[1]RALEIGH, N.C. — When Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin finally wrapped his hands around the Stanley Cup and hoisted it over his head, he felt what every hockey player dreams about.
“Pure excitement,” Slavin said nearly a week after the Hurricanes beat the Vegas Golden Knights to win the franchise’s second Stanley Cup title.
And that’s not the only achievement Slavin has experienced of late. In February, he captured an Olympic gold medal [2] with Team USA. Winning the Stanley Cup four months later put him in some exclusive company as just the second American and eighth player overall to win Olympic gold and the Stanley Cup in the same year.
For many players, such accomplishments would naturally lead to reflections on legacy and career milestones. But Slavin, who has long spoken openly about his Christian faith, viewed the moment through a different lens.
“I’m just grateful,” Slavin said shortly after the Stanley Cup win [3]. “Grateful for the win, grateful for the opportunity to glorify God on this stage, biggest stage in hockey. Got to at the Olympics and now the Stanley Cup. God’s so kind. He gets all the glory. So I’m just thankful and grateful.”
Slavin added that the gold medal and Stanley Cup are remarkable achievements, but not ultimate ones.
[4]“It’s pretty crazy. It’s pretty crazy, but again, going to that perspective of ‘Those things are definitely rewarding; it’s amazing, but I can’t take them with me when I die.’ Just gonna lay them at the feet of Jesus and give Him all the glory for it.”
Nearly a week after winning the Cup, that perspective remains unchanged.
“As much and as big of awards that they are, you also sit back and realize they don’t fulfill you,” Slavin said. “You can appreciate them for how rewarding they are, but you can also understand that there’s nothing like having that relationship with Jesus.”
That perspective has been a hallmark of Slavin’s career. Long regarded as one of the premier defensemen in the NHL, he has consistently spoken about playing for God’s glory rather than his own. And that conviction was tested throughout the season.
Slavin battled injuries early in the year that sidelined him for roughly two months, then briefly again after his return in December. Despite the setbacks, he won gold with the U.S. Olympic team and helped Carolina capture the Stanley Cup. Yet he said neither adversity nor success altered his foundation.
“My faith has played the most important factor in all of it because ultimately my faith is what gives me my joy,” Slavin said. “That relationship with Jesus is where my joy is found. It’s not circumstantial joy. It’s not based on circumstances, on winning or losing or being healthy or being injured. My joy was complete the whole time, as complete as it could be this side of heaven. It wasn’t something that wavered with my circumstances, it was something that was constant throughout my circumstances.”
[5]Slavin said the highs and lows of the season only deepened that reliance.
“It really just makes you lean into it more, and truly understand that joy is only found in the Lord,” Slavin said.
Slavin is not alone in that perspective within the Carolina locker room.
Veteran captain Jordan Staal, who at 37 became the oldest player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP, has also reflected on the emptiness of chasing hockey success. Staal previously won a Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009, and the 17 years between Stanley Cup championships is the longest gap in NHL history for a player. Staal was traded to Carolina in 2012.
“I really did have hockey as my identity, and it definitely pushed me to the player I was, but at the same time, it still left me empty,” Staal told Hockey Ministries International [6] in 2016. “I think I finally more or less realized that once I made the NHL, and once I won the Stanley Cup (in 2009) and fulfilling all my dreams that I could ever think of, and then waking up a week later and realizing, ‘That’s it?’ It didn’t quite sit right at times.
“And now I understand, looking back, that hole that you might search for can only be filled by God. It’s definitely something that’s been nurturing in me and that I’ve tried to nurture and tried to grow in my faith and fill that hole with Jesus.”
For Slavin, hearing teammates point to Christ in moments of success is one of the greatest encouragements of the season.
“You hear other guys in that locker room after the game giving glory to God, and it pumps you up,” Slavin said. “It excites you. I’m out here battling with my brothers in Christ.”
Slavin’s influence in the locker room is perhaps most clearly seen in his relationship with fellow defenseman Jalen Chatfield [7]. Chatfield has described Slavin as both his best friend and a spiritual mentor, crediting him with helping him navigate the early stages of his Hurricanes career after beginning his NHL journey with the Vancouver Canucks.
After arriving in Carolina in 2021, Chatfield began attending chapel services and church with Slavin. Their friendship deepened over conversations about faith, eventually leading Chatfield and his wife, Drew, to profess faith in Christ and later be baptized by Slavin in the family’s backyard pool.
“I had said before that if I never won a Stanley Cup in my career, but Jalen Chatfield came to know the Lord, I would consider that a successful career,” Slavin said. “Now you can consider it a successful career in both aspects, right?”
Since arriving in North Carolina 11 years ago, Slavin has been part of Carolina’s transformation from a rebuilding team into an annual Stanley Cup contender, culminating with this year’s championship.
At the conclusion of the team’s championship parade — which drew an estimated 180,000 people to downtown Raleigh on Saturday, June 20 — Slavin recalled a midweek home game during his rookie season in 2015 that only drew about 5,000 fans. Today, the Hurricanes regularly play before near-capacity crowds of roughly 18,500 fans per game.
Slavin also used the moment to point to what he says has remained most important to him throughout that journey.
“You guys know my faith is the most important thing to me,” Slavin told the crowd. “I give all the glory to God. I love this city, I love this team, and I can’t wait to be a Hurricane for the rest of my life.”
Since putting down roots in Raleigh, Slavin says he has experienced the depth of a church community he never fully knew growing up in Colorado as part of a busy hockey family. He attends The Summit Church and says he has found people there who support him not because he is an NHL star, but because he is a fellow brother in Christ.
“They’re fans because I play for the team, but they’re brothers and sisters in Christ that support me in prayer, that encourage me, that hold me accountable,” Slavin said. “They don’t see me as Jaccob the hockey player. They see me as Jaccob the person, Jaccob the brother in Christ. They want my faith to excel more than anything else.”
As is tradition, each member of the Stanley Cup-winning team receives a day with the trophy during the offseason, allowing players to share it with family, friends and their community.
“I’ve been talking a lot about it with my wife,” Slavin said. “We’re trying to figure out the logistics, the details and all of that, but it will involve family, friends and good food. Just enjoying the day with it.”
Following the Hurricanes’ 2006 championship, former defenseman Glen Wesley took the Cup to his church in Cary during his day with the trophy.
“I don’t know what we’re going to land on,” Slavin said. “But we brought up taking it to church, so we’ll see.”
This story originally appeared at the Biblical Recorder [8].
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