matchups and, unlike most other Hurricanes defencemen, they started more of their shifts in the defensive zone than any other zone (other than on the fly). This was likely a big reason they had the worst goal differential and expected goal differentials for the team’s defencemen. The Hurricanes balance their defensive pairs’ respective ice times fairly evenly, but if there was a “workhorse” pair, Skjei and Pesce were it. They played the most minutes of any pair and within that Skjei led all Hurricanes players in hits with 52.
Reports indicated that Skjei was dealing with an injury through the playoffs so that also could have accounted for slowing down his offensive production. While offensively he slowed down and there were some moments defensively that the Skjei Pesce pairing struggled, Skjei provided the team with a defenceman that could take tough matchups, still skate like the wind, and provide physicality. He didn’t really wow anyone but he carried a lot of the defensive load.
The Verdict
Skjei’s regular season would have earned him a solid A+ for this Carolina Hurricanes offseason grade. However, his playoff dip cannot be ignored. This isn’t saying he was bad in the playoffs. In fact, he was fairly solid. Especially as a 3/4 defenceman. But he scored at such a pace in the regular season that expectations built for more offence in the playoffs. There is some to Skjei’s game that goes overlooked, however. His skating ability fits in perfectly with this team. It allows for defensive pinches and breakouts that other defencemen may not execute as well. It also allows provides the team with a defenceman that can take difficult matchups because he can keep up. His complimentary style of play with partner Pesce makes them a top defensive pair that was pretty successful this year.
Like Pesce (and many others), Skjei will also need a new contract after next season. In a perfect world Carolina would like to keep both Skjei and Pesce. The question is if they realistically can. Based on his improving performance and this past season, Skjei would likely get a pay raise if he hit free agency. With a lot of the attention going to Pesce right now, could Skjei become a trade piece for Carolina instead of Pesce? It’s certainly possible. He’s another Hurricanes player to keep an eye on this offseason.
Grade: A-
Check out the last Carolina Hurricanes offseason grades article!
Main Photo: Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports
