Juraj Slafkovsky - Year Two

[Lafleurs Guy]

It was too soon to call Slafkovsky a bust after 40 weak games. It's too soon to say he's 'carrying the mail' (that's a good thing, right?) after ~12 strong games.

We'll need at least another two years to judge Bobrov's crucial picks during our tank years.

Yes, he’s played well since being moved up. However it’s only been a short stretch in the grand scheme of things.

As I said a while ago, his progression won’t be linear. There will be two steps forward and one step back. And we’ll have tougher opponents ahead.

But we have seen really good progress in recent weeks. People are starting to see why we drafted this guy. That’s encouraging. But he’s not going to be a point per game player the rest of this year. I suspect we’ll see some see-sawing in his game as well as this thread.

 

[BehindTheTimes]

Missed the game again so I can’t comment. Sounds like he played well which is encouraging.

 

[dackelljuneaubulis02]

Ah man a skilled 6’4 230 lb forward?
It’s gonna suck having one of THOSE around.

 

[ChesterNimitz]

No way it's THAT bad

From war heroes to knaves. Regrettably, way more of the latter than the former.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

One other thing I can see happening before year end - the team collapses and his play goes with it. We saw that with the team last year and I think we’ll see it again soon.

Right now our goalies have the highest saved above expected by far. That is not going to last, esp if lose Montie. I fully expect another December collapse. When that happens, I’m sure this thread will get a lot busier.

 

[George Lebay]

If I was allowed to I would distribute free prescriptions of Vraylar (cariprazine) 3mg to anyone who wanted them on this forum (and I would also take some)
(But you can also ask your doctor. For bipolar disorder, you'd start by taking 1.5 mg of Vraylar once daily. After 14 days, your doctor may increase your dosage to 3 mg, depending on Slaf's performances.)
Toronto fans might want to increase that dosage to 6 mg and throw in a powerful anti-depressant.

 

[BaseballCoach]

But the main thing is that since his brain mostly caught up with the NHL speed, he's able to execute much more regularly and he looks like he leveled up a few times now.

Imagine how much faster he would have caught up to NHL speed if he had played Junior or in Liiga last year, or even the AHL. Look how well Armia played in Montreal after his first Laval stint!!

 

[HomaridII]

https://x.com/zeb_habs/status/1728426681554092321?s=46&t=gjXdxs_nT4GLaskksIYCbQ

Some great stats there comparing games 1-10 to games 10-20. The improvement is incredible in every stat.

 

[Jaynki]

https://x.com/zeb_habs/status/1728426681554092321?s=46&t=gjXdxs_nT4GLaskksIYCbQ

Some great stats there comparing games 1-10 to games 10-20. The improvement is incredible in every stat.

Exponential, parabolic growth

 

[Sorinth]

A big part of that is usage but posters can only go based on what they see. It’s really only since being moved up that I’ve felt he looks like he really belongs here.

You could have also listened to what MSL and Hughes were saying and then seen that it matched up pretty much exactly with what was happening on the ice.

 

[dackelljuneaubulis02]

One other thing I can see happening before year end - the team collapses and his play goes with it. We saw that with the team last year and I think we’ll see it again soon.

Right now our goalies have the highest saved above expected by far. That is not going to last, esp if lose Montie. I fully expect another December collapse. When that happens, I’m sure this thread will get a lot busier.

Depends how bad injuries get. I don’t think we have a worse team than last year. Those injuries were near historic and to pretty much all our key guys. Even the best of teams would have fell dramatically if not as far.

You are right though about Montie. We’ll see what Primeau can do at that point.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

You could have also listened to what MSL and Hughes were saying and then seen that it matched up pretty much exactly with what was happening on the ice.

Slaf looked great with Dach in the preseason. It’s a shame he went down because he’d easily have double the points he does. The first ten games were kind of a waste.

Anyways, I’m glad they moved him up. He looks so much better.

 

[waitin425]

I think the most important thing is that we are seeing notable progression. He has been strong on the boards, winning puck battles and making nice offensive plays the last 5-6 games and it’s starting to translate in points. I just finished watching yesterday’s game and he was our best forward.

I’m still not convinced that he will become what he was drafted to become but he at least is starting to show flashes. I didn't see any real flashes last year.

For all the haters out there speaking definitively. Here is an example of a fair and measured response. The right amount of skepticism with cogent observations of his play. Please take note.

 

[waitin425]

Slaf looked great with Dach in the preseason. It’s a shame he went down because he’d easily have double the points he does. The first ten games were kind of a waste.

Anyways, I’m glad they moved him up. He looks so much better.

I'm so excited to have both Dach and Slaf in the lineup. Dachs breakout has been delayed a year, but when he does it, it will be with a more mature Slaf, or possibly Caufield on his wing. It'll be a double rainbow....er I mean double breakout!

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

I'm so excited to have both Dach and Slaf in the lineup. Dachs breakout has been delayed a year, but when he does it, it will be with a more mature Slaf, or possibly Caufield on his wing. It'll be a double rainbow....er I mean double breakout!

I wouldn’t be surprised to see:

Newhook Suzuki Roy
Slaf Dach CC

 

[ChesterNimitz]

Exponential, parabolic growth

Those are words that are probably ‘exciting’ to a lot of male posters here.

 

[Sorinth]

Slaf looked great with Dach in the preseason. It’s a shame he went down because he’d easily have double the points he does. The first ten games were kind of a waste.

Anyways, I’m glad they moved him up. He looks so much better.

The first 10 games weren't a waste, and neither was last season. He was working and progressing on specific aspects of his game.

As a metaphor you're looking at a forest and say you only see a change in the past 5-10 games. But what's actually happened is that during those first 50 games where you didn't see the forest change he was changing individual trees one at a time. If you were looking at those individual trees you would have seen the progress last year, but if you only focus on the forest as a whole you missed it. So the whole we can only judge based on what we saw and we saw nothing until until 10 games ago is as the OP said a bad take.

 

[ChesterNimitz]

I remember listening to Aaron Ward on Tsn Radio last year. He was saying that it took him half a season getting confortable on the Europe bigger ice when he went there during NHL strike. He was a 10yrs Nhl vet going to a weaker league, can you imagine how hard the transition is for an 18yrs old kid going to a wayy better and faster league on a smaller rink!!

Let’s keep logic out of this discussion as it will unduly interfere with some well entrenched biases.

 

[waitin425]

Anyone else enjoying Chester's dry humor this morning! Well done good sir!

 

[dackelljuneaubulis02]

It’s one thing preferring him in the AHL. Wholly reasonable.

It’s another to insist conclusively he was ruined by being in the NHL without even waiting to see him play 80 games, let alone 2 or 3 seasons when you could actually glean such a thing

 

[Jaynki]

It’s one thing preferring him in the AHL. Wholly reasonable.

It’s another to insist conclusively he was ruined by being in the NHL without even waiting to see him play 80 games, let alone 2 or 3 seasons when you could actually glean such a thing

I thought we f***ed with his pre frontal cortex and actual scientific evidence by keeping him up in the gulag

 

[le_sean]

I’m still not convinced that he will become what he was drafted to become but he at least is starting to show flashes. I didn't see any real flashes last year.

What exactly was he drafted to become though? Because judging by the rest of the draft class, Top 6 power forward is all we should expect and that seems to be a completely reasonable expectation.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

The first 10 games weren't a waste, and neither was last season. He was working and progressing on specific aspects of his game.

I’d have preferred we not brought him up last year. As for the first ten gams of this season, I’m not sure what he got out of struggling with Anderson and Newhook. I think that line was wrongheaded from the beginning. But whatever, it’s not important now.

As a metaphor you're looking at a forest and say you only see a change in the past 5-10 games. But what's actually happened is that during those first 50 games where you didn't see the forest change he was changing individual trees one at a time. If you were looking at those individual trees you would have seen the progress last year, but if you only focus on the forest as a whole you missed it. So the whole we can only judge based on what we saw and we saw nothing until until 10 games ago is as the OP said a bad take.

I felt like he progressed somewhat last year until the team went off a cliff. I think he’d have been better off elsewhere. But I get where the team was coming from in terms of not wanting him to “cheat” lower levels with his size.

 

[Miller Time]

You could have also listened to what MSL and Hughes were saying and then seen that it matched up pretty much exactly with what was happening on the ice.

 

[ChesterNimitz]

Anyone else enjoying Chester's dry humor this morning! Well done good sir!

Thank you for your kind words. Yes, I’m just a barrel of laughs. At work I sometimes don’t know if my staff is laughing with me or at me. But then again I am at least 4 decades older than most of them. I find it difficult at times to relate to staff members who never used a VCR; don’t quite understand the impact/ importance of the 1972 summit series; can’t remember when the Habs were known and revered as the Yankees of hockey and don’t know that Pearson Airport was named after a former Prime Minister and not a recently acquired left winger.

Such is life.