LW Juraj Slafkovsky - TPS Turku, Liiga (2022, 1st, MTL) Part 2
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FrankMTL
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- Jan 6, 2005
- 12,547
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FF de Mars
Registered User
Good, either life teaches them a lesson about how your jugement can be flawed and you shouldn't be that confident about the unknown; or if they're right, they get to watch their new boy every night on a new fresh expansion team. They're following their words, I respect that, they're being true.
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OilersFanatics505
Registered User
- Aug 11, 2008
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That is kinda pathetic that you took the time to check post histories for this…
For those non habs fans tuning in to this thread wondering ''what the f***?'' yes, we ruin everything, we can't ever have anything nice, or good, or fun.
There is a good side and a bad side to this logic. On one hand, that sense of poise could help Slaf survive in the Montreal pressure cooker. On the other hand, it wouldn't be the first time that the Habs lost a good player because he wasn't polite or deferential enough.
Spending time on this site at all is kinda pathetic, tbh. Might as well embrace it fully.
Wanting to connect with people with interests similar to yours isn't pathetic, it's fundamentally human. Thinking it's pathetic is pathetic.
Lmao ok. You clearly just have an ax to grind with me. How about just move on instead.
scoutman1
Twitter - scoutman33
Montreal I think took a great player at number 1....Wright was the safer pick but Slafkovsky with his skating, hands and size do not come around every day, this guy has a way higher ceiling than Wright......I was thinking they should have went safer route and i still think Wright has a lot of upside left in him...both are amazing prospects...really couldnt go wrong.
Gillings
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- Jan 19, 2013
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I am a fan of Shane Wright, I think he was an incredibly hard pass for the first overall but didn’t fit into Montreal’s plans moving forward with Suzuki likely becoming 1c and captain.
I do think Wright has potential for 100 points in NHL. Circlejerking though? Come on I like Shane it’s not a problem but for some reason it is for you. Get over it.
FWIW not everyone is convinced that it is Wright the safe guy vs Slafkovsky the upside guy. Wright has some higher end tools but more red flags. He played awfully soft this year with little energy and that has to make you wonder how he'll respond to facing grown men. We already know that Slafkovsky can handle (and manhandle) grown men, he's safer in that respect. Some of his tools, particular his shot, just aren't at Wright's level though.
- Apr 27, 2005
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Biggest question mark with Wright is if he can fix that compete level. Because if he does, he could turn into a high end 2C, very valuable player. But if not, he honestly good have a hard time sticking in the league in any capacity, whereas I think Slafkovsky is no worse than a 3rd line winger.
Wright this year kind of reminded me of how Bobby Ryan looked in Owen Sound. Obvious talent but just remarkably unengaged and soft for a bigger player.
Ryan eventually matured out of that and became a very good player in his (shorter) prime, but it took him 2 extra years in junior and then ~1.5 seasons riding the bus in the AHL (and even then it was sometimes an issue for him). I could see that sort of path working out for Wright, though he's a better skater than Ryan was so that may accelerate the timeline.
Meanwhile, I think there are still a lot of technical things that Slafkovsky will need to figure out to become a legit top 6 winger, but these are things that can he fairly easily developed. So it's kind of a strange setup where Wright probably has less obstacles to becoming a top 6 player, but that major obstacle is something that is sometimes not that fixable (and is notorious for tanking the careers of highly touted prospects in the past).
Compete level is something that is one of the easier things to fix if the person is willing to improve though.
You can't teach deception or high end skill as easily.
It will be interesting case study in the future to see how these two develop.
- Apr 27, 2005
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True. One Alexis Lafrenière comes to mind from NYR. He was a guy with similar type of attitude on his draft year where I am still not sure if he works at elite NHL level(at least relative to the level where he was drafted for).
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Safe is by far the most overused word on this site or in prospect analysis in general. Especially given the fact these guys are drafted at 17/18. Outside of truly elite prospects, no prospects are safe in the sense they are guaranteed to provide long-term value at the NHL level (excluding possibilities of injuries). If Wright's safeness is say at worst he ends up Dylan Strome (which is even optimistic on a tail-end low for any prospect), what value long-term does that really provide? Luke Schenn was safe, and sure he's had a long career but has never provided much value (I know a very different player than Wright).
A prospect who is safe vs say a higher upside in the draft might be Tavares vs Hedman, as given his history the chance of Tavares not producing at the NHL level would have been extremely low, even if he had to be moved to the wing. Whereas Hedman had such ridiculous raw tools combined with good play, but came with more risk (part of that is position based, D are always more high-risk). Noah Hanifin was supposed to be the safe choice between Marner/Strome. Laf was supposed to be the safe option to Stutzle and Byfield's upside.
To be honest, Slaf is likely safer due to the fact even if he never develops offensively, he's likely a guy who can drive play on a 3rd line, while playing an all out game. The closest draft comparable to this might actually be RNH vs Landeskog (another prospect analytic models would have hated, as a late birthday who didn't break out until his 18 year old season). Neither are franchise players in the sense of, they aren't going to be the best player on a contending team, but Landeskog was just a very key component on a cup winning team he was the captain of.
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CupInSIX
My cap runneth over
Some more good things from the scout who thought Slafkovsky might go 1st overall:
gifted88
Dante the poet
I've been a Habs fan through some pretty rough seasons. If I could go through that and remain a fan, drafting #4 on my board instead of #1 barely even registers.
Jurco's draft year production
I think people put too much emphasis into stats, this is not CHL where you play your peers and the stats show how good you are. This is Liiga where you get to use some of your strengths or maybe none and you just have to manage until you get stronger and faster to find that time and space.
Here's some background into how Juraj's had to manage:
In 2020-2021 he was playing 2nd line minutes in their U20 team, he was not the guy even on that team. He came through those ranks in a single year and secured a spot on the mens team.
2021-2022 he then looked good early in camp and exhibitions to secure a spot on the mens team and got a third line role at Liiga level which he mostly carried the entire year.
TPS as a team and Liiga
TPS was playing the lowest scoring games of all Liiga teams for the first half of the season, they were 1st in the league and had the lowest goals for out of all the teams. IIRC they had a GAA of just above 1. This is when Jurco played the majority of his games there. He was good, just nothing happening offensively for the team. They just found ways to win by being dynamite defensively.
He has had to break through in TPS which has had these forward prospects sign their entry level deals in the last two years in Pärssinen (NSH), Nurmi (NSH), Pyyhtiä (CBJ), Pajuniemi (NYR), Kakko (NYR). Then there's still all the veterans and other prospects to compete with for ice time.
It becomes easier to see how competitive the team and the league actually is at the top. Competition should not excuse you for not producing when you get your chance and that's maybe where Jurco got unlucky. His linemates were quite ineffective. He would set up scoring chances and his linemates just could not finish. While other times he would gain the line and hang on to the puck to give his linemates time to join the attack or get open but they just could not get it done. This is where the clutching style of Liiga really shows its ugly rear side. It really makes it easier to single out the best players if you don't have to worry about the other two.
On Slafkovsky
Slafkovsky will wrestle your opponents enforcer to the ice and in his post game interview he will smile like the happiest kid in the world saying how the opponent wanted to fight so he "showed him where is Slovakia". Not saying it actually happened, it is just a legend. Right?
This coming from TPS fan in me. Juraj impressed me in that he actually made the team. He quite often executed his small area plays around the net that were NHL level. His shot was good, not exceptional however. The best thing i hope he took with him from this TPS team was the leave everything on the ice mentality, the team was young and not the most skilled but they just always battled. It feels like that was the thing he had in common with the Slovakian national team too.
His teammates described him once as the giant baby: he is still childish to them as they're 20 something but very kind and just happy.
He is brave in every sense of the word.
I think people put too much emphasis into stats, this is not CHL where you play your peers and the stats show how good you are. This is Liiga where you get to use some of your strengths or maybe none and you just have to manage until you get stronger and faster to find that time and space.
Here's some background into how Juraj's had to manage:
In 2020-2021 he was playing 2nd line minutes in their U20 team, he was not the guy even on that team. He came through those ranks in a single year and secured a spot on the mens team.
2021-2022 he then looked good early in camp and exhibitions to secure a spot on the mens team and got a third line role at Liiga level which he mostly carried the entire year.
TPS as a team and Liiga
TPS was playing the lowest scoring games of all Liiga teams for the first half of the season, they were 1st in the league and had the lowest goals for out of all the teams. IIRC they had a GAA of just above 1. This is when Jurco played the majority of his games there. He was good, just nothing happening offensively for the team. They just found ways to win by being dynamite defensively.
He has had to break through in TPS which has had these forward prospects sign their entry level deals in the last two years in Pärssinen (NSH), Nurmi (NSH), Pyyhtiä (CBJ), Pajuniemi (NYR), Kakko (NYR). Then there's still all the veterans and other prospects to compete with for ice time.
It becomes easier to see how competitive the team and the league actually is at the top. Competition should not excuse you for not producing when you get your chance and that's maybe where Jurco got unlucky. His linemates were quite ineffective. He would set up scoring chances and his linemates just could not finish. While other times he would gain the line and hang on to the puck to give his linemates time to join the attack or get open but they just could not get it done. This is where the clutching style of Liiga really shows its ugly rear side. It really makes it easier to single out the best players if you don't have to worry about the other two.
On Slafkovsky
Slafkovsky will wrestle your opponents enforcer to the ice and in his post game interview he will smile like the happiest kid in the world saying how the opponent wanted to fight so he "showed him where is Slovakia". Not saying it actually happened, it is just a legend. Right?
This coming from TPS fan in me. Juraj impressed me in that he actually made the team. He quite often executed his small area plays around the net that were NHL level. His shot was good, not exceptional however. The best thing i hope he took with him from this TPS team was the leave everything on the ice mentality, the team was young and not the most skilled but they just always battled. It feels like that was the thing he had in common with the Slovakian national team too.
His teammates described him once as the giant baby: he is still childish to them as they're 20 something but very kind and just happy.
He is brave in every sense of the word.
CupInSIX
My cap runneth over
Agreed Lafreniere was a much better prospect at the same age, and is now finally trending toward at least being a serviceable NHLer (3rd liner) and not a complete bust like he was the last couple years. If Laf continues to improve, he may well end up a top-6 player after all. Wright is a complete unknown with too many question marks and red flags. I think he busts, personally.
Laf's hype got way out of control. Even Bob said in his draft write up "Lafreniere is not viewed as a generational talent like Connor McDavid or necessarily labelled a franchise player, but there’s no doubting what he is." But, you had a ton of people throwing around best prospect since McDavid, etc.
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