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Player Discussion Juraj Slafkovsky Discussion

Mrb1p said:
I'm well over the pick and the rushing, this is about roster building. He can't be our 2nd best winger, and I suspect he can't be our 3rd best either.
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What do you have him as a ceiling? IMO he's very likely to be a 65-70 pts winger. I don't know many teams who has that as their 2nd best winger let alone 3rd.
 
Best young forward we've had in decades.

He and Hutson are the best bets to win our next Hart trophy once they are in their primes.

Can't wait to see what kind of playoff performer he becomes over time.

Future is bright 😎
 
Victoire HuGo said:
What do you have him as a ceiling? IMO he's very likely to be a 65-70 pts winger. I don't know many teams who has that as their 2nd best winger let alone 3rd.
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How is he going to produce 20 more points than he is right now ? Is he going to grow a brain ? A shot ? He is what he is, with marginal differences. He's been getting every single opportunity to produce, he's playing with the teams best player, spends two minutes on the PP, finishes the games. It's fine, he's going to be useful, but the going is cups, multiple, not to be "most teams". Look at cup winners, even the magically obtained 20 more points wouldn't make him top 3 on Florida, Vegas, Colorado or the Lightnings. He'd be one on the Blues though.

Like what's the goal here, kumbayah or however the f*** its spelled or world-f***ing-domination ? We need better players.
 
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Mrb1p said:
How is he going to produce 20 more points than he is right now ? Is he going to grow a brain ? A shot ? He is what he is, with marginal differences. He's been getting every single opportunity to produce, he's playing with the teams best player, spends two minutes on the PP, finishes the games. It's fine, he's going to be useful, but the going is cups, multiple, not to be "most teams". Look at cup winners, even the magically obtained 20 more points wouldn't make him top 3 on Florida, Vegas, Colorado or the Lightnings. He'd be one on the Blues though.

Like what's the goal here, kumbayah or however the f*** its spelled or world-f***ing-domination ? We need better players.
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The argument is he will get smarter and utilize the opportunities given to him in a more effective (productive) manner.

We can’t disagree with optimism and I won’t bother to argue about the odds of this happening.

I’m speaking only about the player he is today: frustrating, unreliable, lacks effort.
 
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waitin425 said:
I see the usual are jumping back in here after a couple of losses when the whole team looked like garbage.

"See, see.....Slaf sucks! We lost!!!"

You guys are nuts
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Notice this time around we at least do without the Cooley references given how much better Slaf has been than him the past month...

But now it's using Hutson's success as a way to take shots at Slaf lol. Nuts is being too generous
 
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waitin425 said:
I see the usual are jumping back in here after a couple of losses when the whole team looked like garbage.

"See, see.....Slaf sucks! We lost!!!"

You guys are nuts
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In your opinion, do you think Slaf forgot how to shoot the puck on goal or that he’s simply incapable of doing it or he simply doesn’t care?
 
waitin425 said:
what the f*** are you even talking about? how about option C which you leave out. He needs some coaching.
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Like a personal coach just for him, to whisper in his ear what to do before every shift?

I’m referring to him having 1 SoG in the last two must-win games with 20min TOI. What should the Habs organization do to get Slafkvosky to give a shit?
 
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ExReHabs said:
Like a personal coach just for him, to whisper in his ear what to do before every shift?

I’m referring to him having 1 SoG in the last two must-win games with 20min TOI. What should the Habs organization do to get Slafkvosky to give a shit?
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I don't understand why Slaf doesn't shoot more.

Perhaps rushing him ingrained him to not try to be the man, to not believe in himself.
 
Miller Time said:
Notice this time around we at least do without the Cooley references given how much better Slaf has been than him the past month...

But now it's using Hutson's success as a way to take shots at Slaf lol. Nuts is being too generous
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Cooley came back from injury, I'm not sure why youre even using that to argue. You're aware that Cooley has ten more points than Slaf, right ?
 
Miller Time said:
Bookmark this and revisit when he's in his mid 20's.

Don't worry though, it'll be the best tasting crow you've ever had, especially if you plan the feast for the cup finals ;)
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I sure hope so, that would be incredible. Sadly this is reality and we must prepare for him NOT to be that, thus maybe acquiring one or two winger to push him down to have a real shot at the cup.
 
DAChampion said:
I don't understand why Slaf doesn't shoot more.

Perhaps rushing him ingrained him to not try to be the man, to not believe in himself.
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It's just been his playstyle ever since he's came in the NHL. At his best, (Draft year) he had been a net-focused player, now he looks to make plays from the perimeter. With that said, its clear to anyone that has been following Jurajs career that his success lies in the slot area, heres his scoring in his draft year:

1743262094300.png


He didn't take a lot of shots from this area, but he was still looking at the center of the ice more often than not. I think in part, I'd have to blame his sluggish skating for the NHL level, he used to pick up speed in the NZ and blow by forechecking forwards and cut in the middle to take shots, now he's immediatly boxed out and does the little cutback towards the boards to send a random pass that never amounts to anything.

But really though I think you're onto something. The skills Juraj flashed before his NHL careers haven't been seen ever since he got to the NHL. A very, very interesting case study. You would think that you'd see flashed even if he wasn't good enough to pull it off every day, you see it from Dvorak and Armia even, but whats the most impressive thing we've seen from Slaf, skill-wise ? The frustrating part of being a Habs fan is how disappointing Juraj has been IMO.

Forwards also struggle to gain the zone with speed because of our quick offensive zone breakout by defenders, to mostly stationary wingers that stretch the ice. It's a fairly safe way to get out and into the opposing zone, but it comes at the cost of momentum. I think if I recall TPS and Slovakia both used forwards to carry it more than a defender breakout we typically see in the NHL. This leads to him having a lot less speed and having to defer to the outside more than inside, and you just can't shoot from the areas he lands in. Same reason why Armia was never a goalscorer in this league.
 
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DAChampion said:
I don't understand why Slaf doesn't shoot more.

Perhaps rushing him ingrained him to not try to be the man, to not believe in himself.
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He wasn't rushed.

Beyond that, I think it's more a result of his on-ice tendencies to look for the "best play" rather than the good enough play. he's aware that his release currently is too slow and that's leading to many shots getting blocked. He clearly hesitates at times to avoid losing possession/find a better solution. Less confidence and more stubborness or perfectionism... While one might argue that perfectionism is a form of insecurity, in the case of this athlete, there's ample to be seen in his play to suggest he's more than comfortable asserting himself. Players don't make the kind of decisions with the puck that he does every shift if they are skittish about their ability to impact the game.

As he keeps fine tuning his mechanics, he'll improve his release and I suspect we'll see a shift that quickly puts him into high volume shooter territory once he views that as a better option than making the extra pass/extending possession
 
DAChampion said:
I don't understand why Slaf doesn't shoot more.

Perhaps rushing him ingrained him to not try to be the man, to not believe in himself.
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These niggling frustrations are reminiscent of Kostitsyn.

Mrb1p said:
I sure hope so, that would be incredible. Sadly this is reality and we must prepare for him NOT to be that, thus maybe acquiring one or two winger to push him down to have a real shot at the cup.
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A simple exercise: would we miss him if he's out of the lineup? If the answer is "No" or inconclusive, questions will have to be asked of the player and his quality and reliability.

These are must-win regular season games -- when the games are tougher and the pressure higher, are we meant to think he's going to flip a switch and take over? I don't think so.

At no point in his career was he consistent, so what does it take for a player to overcome inconsistency? If it's just time and patience, I guess we really got unlucky with the Kostitsyn and Kotkanimi picks.
 
Mrb1p said:
It's just been his playstyle ever since he's came in the NHL. At his best, (Draft year) he had been a net-focused player, now he looks to make plays from the perimeter. With that said, its clear to anyone that has been following Jurajs career that his success lies in the slot area, heres his scoring in his draft year:

View attachment 1001825

He didn't take a lot of shots from this area, but he was still looking at the center of the ice more often than not. I think in part, I'd have to blame his sluggish skating for the NHL level, he used to pick up speed in the NZ and blow by forechecking forwards and cut in the middle to take shots, now he's immediatly boxed out and does the little cutback towards the boards to send a random pass that never amounts to anything.

But really though I think you're onto something. The skills Juraj flashed before his NHL careers haven't been seen ever since he got to the NHL. A very, very interesting case study. You would think that you'd see flashed even if he wasn't good enough to pull it off every day, you see it from Dvorak and Armia even, but whats the most impressive thing we've seen from Slaf, skill-wise ? The frustrating part of being a Habs fan is how disappointing Juraj has been IMO.

Forwards also struggle to gain the zone with speed because of our quick offensive zone breakout by defenders, to mostly stationary wingers that stretch the ice. It's a fairly safe way to get out and into the opposing zone, but it comes at the cost of momentum. I think if I recall TPS and Slovakia both used forwards to carry it more than a defender breakout we typically see in the NHL. This leads to him having a lot less speed and having to defer to the outside more than inside, and you just can't shoot from the areas he lands in. Same reason why Armia was never a goalscorer in this league.
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I disagree with you fundamentally because you seem to have had unreasonable expectations for him. He was always going to be a disappointing result for a #1 pick because it was such a weak draft. A big bodied 60-65 points winger that needs good linemates was his upside. He's playing at a 50 ppg rate as a 20 years old, he'll get there.

Could he show more intensity? Sure. Could he engage more physically? Or course. But he was never going to be a prime Todd Bertuzzi nor a prime McDavid.
 
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