The 2024 year was supposed to be different for the Montreal Canadiens. They believed their rebuild was starting to end, and they wondered whether 2024 would end with them looking ahead to a run at the playoffs in 2025. The year ended with a string of wins that elevated them to sixth place in the Atlantic Division, but they are still seven points behind in a playoff race. This series will examine how each player performed over the 2024 calendar year. Next up is former first-overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky.
Slafkovsky is the least productive of the Canadiens' top trio, but that doesn't mean there haven't been glimpses of greatness for the 2022 first pick. Over the past year, he found a home on the wing with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield and was the most significant victim once Martin St. Louis split the lines to get more offensive depth. Suzuki and Caufield stayed together and continued producing at a near-point-per-game pace, but Slafkovsky spent time on various lines to varying degrees of success.
Slafkovsky has had two goals and an assist over the last three games since the trio was back together. It ended a seven-game stretch where he had just one assist, which wasn't good enough for the Canadiens. He has 18 points so far this season and is on pace for 48, which would be two less than his total last season. The Canadiens hoped to see some progression from Slafkovsky this season, but it hasn't been there. The reunion of his line could be the turning point in 2025.
Juraj Slafkovsky 2024 Highlights
The peak of Slafkovsky's development as a top-line player was last season on April 9 when he recorded a hat trick in a 9-3 win against the Philadelphia Flyers. It was the first hat trick of his career, as he scored three of the first four goals to complete the trick in the game's first half.
Juraj Slafkovsky has his first career hat trick!🧢🧢🧢#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/pDKwc16dcL
— The Hockey Writers (@TheHockeyWriter) April 10, 2024
Slafkovsky parlayed his success in the 2024 portion of last season into another successful international tournament with Slovakia at the World Championship. He averaged a point-per-game, which isn't surprising when you consider his past success. The Canadiens and their fans hoped the beginning of 2024 would be the start of Slafkovsky's emergence as a star in the league, but the reality is that is has been anything but that in the first half of the 2024-25 season.