#1OA Juraj Slafkovsky - Huge Disappointment

[the valiant effort]

At his best so far in his ~173 GP Slaf has shown advanced (for his age) defensive engagement and instincts, solid wheels, very good board play, a knack for moving pucks out of danger, excellent playmaking, and, not often enough, man strength and a good shot. Most lacking pretty much from game one are pucks on net, unwillingness to transport through the NZ, and a tendency to telegraph.

This season at his worst he’s perpetually stuck in mud and looking to defer to Suzuki at first puck touch. It’s a fairly clear sign that he’s struggling with confidence and still very much lacking experience. The likelihood that this is the final form of Slaf is just not very high in my eyes. I have nothing but patience to see if he can put most or hopefully all of those good qualities together.

On draft day 2022 Cooley was my guy because he was clearly the best combo of speed and requisite skill, and not a late rising Euro. Almost 3 years later despite Slaf’s ups and downs the Cooley what-ifs simply do not cross my mind because I am perfectly content with the Slaf gamble. In 2025 Cooley’s profile is a tad JAGgy.

 

[MarkusNaslund19]

Big guys take time to acclimatize to their body and the NHL. Almost always true.

Also, 2022 draft was mostly bad. So 'hurr durr 1st overall' doesn't pan water. This isn't Bedard or Celebrini, this is more like Cutter Gauthier.

 

[Fatass]

Has msl started to use some “tough love” with Slafkosky? Or is he still playing him top line and first unit PP?

 

[Melrose Munch]

It was just a weak draft year. If you look at the top of the draft, none of those guys are looking like anything more than 2nd liners, let alone superstars.

Slafkovsky will in all likelyhood be an average second line winger, albeit a rangy one. If the Habs were smart they'd be feeding him JVR clips.

Suck, eh?

Kind of the way it goes sometimes.

Yakupov, Puljujarvi were the same for us.

Canadian teams always draft at the top during these weak years.

 

[HabzSauce]

Slaf has definitely been disappointing this season. He needs to show more dog in him. We've seen flashes so we know it's in him.

Want to see what he looks like with more confidence & assertiveness. He still plays like he's scared to do anything. Which is so weird because he has MSL as coach who lets his guys try anything. Slaf defers to his teammates way too much instead of making things happen himself. I like what he does along the boards but that's about it.

I don't think IQ or lack of skill is his problem here. He just needs to mature mentally and feel confident out there on a regular basis. Im still not worried about him but if he's still playing like this next year I will have some concerns lol

 

[deca guard]

why dunce gm bring teenagers up so early is ridiculous . the priority is giving teenagers the time to reach physical maturity while also being taught more bout the nhl game by minor league developmental coaches , ex nhlers , so theyre ready for the new level

 

[Hammettf2b]

@Kairi Zaide your thots?

 

[PuckG]

kind of the way it goes...
good thing you also sucked for Hall, Nugent-Hopkins and mcDavid

The only game changer at #1 was McDavid. But all the sucking was probably worth it for that alone..

 

[OVO16]

What a terrible pick lmao. Bro is a massive bust.

Those Pierre Engvall comparisons are coming true day by day

 

[Divine]

Every time a thread about this comes up, there's 2 different arguments.

1.) People say he's a disappointment for a 1st overall pick
2.) People respond with his stats compared to non-first overall picks and say he's better than them.

Slafkovsky has been disappointing for a 1st overall pick. The same player with the same stats picked in the 2nd round would be considered a win.

 

[Breakfast of Champs]

Every time a thread about this comes up, there's 2 different arguments.

1.) People say he's a disappointment for a 1st overall pick
2.) People respond with his stats compared to non-first overall picks and say he's better than them.

Slafkovsky has been disappointing for a 1st overall pick. The same player with the same stats picked in the 2nd round would be considered a win.

Even if he was a #9 OA or something it would be a win. How man 19 year old players hit 50 pts?

 

[Breakers]

It is wild there is a mixtape of massive hits on him

At such a young age he has been decimated a ton of times

 

[ReHabs]

Even if he was a #9 OA or something it would be a win. How man 19 year old players hit 50 pts?

How many 19 year olds get fixed on a first line and force-fed pucks from top players like Suzuki and Caufield?

 

[Nona Di Giuseppe]

Looking to be a pretty weak draft.

this cannot be understanded...

.. some guys will likely emerge to be good NHLers but zero superstars have shown themselves. This looks like a draft that started at the 15th pick tbh.

With this draft, Montreal did pretty well considering.

 

[Nona Di Giuseppe]

They just showed some stats that at this point he's pretty much at the same point total as Jack Hughes, so I guess we'll know next season if he can take off, or if it's still "well, let's hope he can get 20 goals a year"

I know he wasn't 1st overall, but an example is a guy like Adrian Kempe that took 6 years from draft until he broke out.

okay, but you're citing anomalies and not the norm for these types of players. crossing your fingers a player is going to take his game to another level at 26, like Kempe, is silly. next season will be very telling.

 

[Felidae]

What a terrible pick lmao. Bro is a massive bust.

Those Pierre Engvall comparisons are coming true day by day

Slafkovsky already surpassed Engvalls career high by 15 points last season and is just 6 points short of doing so again this year.

 

[Pavels Dog]

This is the real issue imo. It's fine to say "big guys take longer" etc. but then why did you rush him to the NHL and immediately sign him to a huge contract the first chance you got?

 

[Be a Hab]

I love Slaf, he will be great!

I'd still pick Slaf 1st overall.

 

[waitin425]

When the timing is right, this thread has earned a return of the Unicorn thread.

 

[Frederixx]

I could be wrong, but isn't Bedard the only player that is 20yold or younger with more pts than Slafkovsky in his young career?

So much drama

 

[Sasha Orlov]

This is the real issue imo. It's fine to say "big guys take longer" etc. but then why did you rush him to the NHL and immediately sign him to a huge contract the first chance you got?

I don’t think Eric Macramalla had anything to do with it tbh

 

[Miro4Norris]

Habs would match Islanders 4 stanley cups dynasty if they Drafted Michkov and Cooley instead of those plugs. Now they just gonna be another Minnesota Wild

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

I could be wrong, but isn't Bedard the only player that is 20yold or younger with more pts than Slafkovsky in his young career?

So much drama

That's not really a great metric, he's played more games than pretty much every 20U player in the league.

For instance, he has 3 more career points than Cooley, but he's played 42 more games.

He's currently 8th in points among 20U players this year, with 3 of those guys coming from his draft.

I think he's going to be a solid player, but likely underwhelming as far as first overall picks go. But that doesn't make him a disappointment, at least not for me, as he was never expected him to really become an elite player. I had him pegged as a 25-30 goal 60-70 point complimentary power forward, and I think he's still very much on track for that, development isn't linear.

He's still the third highest scorer on his team as a 20 year old, and is scoring at about the same pace as last year despite averaging about 1 min less ice time.