Juraj Slafkovsky - Year Two

[cave troll]

Yeah man he has no skills. He fooled the entire hockey world in his draft year. He is slow. A total imposter.

Thing is, you showed a video of Clifton outskating Slaf and routinely taking his stick away before he can shoot properly.

 

[Kennerback]

Yeah man he has no skills. He fooled the entire hockey world in his draft year. He is slow. A total imposter.

He’s not fast but his speed is not a problem. If the other issues are fixed, his speed would be sufficient.

 

[Jaynki]

He’s not fast but his speed is not a problem. If the other issues are fixed, his speed would be sufficient.

I would say he is not quick and he is not agile. But he is fast and powerful

 

[Tyson]

Criticizing a 19 year old is not where the energy needs to be.
He was rushed and we are seeing the results. Even Owen Power went back to Michigan after being drafted 1OA.
There was no rush to throw him into the NHL at 18.
This is where my frustration is, with the decision to put a kid in the NHL who got laid out every other game.

 

[Jaynki]

Thing is, you showed a video of Clifton outskating Slaf and routinely taking his stick away before he can shoot properly.

Thing is, i showed a video of Slaf outskating Dahlin and routinely taking the puck away from him before creating separation between them two, as Dahlin was not able to keep up.

Listen, lets not lose our time over that.

His speed burst and powerful skating are not a problem.

He have a hundreds other.

 

[Kennerback]

Thing is, you showed a video of Bryson outskating Slaf and routinely taking his stick away before he can shoot properly.

A few notes. He can be “hockey slow” in that it’s not just pure speed that’s at play. He’s notably slower when skating with the puck. His problem is not stickhanding either however… While other players are thinking “net” or “goal”, Slaf is thinking “pass”. And even if he beats the player, then he needs to get that “broken-down lawnmower that’s been in the shed all winter” he calls a shot windup to start. Result: too slow.

 

[cave troll]

Thing is, i showed a video of Slaf outskating Dahlin and routinely taking the puck away from him before creating separation between them two, as Dahlin was not able to keep up.

Listen, lets not lose our time over that.

His speed burst and powerful skating are not a problem.

He have a hundreds other.

Well yes. In that breakaway skating was not the problem. I much more concerned about him not realizing that the second D is overtaking him from the right. He was probably fixed on the goalie the whole time and these are the problems he is stuggling with. The vision on the ice. The quick decisions. But honestly, these are the things you need to learn during junior hockey times.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Between this speech and this past summers nonsense about the entire scouting staff being unanimous on Reinbacher, its pretty clear we don't have a scouting department. We have an outspoken blowhard head scout who just picks who he wants.

Hutson was the steal of the draft. Beck was a good pick. There’s probably four or five guys we picked in 2022 who would be first rounders if the draft were redone today.

Slaf may bust out, who knows? I’m more upset at how we’re developing him than anything else. But I’d say we had a great draft that year.

 

[Kennerback]

Well yes. In that breakaway skating was not the problem. I much more concerned about him not realizing that the second D is overtaking him from the right. He was probably fixed on the goalie the whole time and these are the problems he is stuggling with. The vision on the ice. The quick decisions. But honestly, these are the things you need to learn during junior hockey times.

I‘m starting to think many of his on-ice decisions are predicated on the fact he doesn’t have a shot. How would you play if you knew shooting was never an option?

 

[Frank Drebin]

Hutson was the steal of the draft. Beck was a good pick. There’s probably four or five guys we picked in 2022 who would be first rounders if the draft were redone today.

Slaf may bust out, who knows? I’m more upset at how we’re developing him than anything else. But I’d say we had a great draft that year.

Its too early to judge anything right now.

Late round steals are supposed to compliment your first round picks, not take the place of them. Its great that some of our later picks moved up, but lets be honest our high picks have moved down and that hurts more.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Its too early to judge anything right now.

But it’s not too soon to say we f***ed up taking Slaf?

Late round steals are supposed to compliment your first round picks, not take the place of them. It’s great that some of our later picks moved up, but let’s be honest our high picks have moved down and that hurts more.

Yes, let’s be honest here.

1. The Canadiens took a player that was consensus number one. They didn’t go off the board with that pick - unless you want to point to Wright. Even there though, Slaf overtook him according to most scouts.

2. A lot of folks who were screaming for Wright have now started ripping on Montreal for not taking Cooley - a guy who went third overall while Wright went fourth. (And no that’s not everyone, some did want Cooley and that’s fine)

3. Scouting comes into play MORE so with later picks. How much scouting do you have to do in order to take Connor Bedard for example?

4. If it’s too early to say we had a great draft then it’s sure as hell too early to be screaming that this guy’s a bust or that our scouting f***ed up the pick.

 

[Sterling Archer]

Love the passion but everyone needs to calm the f*** down. He’s 19 and is going to take several years to develop like most other big, high draft picks. I’ll start to worry when he’s doing this at 23. Until then, chiiiiiilllllllll.

 

[BaseballCoach]

Well yes. In that breakaway skating was not the problem. I much more concerned about him not realizing that the second D is overtaking him from the right. He was probably fixed on the goalie the whole time and these are the problems he is stuggling with. The vision on the ice. The quick decisions. But honestly, these are the things you need to learn during junior hockey times.

Are you saying you want him to learn how to sense people catching him, by playing in Junior where nobody is going to catch him ever?

 

[cave troll]

A similar thing happened, but not in favour of Reinbacher. I was a Michkov guy, but I spent most of the time talking people off the ledge about Reinbacher. Not the next Pronger, but a very good player.

Some of the nonsense said about Michkov at the start of the season was very bad faith.

Same thing happened after we drafted Slaf. Suddenly we got the new Jagr while Cooley became a gnome, Wright became a megabust.
I was sure a rude awakening will come soon and it already started.
After years and years of horrendous drafts and after the appointment of Bobrov who was one of the worst possible candidates for that position, we were yer again overhyping our picks and bashing players we didn't pick.
I was laughing at that bashing of Michkov when he was excluded from SKA. I knew he'll show his skills in Sochi, but some people really wanted the kid to fail only cause we passed on him.
Somehow I have a feeling that Briere will have the last laugh.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

How could you not respect the man who was the lead in Waterworld?

Did I?

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

The funniest part is we also drafted him because of his *attitude* and how we won't lose confidence even if he puts up 35 career points between the age of 18-22 lol lets see how thats gonna work out for him when the whole hockey world is roasting him

 

[NotProkofievian]

If I made a list of what I wanted Slaf to do better, skating and what he does on breakaways wouldn't make the cut. It's irrelevant. If he never scored on a breakaway in his entire career, he could still be either a top player, or a complete bust.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

Juraj is a pretty strong skater, even at the NHL level.

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Positioning and making quick decisions are the issue , he skates really well for his size

 

[DAChampion]

Did I?

Was a general joke

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Was a general joke

Ha, ok got it. Thought you might be one of those waterworld megafans.

 

[cave troll]

Are you saying you want him to learn how to sense people catching him, by playing in Junior where nobody is going to catch him ever?

You don't need to sense people. You need to to move your eyes to the right and then you will see the people coming at you from the right.
In order to stop sensing threats and start to look at threats, he needs to stop looking at the ice or straight ahead of him which is a thing he struggles with since the start.

I think he should be forced to watch "Campbell on Umberger" video 2 hours a day with "Slaf, will can happen to you too if you don't keep your head up" on the screen.

 

[Jaynki]

Love the passion but everyone needs to calm the f*** down. He’s 19 and is going to take several years to develop like most other big, high draft picks. I’ll start to worry when he’s doing this at 23. Until then, chiiiiiilllllllll.

I totally agree with preaching patience and i will even advocate it. But although its too early right now to draw any conclusion, i do think its perfectly fair to expect a top, blue chip prospect to attain certain standard before the age of 23 and

 

[StCaufield]

Playing with Monahan someone will look at him as a top 9 player. Nobody wants a fourth liner at 6.5 cap hit and 8-9 mil real dollars. Even when we watch him play he isn't creating stuff on his own, he's getting points off of the work Monahan or the D do. He'd still be at 0 points on the fourth line in my opinion. He certainly plugs well enough in that support role that he's ok on the third. Far too slow to move up.

I feel like getting out of gallys contract would be a godsend if Hughes can pull it off.

Oh no I’m taking money out of the equation here but yes

 

[Kennerback]

He needs a “shooting/getting the puck off fast“ coach.
He needs a “use your body to drive the slot“ coach.
He needs a shrink to tell him “it’s OK to try to score goals”.

The rest is secondary and not urgent.

 

[Hins77]

Criticizing a 19 year old is not where the energy needs to be.
He was rushed and we are seeing the results. Even Owen Power went back to Michigan after being drafted 1OA.
There was no rush to throw him into the NHL at 18.
This is where my frustration is, with the decision to put a kid in the NHL who got laid out every other game.

The problem we are facing, is he is playing in MTL. Him playing elsewhere would be much more benefit. He is a futur nhl guy, but I will never understood why he been rushed. The first and only question I would ask to Hugues, could be if it was the right thing to bring him in the NHL at that age.