Montreal Canadiens: The Case For Juraj Slafkovsky At 1st Overall

The Montreal Canadiens selected

Shane Wright

Juraj Slafkovsky with the first overall pick of the NHL 2022 entry draft. Not the most popular pick,  although I am sure there will be some that will claim to have sung his praises since Day 1. I am not one of those people.

I have been vocal in my thinking that Shane Wright should have been taken first overall. Imagine my surprise that he fell all the way down to 4th to the Seattle Kraken. But that doesn’t mean that I am blind to the skills that Slafkovsky brings to the table.

Because so often in these situations of moving pieces in trades or drafts there has to be a winner and/or a loser. Is Montreal a winner or a loser for drafting Slafkovsky first overall? Depends on your point of view, I guess. But it can be difficult to see that the Canadiens just added a very interesting piece to their prospect system.

It is easy to see Slafkovsky becoming the best player in this draft class in five years. It is also easy to see Wright being the best player. Maybe even Logan Cooley or Simon Nemec. We can sometimes be so blinded by our own biases to a certain outcome that we cannot see the good in another.

Was Wright the best pick in the draft? In many people’s eyes, yes. I am not going to grandstand here and pretend like I know more than at least three different NHL scouting teams, because I do not. They must have seen something that I missed.

But the point of this is not to compare Wright and Slafkovsky, there will be time for that in the coming years, but just to look at what the Canadiens got in their new Slovakian first overall pick: Juraj Slafkovsky.

The Bad

Juraj Slafkovsky’s rise in this year’s draft was meteoric. In Bob McKenzie’s mid season draft rankings, Shane Wright was still ranked at #1, and Slafkovsky was ranked #5, below real #3 pick Logan Cooley, Joakim Kemell who went 17th, and Matthew Savoie who ended up 9th. To be fair, Simon Nemec was taken by the New Jersey Devils at 2nd, and he was ranked down at 9th.

High risers in such a short time are dangerous. Remember when Johnathan Cheechoo scored 56 goals in a season and won the Rocket Richard trophy? That is just under 32% of his 170 career goals in 1 year. 54% if you include his goals in the next year.

If you just watched the NHL in the 2005-06 season, you would think Cheechoo is an offensive dynamo and star, not a flash in the pan. The smaller the time frame you are good in, the more likely it is that you are a fluke.

Slafkovsky did not have the greatest start to the year, and struggled to put up dominant offensive numbers in Liiga, a men’s league. He dominated the under-18 and under-20 Finnish leagues, but scored just 5 goals and 10 points in 31 games. But he did fair better in the playoffs with 2 goals and 7 points in 18 playoff games.

And then Slafkovsky went off in the Olympics. 7 goals in 7 games, as the youngest player in the tournament and the youngest player to score a goal in the Olympics since Eddie Olczyk.

Those are the goaltenders that he faced in the tournament, and while they are not the biggest names, it is still an impressive feat.

Above is obviously the breakdown of points in his great Men’s World Championship outing. Unfortunately, as pointed out in the thread, all of the points Slafkovsky scored were against non-NHL level goaltending. Against Phillip Grubauer, he registered no points.

That isn’t the best sign. But it is also a small sample size. When people are talking about Slafkovsky’s domination of the Olympics and the World Championships, we are talking about 15 games. Does that erase the 31 games beforehand?

There are definitely good things to be had in Slafkovsky’s game, but it is a question mark as to whether that is sustainable and transferrable to the NHL level.

A True Power Forward?

The Montreal Canadiens do currently have a power forward in Josh Anderson (who has since been brought to the top of trade watch since the draft), so what exactly does this mean?

It means that Juraj Slafkovsky is the player that the Montreal Canadiens have been looking to draft for years.

Because Josh Anderson was not a Montreal Canadiens draft pick. He was traded to the team for Max Domi and a third round pick. He is now in his prime where most of Montreal’s team capital are in young players like Suzuki, Caufield, Guhle and now Slafkovsky.

Because one thing that power forwards do not age gracefully. The physicality that brings so much effectiveness to their games wears down the body, and unfortunately, that can spell the end of their usefulness at the NHL level.

And the Montreal Canadiens have been in dire need, or at least they believe that they are in a dire need for a big strong player. It seems like the Montreal Canadiens have had struggles being big and strong, always putting together forward corps that emphasize speed, skill and heart.

And in the 2000s to early 2010s, that was not the best game plan. You would be decimated along the boards by the L.A. Kings, no question. But now, the game has transitioned completely to a game of speed and skill, with physical attributes being important, but not as game breaking as it has been in the past.

Good thing that Slafkovsky excels at both. Slafkovsky is great where Anderson can stumble. Anderson is quicker, but struggles to have his hands keep up with his feet. So many times Anderson gets around a defender but gets too close to the goalie or skating too quick to do anything really dangerous.

Slafkovsky has really great hands and shot, but can learn from Anderson on how to use his size and stature to his advantage. There is legitimate top line upside for Slafkovsky, more than Anderson at this point for sure. Time will tell. Its too early to tell now, but its too early to judge.

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