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Slafkovsky vs Lafreniere

Who will be better?

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Neutral fan going Laffreniere all day.

I like to give him a hard time because I was a Byfield guy and my team drafted Stutzle. But he's just got too much talent to not be at least "very good" someday when he peaks.

I just don't see it at all with Slaf though personally. He's got a lot of compete in his game, which I love. But the IQ is just not there for me.

He honestly reminds a lot of Milan Michalek to be honest. Maybe a bit bigger and more aggressive, but very much an "all tools" kind of tunnel vision player. He's going to have his career peak early, and not have a very good back nine to his career. Imo.
 
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As someone who saw every game Slaf played in Liiga, he is the least promising no.1 pick of atleast my time. He has looked better in the NHL than he did in Liiga, and outside of few flashes he hasn’t looked like a NHL player at all.

I do hope he gets better, because he is the style of player league needs more in my opinion, but i have to go with Laf here.
 
slafkovsky will be a total bust, theres a really good reason why habs fans all despised the thought of drafting him until they actually did

laf isnt great but he has a way higher floor

both are terrible 1oa, laf could become a meh 1oa though
 
I think Slaf has more upside at this point, but comes with more risk attatched. The fact this is so close is not great for Lafreniere, at worst he was viewed as a middle-tier 1st overall, and many tried to argue he was in the tier below McDavid/Crosby's with guys like Stamkos, Tavares, MacKinnon, Matthews, and Dahlin. Slaf was viewed as a guy who wouldn't have gone 1OA in most drafts, but so was Hischier who has turned into a high-level player.
 
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Tight decision , went with Slaf as he is such a physical specimen and still has more time to project.
 
WhiskeyYerTheDevils said:
I'd probably go Slafkovsky because he's got more potential to turn into a unicorn type of player. But also more risk of bottoming out as a bottom 6 player.

Lafreniere should be no worse than a middle 6 winger. But probably not much better.
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This is roughly the way i see it.

Slafkovsky may have that "mystery box" appeal of, "he could be anything!". With his physical tools and young age, he certainly could turn into something special, and a bigtime impact player. It's just...i haven't quite seen the flashes of the hockey IQ and vision to get there. But then again...a guy like Kreider isn't necessarily overflowing with hockey IQ either, and i'd say he's an impact player. So...maybe.

But Lafreniere is already a pretty decent player. The "floor" is there. If you detach his hyped draft status, i think he'd be looked at as a pretty decent player already. And there are still signs that he's got a bit more to offer. I could really see him having a Brenden Morrow type career trajectory. Just a slow build up over a number of years to a few pretty good "peak" seasons, even snaking his way onto a Canadian Olympic team, before starting to slow down and break down physical, regressing back to that sort of Middle-6/Bottom-6 guy.


For me, that combination of the much safer "floor" and still having some upside to become a bona fide Top-6 guy who helps make a line work...gives Lafreniere the edge. But i just haven't ever really seen "it" with Slafkovsky. It'd basically just be a gamble on a physical toolset, and i'm not too fond of that as a bet. I do understand the argument his way though.
 
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I think Slaf’s ceiling is a ~40g, ~40a type power winger, but I don’t think it’s all that likely he reaches that potential, maybe a 20% chance, if I had to put a number on it. His floor is a bottom-six guy, imo. Most likely scenario for him imo is a top-six guy who’s good for about ~30, ~30a in his best few seasons. Most likely an underwhelming #1 pick, but everyone knew that going in - it was a weak draft.

Lafreniere looks like a career 3rd line guy, most likely, maybe a couple seasons of average 2nd line production. Worst case he pretty much stays what he is now. Small chance he has some kind of sudden upward curve in development, something similar to Sean Couturier - basically the least likely scenario that’s unlikely to happen, but it could.

I’d pick Slaf if I had to choose between the two, and not because I’m a Habs fan. Laf just kind of sucks, and in all honesty, so has Slaf in the little we’ve seen of him so far. The difference is that Slaf is 18 and very raw, whereas Lafreniere was touted as NHL ready from the draft and has been very underwhelming and hasn’t progressed much 3 years in.
 
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Garbageyuk said:
I think Slaf’s ceiling is a ~40g, ~40a type power winger, but I don’t think it’s all that likely he reaches that potential, maybe a 20% chance, if I had to put a number on it. His floor is a bottom-six guy, imo. Most likely scenario for him imo is a top-six guy who’s good for about ~30, ~30a in his best few seasons. Most likely an underwhelming #1 pick, but everyone knew that going in - it was a weak draft.

Lafreniere looks like a career 3rd line guy, most likely, maybe a couple seasons of average 2nd line production. Worst case he pretty much stays what he is now. Small chance he has some kind of sudden upward curve in development, something similar to Sean Couturier - basically the least likely scenario that’s unlikely to happen, but it could.

I’d pick Slaf if I had to choose between the two, and not because I’m a Habs fan. Laf just kind of sucks, and in all honesty, so has Slaf in the little we’ve seen of him so far. The difference is that Slaf is 18 and very raw, whereas Lafreniere was touted as NHL ready from the draft and has been very underwhelming and hasn’t progressed much 3 years in.
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+1, my take as well im slightly higher on slaf simply because he's still figuring out his physical tools. The kid got suspended because he hadn't figured out how hard he can hit and shows flashes of being able to out work other players down low. I think once he improves his foot speed will see him take off but his ceiling is like 30-40 goals, 30-50 assists depending on line mates
 
Even if they both bust (relatively speaking), at least Slaf can carve out a role as a bottom 6 power forward, so I went with him.
 
Just on purely hockey player evaluation, I would take Lafreniere because I trust his hockey sense way more....and what he did in the playoffs last year was quite good....but I wouldn't want the Lafreniere project to be playing out in the Montreal fishbowl with our crazy fans and media.

My thoughts on Slaf are well known at this point so I am not going to pile on. People are really living in fantasy land on this player and his perceived upside, I will say that.
 
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If we’re talking peak peak if absolutely everything goes right, I think Slafkovsky edges out Laf. With that said, I think Laf is rather more likely to hit his peak potential than Slafkovsky
 
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