That Juraj Slafkovsky doesn’t care about media comments about him is part of the game. He is not the first Canadian player to make such comments. There will be others.
However, the fact remains that Slafkovsky is not playing like the young player who blossomed before our eyes in the second half of the schedule last season. He doesn’t display the combativeness of a six-foot-three, 225-pound power forward.
He is passive along the boards and he doesn’t shoot enough at the net, a criticism he was made in the first half of last season. He only has 34 shots and two goals in 27 games.
Martin St-Louis had him start the season with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield before moving him alongside Jake Evans and Brendan Gallagher in the seventh game. Slafkovsky was then used in several combinations, whether with the Newhook-Armia, Newhook-Dach or Dach-Laine duos.
The Slafkovsky-Dach-Laine experiment lasted only four games and two periods. Despite their imposing stature, no one was going to get the puck in the corners. This is how, last Thursday, Slafkovsky found his partners Suzuki and Caufield during the rout against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Risk factor
When a young player experiences difficulties, his age is always to blame. It’s true that Slafkovsky is only 20 years old.
Nevertheless, the management of the Canadian did not hesitate to grant him a contract extension worth 60.8 million over eight years, which will come into effect next season.
Was it the right thing to do?
Slafkovsky only had half a good season under his belt in the National League, after all. The Habs staff could have offered him a two-year agreement, while he confirmed that his achievements last season were not a flash in the pan.
This is the problem with contemporary hockey.
Young players are paid like mature stars, even though they have limited experience in the NHL and life. We give them millions without knowing what they will be at 25 years old.
The exercise is not easy, I agree.
I will never forget what Marc Bergevin told me about Alex Galchenyuk at the start of the 2012-2013 season, a campaign which was delayed by a work stoppage.
The former Habs GM compared Galchenyuk to the very serious Jonahan Toews, whom he worked with in Chicago, for his mature side.
Not a generational player
Slafkovsky seems like a good kid, but we see that he doesn’t have the confidence and maturity of a generational player that Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon and Connor McDavid, all first-round draft picks in the same capacity, have. that Slavs.
Whether the Slovak striker makes fun of journalists is his business. But that’s not what’s going to make him a better player. There is, however, a danger in this approach. Slafkovsky should not start criticizing Montreal for anything or everything. Otherwise, he risks forgetting why he is here.
The young man needs some supervision. He shouldn’t become a flop like Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Galchenyuk.
In Galchenyuk’s case, the presence of his family did not help him. His parents and sister lived on his own in Montreal. He also happened to do little crazy things outside the rink.
As for Kotkaniemi, I always found that the Canadian was bold in drafting him third overall. His track record was limited to a good second half of the season, in the Finnish Elite League, the year he was drafted. But he had the physique that the leaders were looking for in a center player.
Slafkovsky has the attributes to become a solid left winger in the NHL. A big winger who imposes himself in hot zones and who shoots more often at the net.
It’s up to him to take charge and get the job done.
