Confirmed Signing with Link: [MTL] F Juraj Slafkovsky signs extension with the Canadiens (8 years, $7.6M AAV; begins 2025-26)

[Nico Cauzuki]

You know that when you finish 8-11 you are usually in the mix for a wild card.

We finished last in the Atlantic last season and all those teams got better besides us so i dont see that changing

 

[TheDoldrums]

They should be in the mix for a wild card spot as soon as this year. I’m thinking 2025-2026 is where they start making noise

wonder how many years it's been since ottawa/buffalo thought they'd be in the mix. It's a tough division.

 

[Habs Halifax]

7.6m AAV would put him at 60th highest caphit amongst forwards next season. That feels extremely fair and he will most likely be much better than that throughout the contract as well.

His ELC is not done and he has one more season to go. The new contract kicks in for 25/26.

It's reasonable to assume he grows from where he is today (50 pts and 20 goals as a 19 year old). I am not sure if he will be a 80-100 pts forward but 70 pts and 30 goals is reachable for him for sure. Anything north of that is gravy with that AAV in a growing cap over those 8 years.

Habs are a little lucky here. Slaf likes our core and it's not all about money with him. He want's to build something special in Montreal and is not greedy. Usually, players put a high price tag on 8 year deals in their prime and if they don't get it, they force the bridge and end up getting their money or more.

We finished last in the Atlantic last season and all those teams got better besides us so i dont see that changing

We were 7th or 8th last in Feb... Without Dach and with Monahan. We got lucky to slip to 5th last IMO. We basically accepted our faith in Feb. Traded Monahan and implemented a tank strategy. Lets not forget about that part.

There will be other teams who slid down and have tank strategy. Habs players and management want to move up. They are a confident group and have good momentum.

I won't be surprised at all if we pass both the Sens and Sabres and/or have a pick from 10-15. I just don't see us making the playoffs. After that, it's not a massive stretch that we are in the tier group that don't make it.

 

[Baksfamous112]

We finished last in the Atlantic last season and all those teams got better besides us so i dont see that changing

Why do you think we didn’t get better? You don’t know that.

wonder how many years it's been since ottawa/buffalo thought they'd be in the mix. It's a tough division.

Both Ottawa and Buffalo have had terrible D and G for most of the past decade. I think Montreal is better suited than both those teams at these positions. Also, unless I don’t remember properly but Buffalo has been in the mix for the past two seasons. They came up short but they were right there

 

[swiftwin]

You wish buddy , Making the playoffs in not some incredible achievement , its quite easy , weve watched our piss habs teams make the playoffs for the majority of the pasto 20 years with bottom 10 in the league joke rosters.

Because Carey Price.

Give Ottawa or Buffalo just average to above average goaltending, they make the playoffs.

 

[Demigod11]

Because Carey Price.

Give Ottawa or Buffalo just average to above average goaltending, they make the playoffs.

Funny how everyone constantly dumped on Price and his contract, but in 2024 Bobrovsky wins the cup and Price is apparently the only reason the Habs have been overachievers.

Halak was tending when we rolled prime Ovechkin's caps and prime Crosby's pens back to back.

 

[MXD]

Because Carey Price.

Give Ottawa or Buffalo just average to above average goaltending, they make the playoffs.

Ottawa and Buffalo also don'T have anything close to Andrei Markov or PK Subban (let alone both).

 

[Wats]

Ottawa and Buffalo also don'T have anything close to Andrei Markov or PK Subban (let alone both).

Having 2 x #1D and an elite goalie can carry a team into playoffs easily. I'd say it was the Nashville model.

 

[Nico Cauzuki]

Why do you think we didn’t get better? You don’t know that.

its still early maybe Hughes makes some trades and yes our young players will be better but i think we're looking more at the 2025-2026 season to be a bubble playoffs team i think we're finishing bottom 10 next season

Would love to be wrong tho i want our team to take the next step but we're simply not there yet but will see

 

[Gaud]

we just finished bottom 5 and didnt improve our team at all so i dont see how that happens obviously our younger guys will have more experience and be better but we still have alot of holes and question marks like if Kirby can play more then 10games have to hope our top line stays healthy because theres nothing after them our def is still very young and unproven i think we finish somewhere between 8 to 13 but can easily finish bottom 5 with a few key injuries

It's true the habs didnt change much over the summer, but I think the biggest impact wont come from our youngsters gaining experience, but from Dach returning to the line up. The team will be an improvement as a result, IMO.

 

[Nico Cauzuki]

It's true the habs didnt change much over the summer, but I think the biggest impact wont come from our youngsters gaining experience, but from Dach returning to the line up. The team will be an improvement as a result, IMO.

im a big Dach fan didnt wanna trade him for Dubois last year but its hard to say he will have that big of an impact for us when he barely played the last 2 seasons we need him to stay healthy he still has alot to prove but i do like the potentiel

 

[Gaud]

im a big Dach fan didnt wanna trade him for Dubois last year but its hard to say he will have that big of an impact for us when he barely played the last 2 seasons we need him to stay healthy he still has alot to prove but i do like the potentiel

what i saw from him at the last training camp sold me on him, personally. I know it is a small sample, but to me there was a clear progression from the year before.

I remember it was with Dach that Slaf started to show his potential. I thought it was chemistry then i realized Dach is just good at making anyone look better.

Anyway, his camp was so good that the media were asking who is the #1C in Montreal between him and Suzuki.

 

[Nico Cauzuki]

what i saw from him at the last training camp sold me on him, personally. I know it is a small sample, but to me there was a clear progression from the year before.

I remember it was with Dach that Slaf started to show his potential. I thought it was chemistry then i realized Dach is just good at making anyone look better.

Anyway, his camp was so good that the media were asking who is the #1C in Montreal between him and Suzuki.

I agree that he looked good once again i refused to trade Dach for Dubois that i really liked i love Kirby but he needs to prove he can stay healthy from what we've seen from him the past 2 years is that he needs to drink some milk thats back to back big injuries this year at game 2 for the whole season... i dont care how he looks at camp or on a small stretch of games the season is 82 games long and he needs to atleast play most of them before we can talk about how much of an impact he can have with us

 

[OneSharpMarble]

This contract is not even a gamble, it's just a win. If Slaf improves then the contract is great, if he performs terribly the contract doesnt matter because the rebuild is tanked anyways.

 

[nhlfan9191]

Why do you think we didn’t get better? You don’t know that.

Both Ottawa and Buffalo have had terrible D and G for most of the past decade. I think Montreal is better suited than both those teams at these positions. Also, unless I don’t remember properly but Buffalo has been in the mix for the past two seasons. They came up short but they were right there

It doesn’t seem like they did anything that would make the team that much better next season. It looks like they’re just looking for organic growth and playing in the Atlantic isn’t going to help our chances of improving a whole lot unless a lot of our younger guys take off. One thing about this management that I like is they come across transparent with the fans with what their goals are. They told us next year that they’re expecting another year of building and they aren’t going to start getting jittery at the end of season presser. That’s a big change from the Bergevin era. I think the only time they didn’t come across very truthful is when Slafkovsky got hurt last year and they were getting pressed by the media as to why they thought it was a good idea for him to be in the NHL. But even that ended up working out brilliant for them.

 

[Baksfamous112]

It doesn’t seem like they did anything that would make the team that much better next season. It looks like they’re just looking for organic growth and playing in the Atlantic isn’t going to help our chances of improving a whole lot unless a lot of our younger guys take off. One thing about this management that I like is they come across transparent with the fans with what their goals are. They told us next year that they’re expecting another year of building and they aren’t going to start getting jittery at the end of season presser. That’s a big change from the Bergevin era. I think the only time they didn’t come across very truthful is when Slafkovsky got hurt last year and they were getting pressed by the media as to why they thought it was a good idea for him to be in the NHL. But even that ended up working out brilliant for them.

No KH actually said they would like to be in the mix at the end of the season presser

 

[ReimanSum1908]

Because Carey Price.

Give Ottawa or Buffalo just average to above average goaltending, they make the playoffs.

People, even among the Habs fanbase, have no idea just how much Price did to drag an entire generation of teams into the playoffs year in and year out.

 

[CanadienShark]

We finished last in the Atlantic last season and all those teams got better besides us so i dont see that changing

Our young guys are going to get better. We'll have Dach for a full year. I think it's safe to say we'll improve too. How much is the question.

 

[Legion34]

We got Suzuki, Caufield and now Chad-kovsky long term, all under 8M/yr.

This is great.

None of these guys are particularly good though?
Slaf has pedigree but the others aren’t a steal

 

[Ligue]

None of these guys are particularly good though?
Slaf has pedigree but the others aren’t a steal

When the team sucks the idea is to sign the good young players for 8 years so that when the team hopes to take the next step, those contracts will be steal at that point. Right now the contracts aren't steal but they aren't overpays either (for Suzuki and Caufield I mean).

 

[nhlfan9191]

No KH actually said they would like to be in the mix at the end of the season presser

That’s not how I took it. None of their moves in the off-season indicate that either. I think they’d like to take a step forward but they weren’t going to mortgage any of the future to get there. That’s why I brought up organic growth. I don’t know how much the team can possibly grow on the inside to boost us into the mix without any significant additions.

 

[ijuka]

Funny how everyone constantly dumped on Price and his contract, but in 2024 Bobrovsky wins the cup and Price is apparently the only reason the Habs have been overachievers.

Halak was tending when we rolled prime Ovechkin's caps and prime Crosby's pens back to back.

Bobrovsky winning the cup doesn't change the fact that his contract is bad and that he's not worth the money.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

People, even among the Habs fanbase, have no idea just how much Price did to drag an entire generation of teams into the playoffs year in and year out.

Yes we do , the roster was absolute piss for 20 years but goalies are also part of the team

 

[billy piton]

That’s not how I took it. None of their moves in the off-season indicate that either. I think they’d like to take a step forward but they weren’t going to mortgage any of the future to get there. That’s why I brought up organic growth. I don’t know how much the team can possibly grow on the inside to boost us into the mix without any significant additions.

it can grow a lot. ask the new jersey devils. they went from 63 pts in 2022 to 112 pts in 2023 almost entiery through organic growth and better health. if everything goes right i don' see why the habs couldn't go from 76 to 85 or even 90 pts.

 

[Nico Cauzuki]

Our young guys are going to get better. We'll have Dach for a full year. I think it's safe to say we'll improve too. How much is the question.

Dach for a full year? He has more missed games then games played… every team young players will be better every team in the Atlantic is better then us its okay to hope i love my Habs too but we also gotta be realistic will obviously better then last year because of experience but so is other teams i dont see us finishing ahead of nobody in the Atlantic

Gotta cross our fingers that Dach can play more then 10 games because after our first line we have nothing else and our def is still very young and unproven will get there but not next year i say 2025-2026 season