Player Discussion The Slaf Thread - Parabolic Growth Edition

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

No horny Pierre. Calm down.

View attachment 935111

Looks like a zit ready to pop. Sorry. A monster zit.

 

[Deebs]

no longer parabolic

I'm not worried though, he'll figure it out.

I'd like to see him moved off the 1st line. Put him down the lineup to get some easier matchups for a while and see how things progress.

My biggest issue with Slaf is he plays timid most of the time. He is still struggling to use his massive frame and honestly, I'm not sure that will ever happen consistently. Playing big is a mindset, not a physical trait and I'm not sure that's in his makeup.

He's so young and we've seen how he can dominate at times. Patience is key.

 

[Toene]

He needs to display balls-to-the-walls intensity as often as possible, or he's not going to have as much success as he could.

Management didnt pass centers with superior offensive skill (Wright, Cooley) to get a big yet soft and passive winger. Not to say that Slaf is devoid of talent, it's just that the reason he was taken 1st overall was because his decent level of skill PLUS his size, strength and skating pointed to a higher potential ceiling the Cooley and Wright.

He possesses these tools. He's shown good flashes at various points of his young career. He has to use them consistently, though. And at the right moments in a game. Maybe it's the toolbox that is lacking. He has the enthusiasm, the drive, he's shown it. But does he have the brain?

 

[cave troll]

Slaf needs to shoot cause CC stopped scoring on every shot and his "f*** it, I'm gonna pass the puck" stopped working. If he doesn't shoot, he'll barely reach 30-40 pts.

 

[McGuires Corndog]

Slaf needs to shoot cause CC stopped scoring on every shot and his "f*** it, I'm gonna pass the puck" stopped working. If he doesn't shoot, he'll barely reach 30-40 pts.

They need to put the top line back together.

 

[cave troll]

If they do, I don't want him to be a passer to CC. We could have paid somebody doing that for 3 time less money than Slaf's 7,6 mil from next year.
It's his 3rd season. Either he has the guts or he doesn't.

 

[Kennerback]

He's our only 1OA we got since forever. He might not be the skillest or the smartest but he's ours.

I have zero expectations for him this year. If we can get a 1st OA pick this year that would be the best thing that can happen to this organisation because we suck at trading (aka Newhook).

But Next year, he better be ready. Demidov + the new 1st OA kid + hopefully Mesar (god damn injuries) are coming

Our need for him to produce big numbers is not as critical now that Demidov is in the system. But when you’re the 10th forward for shots on net on the 32nd team for shots on net in the NHL, it’s getting f***ing ridiculous.

 

[Egresch]

Can we just calm the Puck down?
He had horrible 2nd period and he is not playing up to his standard, but he is still just 20 and his underlying stats are OK. Among Habs forwards he is:
Icetime 5th
Expected goals 4th
Assists 2nd
Points 4th
Hits 2nd
PIM Differential 4th
Shots blocked 3rd
Takeaways 3rd
Giveaways 6th (incl. Condotta and Kapanen with their low Icetime)
Defensive giveaways 5th (incl. Condotta and Kapanen with their low Icetime)
Shot Attempts per game 4th
High danger Shot attempts 3rd
Corsi 2nd
Fenwick 1st
On Ice goal differential 3rd
So, he is 5th in icetime, playing horrible, yet he manages to be top4 in 14 different stat categories. Only Suzuki is better, what are the other players doing? He also had like 5 different line combinations in 17 games. If we ask consistency from 20 year old, we need to put him in position to suceed. That means, play the pucking 1st line together as they were one of the best lines in NHL for a reason.

 

[morhilane]

Can we just calm the Puck down?
He had horrible 2nd period and he is not playing up to his standard, but he is still just 20 and his underlying stats are OK. Among Habs forwards he is:
Icetime 5th
Expected goals 4th
Assists 2nd
Points 4th
Hits 2nd
PIM Differential 4th
Shots blocked 3rd
Takeaways 3rd
Giveaways 6th (incl. Condotta and Kapanen with their low Icetime)
Defensive giveaways 5th (incl. Condotta and Kapanen with their low Icetime)
Shot Attempts per game 4th
High danger Shot attempts 3rd
Corsi 2nd
Fenwick 1st
On Ice goal differential 3rd
So, he is 5th in icetime, playing horrible, yet he manages to be top4 in 14 different stat categories. Only Suzuki is better, what are the other players doing? He also had like 5 different line combinations in 17 games. If we ask consistency from 20 year old, we need to put him in position to suceed. That means, play the pucking 1st line together as they were one of the best lines in NHL for a reason.

The Ds aren't producing. The best producing Ds (Hutson/Matheson) have 1 more point than Dach in November and the same amount of points as Slaf.

CC scored in a single game in the last 9 and his shots per game is basically halved compare to October. He's not hitting 30 if that continues.

Habs offensive is dead outside of Gallagher/Suzuki and Slaf isn't on the ice enough to blame it on him.

 

[the valiant effort]

Someone posted yesterday about how it took Nichushkin 5 years to figure it out, but I just can’t seem to find that post…anyway, it really took Nichushkin ~8 years to reach an acceptable level of output for a man of that size and skill. Frankly I think he has emerged as the most overrated player in recent memory, but this post isn’t meant to be a random drive by on Nich00shkin.

With Slaf it is as though some want to pretend to be surprised that there is a long, frustrating, and well-publicized history of big lads that appear potentially unstoppable but need years to maximize their coordination and thus consistency. Bobby Smith, Lindros, Ovechkin, Kopitar, Malkin are the outliers, and of course none of these guys were recently drafted. The latter two also had some seasoning before entering the NHL.

There are so few players drafted since 2020 that are doing anything close to blowing the doors off this league. It seems clear to me that more patience than usual is likely required for this latest generation.

 

[WeThreeKings]

Someone posted yesterday about how it took Nichushkin 5 years to figure it out, but I just can’t seem to find that post…anyway, it really took Nichushkin ~8 years to reach an acceptable level of output for a man of that size and skill. Frankly I think he has emerged as the most overrated player in recent memory, but this post isn’t meant to be a random drive by on Nich00shkin.

With Slaf it is as though some want to pretend to be surprised that there is a long, frustrating, and well-publicized history of big lads that appear potentially unstoppable but need years to maximize their coordination and thus consistency. Bobby Smith, Lindros, Ovechkin, Kopitar, Malkin are the outliers, and of course none of these guys were recently drafted. The latter two also had some seasoning before entering the NHL.

There are so few players drafted since 2020 that are doing anything close to blowing the doors off this league. It seems clear to me that more patience than usual is likely required for this latest generation.

People are forgetting how much hockey and other interruptions happened during critical years for those guys because of the pandemic.