Dennis Seidenberg joined the Hurricanes in the midst of the 2006-07 season and grew into the role of a quiet, steady top four defenseman without a ton of flair. He eventually found his way to a pairing with Joni Pitkanen who was the opposite as a flashy, often non-textbook gifted defenseman. The duo played its best hockey in the 2008-09 season that Dennis Seidenberg finished with a career high 30 points (5 goals and 25 assists). More importantly, he grew to become the Robin for Joni Pitkanen’s Batman. No other player was ever capable of reading, reacting and complementing Pitkanen’s freelancing style like Seidenberg. The duo was the Canes top defense pairing on a 2008-09 team that earned the team’s first playoff berth since the 2005-06 season.
Seidenberg was even better in the playoffs when Pitkanen was one of the Canes best players and Seidenberg was right there to complement Pitkanen’s style and help eat up as many of the hard minutes as possible. In those 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs, Seidenberg had one goal and five assists in 16 games. More significantly he was one quarter of an underrated top four on defense. He also had his best game when it mattered most assisting on both the first and the final goal in the Canes exciting game seven overtime win in Boston to win that series.
Dennis Seidenberg ultimately played parts of three seasons with the Hurricanes and notched 6 goals and 45 assists, but more significantly he played sound and complementary hockey as a steady top four during the Canes run to make the 2009 playoffs and then win two playoff series in stunning fashion.
Go Canes!
