Prospect Info: 2022 - 1st OA] Juraj Slafkovsky (LW) Part 4

[Adam Michaels]

Michel Therrien is given hard time but he’s right that if you’re playing with grinders best expectation is shooting. Plus it forces Pezetta and Evans to always go to the net for a rebound. They probably both score more. The 4th line as a whole certainly scores more.

If the right play is for him to shoot, then yes, take the puck in and shoot. But if his path is closed because the other team is playing it well defensively, you still want Slaf to try taking it through them and ignore Evans and Pez? You call that good hockey IQ?

 

[Egresch]

I am not really worried he played those 17 games at 4th line. Remember, the most questioned part of his game was his hockey IQ. He proved he is better than 4th line NHLer (Evans), now lets see if his IQ can handle 2nd/3rd line.

 

[Adam Michaels]

I also think he's been passing to his linemates on odd man rushes out of respect for the vets and wanting to be a good teammate - even when the best opportunity to score is for him to shoot.

I think as he gets more comfortable and more offensive opportunities because he's playing on a more offensive line, he'll start to choose the play that has the best opportunity to go on, not the play that makes him not appear selfish.

Part of that will be that he will be set up by linemates who can find him better and offer him better scoring opportunities and vice versa.

He'll play with guys who will hold onto the puck more often and look to make plays. He won't be with guys whose first instinct is to dump and chase.

 

[Paddy17]

This makes no sense.

Very few players can do what you say. Ignore your teammates because they’re not good enough and do it all by yourself.

I’d be curious to see Ovechkin playing alongside Evans and Pezzetta

Armia ignores his teammates on every shift and he winds up losing the puck after 3 players swarm on him. You have to know how to use your linemates and pass at the right time.

Unfortunately for Slaf, his teammates just can't give him the puck back. Granted, he should take a part of the blame too as he wasn't going to high danger areas to receive a pass earlier in the season. That seems to be better now as I think he's starting to learn to better support his linemates when they have the puck.

 

[26Mats]

Part of that will be that he will be set up by linemates who can find him better and offer him better scoring opportunities and vice versa.

He'll play with guys who will hold onto the puck more often and look to make plays. He won't be with guys whose first instinct is to dump and chase.

let's hope he gets to play with such players for the rest of the season!

He should have been for a while now, imo.

 

[MasterD]

Go check Jack Hugues and Lafreniere 1 season total points

Joe Thornton.

 

[Adam Michaels]

let's hope he gets to play with such players for the rest of the season!

He should have been for a while now, imo.

I agree

 

[BehindTheTimes]

I'll even say that considering who he was playing with mostly so far, his production is better than his usage.

He was centered by Evans, who only has 2 assists so far this year. He played many games with Pez, who has 0 pts. He played with Armia, who has 0 pts. He played a bit with Dadonov, who has 2 pts. He had Pitlick for a game or two, who has 0 pts.

So when you look at those linemates he was playing with, you see his production in a different light. And even if he sees more PP time now, it's not like that is the reason he has more ponts. Out of his 6 pts, only 1 is from the PP (his goal in St. Louis). Aside from that, the rest is at even strength.

His production with those players is basically the same as theirs.

I would like to see him put up points and dominate somewhere. He’s never really done it, but if he makes progress on a game by game basis in play that will be good enough for me for now.

I don’t like these posts with almost no sample to prop him up though. He is outperforming the worst players on our team when he plays with them by a microscopic amount, im not sure that means anything.

 

[Egresch]

His production with those players is basically the same as theirs.

No, it is not. Slaf has double points than all his linemates combined. It should be the opposite.

I would like to see him put up points and dominate somewhere. He’s never really done it,

He dominates most of his career. At 13 he dominated Slovak U16 league (54 p in 23 gp), at 14 dominated Czech U16, at 15 dominated Finnish U18, at 17 dominated Finnish U20.

 

[Adam Michaels]

His production with those players is basically the same as theirs.

I would like to see him put up points and dominate somewhere. He’s never really done it, but if he makes progress on a game by game basis in play that will be good enough for me for now.

I don’t like these posts with almost no sample to prop him up though. He is outperforming the worst players on our team when he plays with them by a microscopic amount, im not sure that means anything.

He's the second least used player on the team. Only Pez averages less TOI than Slaf. And yet, Slaf is outproducing a bunch of guys who average 2 mins or more of ice time than him.

He has 1 point less than Anderson. 2 points less than Gallagher and Hoffman. 3 points less than Dvorak. And these guys average 3 or more mins of ice time than him.

That is an indictment on those guys who don't produce more. But what it's not is an indictment on Slaf.

 

[BehindTheTimes]

He's the second least used player on the team. Only Pez averages less TOI than Slaf. And yet, Slaf is outproducing a bunch of guys who average 2 mins or more of ice time than him.

He has 1 point less than Anderson. 2 points less than Gallagher and Hoffman. 3 points less than Dvorak. And these guys average 3 or more mins of ice time than him.

That is an indictment on those guys who don't produce more. But what it's not is an indictment on Slaf.

This is true, still think it means more about them and less about Slaf. It’s certainly not a negative on Slaf, just a bit meaningless. They are cap dumps we would give away if anyone would take them.

 

[HuGort]

The chemistry has just started. Wait till it matures.

If the Monahan - Anderson - Slafkovsky line stays together and gels it would give the Canadiens something they haven't had in a long time - a big, strong, skilled line that can wear down opponents and put the puck in the net.

 

[salbutera]

If the Monahan - Anderson - Slafkovsky line stays together and gels it would give the Canadiens something they haven't had in a long time - a big, strong, skilled line that can wear down opponents and put the puck in the net.

Without sacrificing pace

 

[ZUKI]

He's the second least used player on the team. Only Pez averages less TOI than Slaf. And yet, Slaf is outproducing a bunch of guys who average 2 mins or more of ice time than him.

He has 1 point less than Anderson. 2 points less than Gallagher and Hoffman. 3 points less than Dvorak. And these guys average 3 or more mins of ice time than him.

then MSL uses him very well ; he has only 1, 2 or 3 points less than those players playing less time

 

[dcyhabs]

Amen

Lefebvre sure didn't help anyone, but Leblanc never had any stand-out skill. Like it or not, if he wasn't from here and if the draft's not in Montreal that year, no way in hell we pick him at that spot.

His ceiling potential was Niklas Sundstrom. And that's being generous.

​

He wasn’t ever going to be a star but he had a clear path to bottom 6.

 

[dcyhabs]

Lmao, yeah sly hurt his feelings so much he didn’t want to play anymore. He was never any good, he was a struggling checker on a bottom feeder and was a part of the reason why we were a bottom feeder. LL couldn’t play hockey. As much as I don’t like Sly, Louis was the reason Louis stunk.

I mean this guy didn’t have a single attribute that was above average, nothing. Most 1st rounders have at least one skill that makes them standout. He had zero, he was trash. He looked good because the team stunk and mediocrity was celebrated, but he was never any good.

Not so much hurting his feelings as creating an atmosphere where no one enjoyed playing hockey. There were no successes. A good coach probably wouldn’t have generated a single star from those picks, but a mediocre one would have won more games and graduated a bottom sixer or two.

Lefebvre was given a role that he wasn’t suited for and he was dramatically, epically bad. I’m sure he wasn’t having fun, either.

 

[BehindTheTimes]

Not so much hurting his feelings as creating an atmosphere where no one enjoyed playing hockey. There were no successes. A good coach probably wouldn’t have generated a single star from those picks, but a mediocre one would have won more games and graduated a bottom sixer or two.

Lefebvre was given a role that he wasn’t suited for and he was dramatically, epically bad. I’m sure he wasn’t having fun, either.

Louis wasn’t motivated enough. Yes, Sly sucks, no one thinks he was a good coach, but that doesn’t mean he’s responsible for every poor player that came his way.

Louis lacked drive and commitment to improve his game, didn’t have a single outstanding quality about his game and failed to make an impact. This isn’t unusual when the prospects upside is 3rd liner, it’s normal. The mistake was picking him.

 

[Hannibal]

Less and less shy! Keep it up big guy.

 

[Colezuki]

How’d he look today?

 

[Kojo]

How’d he look today?

He looked like he doesn't want to play on the fourth line ever again.

 

[MasterD]

He wasn’t ever going to be a star but he had a clear path to bottom 6.

Agreed. And he didn’t make it. We gonna blame coaching for not making it in the bottom 6 now?

He played like dog poop, got traded and didn’t do poop there either. His mind was elsewhere, the end. Personally I think hockey just wasn’t his thing, Daigle style. And that’s fine, the guy is obviously smarter than I am and probably makes more money than I ever will using his Harvard degree. Probably didn’t expect, or want, to face that kind of pressure.

 

[BaseballCoach]

This is true, still think it means more about them and less about Slaf. It’s certainly not a negative on Slaf, just a bit meaningless. They are cap dumps we would give away if anyone would take them.

1.96 p/60 so far. That's more than Stutzle got in his rookie year.

If Slaf can inch up to 2.20 p/60 and average 13 minutes per game for the rest of the year (had over 14 today), he would end the season with 35 points in 77 games.

OR ..... we could try to send him to Laval, OHL or Trois-Rivieres if the goal is 1 ppg.

 

[KevSkillz4]

Andrei Svechnikov is the guy that I wanted really bad in 2018, I hoped that Habs win the 2nd overall to draft this guy.

Thanks god, we drafted a guy who can easily play like Svech. Slaf is going to be so much fun to watch like Svech. He have the same skillset of him. We can certainly hope that Slaf have a career like Svechnikov, they are both wingers, they are both have really hands

Since Slaf play with Monahan, it's been 2 of his best game on Habs uniform, that's why he need to have ice time and PP minute.

 

[Nedved]

Slafkovsky is really warming up on me. He has too many raw tools to not eventually put together a 40-50 point season. At least a 2nd line winger in a couple years. Good draft pick.

 

[cphabs]

He looked like he doesn't want to play on the fourth line ever again.

Lmfao

Slafkovsky is really warming up on me. He has too many raw tools to not eventually put together a 40-50 point season. At least a 2nd line winger in a couple years. Good draft pick.

He’s 18 lol…