If you take the entire body of work of Slafkovsky's pre-season, he's been good, and certainly improved since lsat year. You can break his game down into good highlights and bad highlights, but these little vignettes don't tell the story of his overall play.
I think for some posters, the negative commentary comes from a place of insecurity due to his underwhelming 1st overall rookie campaign production. I also think there are positions from anxiety around the team failing with Galchenyuk and Kotkaniemi.
There are interesting parallels to the 2020 New Jersey Devils. At the time, Jack Hughes had put up pedestrian rookie campaign numbers, and Hischier, the first overall pick a few years before Hughes, hadn't really shown he could be more than a 50-point two-way center. Here are some quotes I found from the mid-point of Hughes rookie season to the offseason before camp:
hes got great “ shot” assists
As soon as Hughes was selected #1 overall and one slot ahead of Kakko, he became a huge target among the pro-Kakko contingent that started this little pissing war, if that contingent had left well enough alone, we wouldn't be having this discussion.
I would rather they send him to the minors then keep him playing with Zacha and Simmonds. Doesn’t seem like the right move for his development.
Worst 1st overall of the last 20 years.
Definitely the most underwhelmed I've been by watching a first overall pick in recent memory.
I hope Jack is disappointed with his numbers this year and uses it to become a better player next year. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t expect a little more from him this year. He’s got a lot of talent and I’m not too worried about it but he’s got some work to do.
There is way too much pressure on teams to put their first overall into the NHL immediately. I believe the last one who didn’t was Erik Johnson. Hughes likely would have benefited from one more year of development at the amateur level.
Never mind 'worse since Stefan?', it's probably more valid to ask 'worse than Stefan?'.
Fast forward to today and Hughes is a super star, and the New Jersey Devils are on the cusp of becoming a contender in my opinion. It took until Hughes third season to really show what he was going to become.
Do these quotes prove that Slafkovsky will be a superstar in the future? Absolutely not. But I think they give some good indication that projecting where his career is going to go at this stage is premature. I also think it gives some indication that feeling anxiety around the uncertainty of Slafkovsky's future is also normal too.
One last thought, and it's that the comment "show us something similar to previous first overalls" is an unfair comment. In terms of player skill and profile, Slafkovsky isn't like recent first overalls, in the sense that I think he's more a skilled power forward than a dangler, sniper, speedster or a defenseman. If you rephrase the question, "has Slafkovsky shown us something similar to the other skilled powerforwards in the league?" I think the answer is clearly yes.
B. Tkachuk, M. Tkachuk and Rantanen generate most of their offense 5-on-5 in plays around the net with simple touches, redirects, or power moves. Most of their offense is not "highlight reel" material, if you look at their highlight packages on YouTube, frankly, they're much more boring than other players in the league. On the PowerPlay M. Tkachuk and Rantanen set up in the exact same place as Slafkovsky on the powerplay and generate their points from one timers or puck distribution. Slafkovsky was already doing some of this last year and has done more of this style in the pre-season as well.
Rant over. Flame away !
