New Before It Was New: Carolina's Shayne Gostisbehere Was A Pioneer For The Modern Defenseman

When the Florida Panthers joined the NHL in 1993, Shayne Gostisbehere was a five-month-old infant in Pembroke Pines, midway between the team’s original home in Miami and its current digs in Sunrise. Hardcore fans in the region were few and far between. But Gostisbehere’s maternal grandfather, former Montrealer Denis Brodeur, was at the front of the line to become a season-ticket holder on Day 1. His passion for the sport was contagious. “I went to all the games with him,” Gostisbehere said. “He really got me into it. I’m shooting pucks on roller rinks. He’d hang up the soda cans. He was a big part of my success.”

These days, the Panthers are the Stanley Cup champions and the toast of South Florida. But while growing up as a rink rat at the club’s practice facility in Coral Springs and learning his craft in their youth program, Gostisbehere was ahead of the curve.

The same can be said for his playing style. When another Florida-born blueliner, Quinn Hughes, won the Norris Trophy last June, he was celebrated for his impressive offense and cerebral approach to playing defense, built off strong skating and sharp puck movement. Hughes is seen as part of a new breed of blueliners, with Cale Makar and Adam Fox also heading the class.

When Gostisbehere broke in with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2015-16, he put up 17 goals and 46 points and finished as the runner-up for the Calder Trophy. But at the time, his game still raised some eyebrows. “I took a little more of the brunt of it at the beginning of my career because there weren’t so many of us,” he said. “Now, it’s pretty cool to see all the guys having success doing it.”

‘Ghost Bear’ arrived in the NHL with some fanfare – a third-round pick (78th overall) in 2012 who turned pro after being named tournament MVP at the 2014 Frozen Four in Philadelphia. His underdog Union College beat out Minnesota for the national title. “You have to go to Union to understand it,” he said. “To have 2,000 kids in the college, and it’s all Div. III except hockey. To have the success we had and all that hard work, it was magical.”

After a knee injury derailed his 2019-20 season, Gostisbehere had trouble getting back into the regular rotation with the Flyers. He got a fresh start in the desert in the fall of 2021 as part of the Arizona Coyotes.

There, he played more than 22 minutes a night, and he caught the eye of the Carolina Hurricanes at the 2023 trade deadline. The fit turned out to be a good one. It was the longest playoff run of Gostisbehere’s career, with the Hurricanes ultimately being swept by the Panthers in the Eastern Conference final.

A salary-cap crunch prevented Carolina from re-signing him after that run. But the 31-year-old didn’t hesitate to commit to a three-year pact when the Canes circled back around last summer. “To come to an organization like this, where everyone does everything right and they built this culture the last 10 years, it was a pretty easy decision for my wife and I,” he said. “Seeing it build up and getting that taste of playoff success, it was a lot of fun.”

With Eric Tulsky in the GM’s chair for the first time, the Hurricanes went through a major roster revamp as they said goodbye to longtime contributors Brady Skjei, Brett Pesce and Teuvo Teravainen. The new arrivals have fit in seamlessly, and the early results suggest that anyone who said Carolina’s Stanley Cup window had closed may have spoken too soon.

"I took a little more of the burnt it at the beginning of my career because there weren't so many of us." – Shayne Gostisbehere

Coming off a 56-point season with the Detroit Red Wings, Gostisbehere stepped comfortably into the quarterback role on Carolina’s first power-play unit, and he scored in five of his first six games with his new team. At 5-on-5, coach Rod Brind’Amour paired him with another new arrival and former Flyer, Sean Walker. Together, they form a new-school defense pair, thwarting opponents by dominating puck possession and rarely surrendering dangerous scoring chances. “It’s been a great partnership in the sense that we’re very similar players,” Gostisbehere said. “I’m a lefty. He’s a righty. We like to both get up the ice, and we can skate. The system works for us, and it works to our strengths.”

Brind’Amour’s ability to bring out the best in his players has been a hallmark of his six-plus years behind the bench in Carolina. But Gostisbehere also makes time for critiques from grandpa Denis. “He watches every game, and I still get a text after every game, good or bad,” he said. “He’s very honest, so it’s good to have that. I’m lucky to have that.”

This article appeared in the Nov. 25, 2024, World Junior Championship issue of The Hockey News. In this edition, we feature wall-to-wall coverage of the 2025 World Junior Championship, complete with previews of all 10 teams plus some of the most prominent players involved. Also in this issue, we shine the spotlight on San Jose's Tyler Toffoli, Philadelphia's Travis Konecny and a team from Haida Gwaii that really goes the extra mile.

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