Player Discussion The Slaf Thread - Parabolic Growth Edition

[Nicko999]

Loved his 1st period.
Now let's see some consistency please for the next 128 periods.

 

[overlords]

Loved his 1st period.
Now let's see some consistency please for the next 128 periods.

slaf needs constance

 

[River Meadow]

Eat it haters

Yeah!

Eat it haters,

Because it takes a masterclass pass to feed Caufield for him to score.

 

[ZUKI]

Loved his 1st period.
Now let's see some consistency please for the next 128 periods.

For the 128 next months

 

[DAChampion]

Barely squeaking to “in the mix” fighting for a wildcard spot on the backs of Evans and Armia over-performing is irrelevant to our interests.

I think that argument is not valid.

Every team had 6 bottom-6 forwards and 2 third-pairing dmen. That's 8 guys. So in any given year you expect 1 or 2 to over perform.

Is the depth over performing as a whole?

 

[Naslundforever]

Oops

 

[Goalfield13]

Good game for Slaf.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Strong game. Easily could’ve had a few more points. Great pass to CC that he didn’t convert on.

 

[Goalfield13]

Strong game. Easily could’ve had a few more points. Great pass to CC that he didn’t convert on.

Nice passes as always. Had some good looks and actually shot the puck. Looked a bit slow out there, though. I was hoping he would go to the net more.

 

[WinterLion]

Much better. Much better.

 

[JianYang]

Nice passes as always. Had some good looks and actually shot the puck. Looked a bit slow out there, though. I was hoping he would go to the net more.

I didn't see a whole lot different today from the minutes that I watched.... and that's not meant to be a criticism, because i think it's been kinda heavy handed recently.

I've seen enough from him that I think he will be a solid first liner that provides a different dynamic... eventually

What he going through is not abnormal at his age.

 

[ryan callahan]

Problem remains. Needs to lose weight. Too slow and not nimble enough. We don't need him to be an ultra physical player with Dach, Anderson, Xhekaj, etc. all in a good stretch. He has the Kotkaniemi limbs though. If this team is a playoff team in the next few year and Dach can keep it up, we can bring him up slower on the second/third line while he figures it out. Hope we don't lose patience on him too quick like with KK. Hopefully Slaf keeps a good attitude towards the process if he gets a reduced role for now on a winning team.

 

[Kennerback]

Problem remains. Needs to lose weight. Too slow and not nimble enough. We don't need him to be an ultra physical player with Dach, Anderson, Xhekaj, etc. all in a good stretch. He has the Kotkaniemi limbs though. If this team is a playoff team in the next few year and Dach can keep it up, we can bring him up slower on the second/third line while he figures it out. Hope we don't lose patience on him too quick like with KK. Hopefully Slaf keeps a good attitude towards the process if he gets a reduced role for now on a winning team.

« Needs to lose weight. Too slow and not nimble enough. » He lost weight in the off season. He was bigger last season. If anything he needs to get back to his normal weight. He won’t make his career as a water bug.

« He has the Kotkaniemi limbs though. » What does this mean? « Hope we don't lose patience on him too quick like with KK. » They’re very different players. Their situations are very different.

 

[ryan callahan]

« Needs to lose weight. Too slow and not nimble enough. » He lost weight in the off season. He was bigger last season. If anything he needs to get back to his normal weight. He won’t make his career as a water bug.

« He has the Kotkaniemi limbs though. » What does this mean? « Hope we don't lose patience on him too quick like with KK. » They’re very different players. Their situations are very different.

Bambi skating. It's gotten better since his rookie season, but it is still there. Slaf is still 6'3 225 but when he plays physical it doesn't feel like he is 225. Dach and Anderson are around that weight range and can absolutely hit with the best of them. That is absolutely not the case (hopefully yet) with Slafkovsky. If we want to keep winning this yr then Dach right now is absolutely a better option than Slaf on PP1/in a bigger role.

 

[Goalfield13]

Bambi skating. It's gotten better since his rookie season, but it is still there. Slaf is still 6'3 225 but when he plays physical it doesn't feel like he is 225. Dach and Anderson are around that weight range and can absolutely hit with the best of them. That is absolutely not the case (hopefully yet) with Slafkovsky. If we want to keep winning this yr then Dach right now is absolutely a better option than Slaf on PP1/in a bigger role.

Slaf doesn't have that man strength yet.

 

[ryan callahan]

Slaf doesn't have that man strength yet.

Agreed. He still has good skill/IQ. If he gets that strength then he can be that B Tkachuk type as a ceiling.

 

[Andrei79]

If he plays with the same compete as tonight, he'll have a very good second half again.

 

[SergeConstantin74]

 

[Goldenhands]

Agreed. He still has good skill/IQ. If he gets that strength then he can be that B Tkachuk type as a ceiling.

He is more skilled than Tkachuk IMO, but less physical. I expect him to have a similar impact as Marian Hossa had in his prime, big talented kid that helps you win championships. Hossa took 3 seasons to reach a PPG pace, I expect a similar progression from Slaf since PF usually needs more time to develop.

 

[admiralcadillac]

This all just feels way too dramatic to me. 20 year old big guy has looked off this year and hasn't looked like the same guy as he was to close out last year. Despite all that, and after spending a big chunk of the season with Dach/Armia/Newhook while those guys were also heavily struggling, he's still on pace for right around 50 points. If the floor is a ~50P pace is in what's pretty close to a "worst case" first half absent a season-ending injury I just don't think there's very much to worry about here.

Is there a compelling reason to be concerned that he suddenly forgot to play with the intensity we saw in the 2nd half of last year? The intensity is what's missing and it seems considerably more likely to me that there's a combination of a "sophomore" slump and potentially some injury stuff going on. I'd kinda get the anxiety more if we hadn't seen the proof of concept but we have already seen the fully realized vision of what this player can be and he's not the first 20 year old to have ups and downs from year to year. Over the last few weeks we've seen Christian Dvorak break out of a year+ long slump of lackadaisical play and start playing with some fire, I'm just not really sure why I'd be concerned that Slafkovsky's hockey IQ is so deficient that he can't begin playing with intensity like he did 8-12 months ago again.

To be fair, the difference is he now has a life changing contract.

I don’t get the impression he’s going to simply give up after having signed it, though.

 

[Skip Bayless]

I agree with him. Now be better.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

He is more skilled than Tkachuk IMO, but less physical. I expect him to have a similar impact as Marian Hossa in his prime, big talented kid that helps you win championships. Hossa took 3 seasons to reach a PPG game pace, I expect a similar progression from Slaf since PF usually needs more time to develop.

If he can be anywhere near Marian Hossa I'd be absolutely thrilled.

 

[Bobby Holik agent]

For people thinking it all about the contract,
He's 20. That ain't his last big contract, In fact his next one might be bigger.
He's not done going after the money if it's what you're afraid of.

 

[Sorinth]

I think that argument is not valid.

Every team had 6 bottom-6 forwards and 2 third-pairing dmen. That's 8 guys. So in any given year you expect 1 or 2 to over perform.

Is the depth over performing as a whole?

On top of which the biggest reason Armia and Evans are "overpeforming" is because Heineman is a stud.

 

[KevSkillz4]

He is more skilled than Tkachuk IMO, but less physical. I expect him to have a similar impact as Marian Hossa had in his prime, big talented kid that helps you win championships. Hossa took 3 seasons to reach a PPG pace, I expect a similar progression from Slaf since PF usually needs more time to develop.

I 100% agree with your statement. Hossa impact would be incredible for the rebuild.