The Montreal Canadiens have been down this road before, and were unwilling to admit when it was time to turn around and try another route.
Just four years ago they drafted Jesperi Kotkaniemi third overall and anticipated he would not make the NHL lineup right away. Then he had a fairly strong training camp so they chose to give him a longer look. He ended up staying all year in the NHL, but it did nothing to help his long term development.
Though Kotkaniemi showed flashes early in the season of an NHL ready centre, he wasn’t consistent and didn’t have the strength to win a battle along the boards or stay on his feet in front of the net.
Canadiens need to consider sending down Juraj Slafkovsky now
As the season dragged on, and the Canadiens battled for every single point in an effort to make the postseason, Kotkaniemi’s minutes dwindled. He was routinely pencilled in on the third line but would actually play less than any other forward if the game was tight, especially if the team was holding onto a lead.
Fast forward to the 2022-23 season and the Canadiens have another big, skilled European 18 year old forward on their roster. But should he be?
Juraj Slafkovky was drafted first overall last summer, but that doesn’t mean he was immediately ready to take over the NHL. He didn’t put up a lot of points in Liiga, Finland’s top league, but was great at the Olympics and World Championships.
Since arriving in Montreal, Slafkovsky has shown he has all the tools to be a great NHL player. The size stands out, but he has shown so much speed and skill that mixes with that size as well. The combination of assets is hard to find anywhere.
But he needs to learn how to harness it all.
On one of his first NHL shifts, Slafkovsky ran into Kaiden Guhle who was attempting to break out of his defensive zone. He was well out of position, not open for a passing option, and was literally in the way of what Guhle was trying to do.
Slafkovksy played 10:34 that night against the Toronto Maple Leafs, losing a few shifts in the third period as the team tried to seal an opening night victory. He played just 9:37 two nights later against the Detroit Red Wings, and last night was up to a high of 12:41.
He is averaging just under 11 minutes per game, has no points and just one shot on goal, a wrist shot from 80 feet on opening night. Is he ready for the NHL? Maybe. He is pretty close if not.
Is he getting better though? That’s impossible to measure over such a short sample, but it is hard to imagine he can greatly improve while getting five shifts per period while he spins his wheels trying to adjust to the fastest paced hockey in the world.
Slafkovsky is not going to reach his ceiling this season. The Canadiens drafted him with the hope he would be the best player from the 2022 NHL Draft in five years time. What is the best way to get him there? By building confidence in a league where he is a more dominant physical player and a bigger impact player in the lineup.
Wouldn’t it make sense to just send him down to the Laval Rocket and give him top six minutes? He would still be playing against professional hockey players, and could be on a line with a couple of minor league veterans like Mitchell Stephens and Alex Belzile. They know what it takes to be a pro and they can put up big numbers at the AHL level.
Slafkovksy could learn a lot at that level, while being a scoring threat as well. The Canadiens drafted a guy who scored five goals and ten points in 31 games last season with TPS in Finland and they want him to be the best player from the entire draft.
That’s not impossible, but he needs to learn how to produce offence in a pro league. If the plan is to keep him playing less than 11 minutes per night at the NHL level, he would be better served in the long run by just going to Laval now and finding a role in their top six.
Of course we can not predict the future, but these things look very obvious in hindsight. Four years ago, we thought maybe Kotkaniemi was ready for the NHL and he would be okay but now everyone looks back and says his development was ruined by being rushed to the NHL.
We don’t want to end up saying the same thing about Slafkovsky years from now. You know what people never say is, “that kid spent too much time development time in the minors as a teenager.” It won’t hurt Slafkovksy at all to play a long stretch of this season in the AHL, and he should be there right now.
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